Economic Development

What learnings from the past year will continue to shape and evolve place branding and marketing strategies as we plan for the future? We reached out to our Expert partners to understand what they considered essential lessons for destination marketing and economic development teams around the world.

Whether this new visitor economy will be “better” – more resilient, more equitable and creating more value for communities - will depend on how we recover. Here are some of the common challenges facing destinations in recovery, and some of the opportunities it creates to build back better.

The smartest response isn’t to just recreate the same processes as we were used to pre-pandemic, but to understand how we can refine and improve our everyday ‘normal’. The pandemic has exposed our weaknesses and now we need to ensure that we address these in order to be more resilient against future shocks.

To many Londoners, Brent Cross is best known for its shopping centre. Now, though, there is an ambitious regeneration project underway. Nick Searl, Partner at Argent Related and the joint lead on the project, joined us for a conversation to share how the ambitious development will put the spotlight on sport, play, and community wellbeing.

The spotlight is on Glasgow as the hosts of COP26. What role do cities play in addressing global challenges such as climate change? Susan Aitken, Council Leader for Glasgow City Council, shares how can cities can leverage their events to grow their international reputation, engage citizens in key areas, and generate equitable development.

Are you currently working to attract international students to your destination? If the answer is no, then the chances are that you’re missing a trick. We reached out to three destinations who have been incorporating their study proposition into their broader place brand strategy to understand how they have leveraged their international student attraction to deliver back on their city’s values.

Data is at the heart of an agile brand strategy. Khaled Tash, Deputy of Marketing & Communications for INVEST SAUDI, shared with us how the Kingdom is building an investment brand and using comprehensive data reporting to demonstrate the tangible results and to refine their approach.

While 'brand New Zealand' resonates globally, Auckland - the country's largest city - is less well known. Discover how they created a brand strategy that became the focal point of their recovery strategy and won them the 2020 Place Brand of the Year award.

Last week, we were delighted to welcome over 600 delegates from around the world to join one or more of the events for the City Nation Place World Congress. Whilst this list really doesn’t begin to tap into the wealth of learnings at the World Congress, we’ve pulled together a summary of the overarching themes that resonated most with us