Place Making

Our understanding on place branding is rapidly evolving. Here are our top reading suggestions from the last few years for those looking to expand their own knowledge and insights…

Just as tourism teams are looking to “reset” with a more sustainable approach, place leaders and economic development teams are reconsidering approaches to placemaking. There is a need to reinvent our public spaces to rebuild the attractiveness of places – and to reconnect communities that have been living in isolation for upwards of three months.

The dizzying transformations wrought by COVID-19 lock-downs are not simply economic and social shocks. They are also profound blows to the psyche of places – their sense of identity, purpose and sustainability. It’s a crisis of confidence. And confidence is one of the most critical resources any locale needs to move forward.

Placemaking is a process that "inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces... strengthening the connection between people and the places they share." But what does placemaking need in order to be successful?

The UK media is covered in headlines proclaiming the death of the high street. But this isn't true - they're just in a process of transformation. How are destinations using innovative placemaking and policy reforms to revitalise their city centres?

More and more, people's perceptions are formed online. But how does this impact place brand strategies? Jose Torres, CEO at Bloom Consulting shared his insights with us on how nation brands are evolving to meet challenges of the 21st century.

With new challenges around funding and data, place brands are having to become more innovative in their approaches. Malcolm Allan, President at Bloom Consulting, shares some of his thoughts on the opportunities arising for place brands.

We caught up with Leah Chandler, the Chief Marketing Officer at Discover Puerto Rico, and Nate Huff, Senior Vice President of Miles Partnership, in order to discover their takes on the key challenges facing place branding in the Latin American region.

We asked Caio Esteves, CEO & Founder of Places For Us, to share his take on the key trends affecting place branding.

It’s sometimes possible that, when you are convinced of the value of what your organisation is achieving, you neglect the task of helping others to share the same vision.  At City Nation Place events we’ve often talked about engaging citizens, politicians, and the private sector in the process of place branding – working together to understand your place’s assets, creating a plan to grow and leverage your assets, and implementing that strategy with the consensus and contribution of all stakeholders.  However, in our research for future agendas, a new word is appearing in the conversations we are having with place branding practitioners around the world: “advocacy”.  There’s a growing recognition of the need to advocate for the beneficial impact of your place branding strategy – as Victor Hoskins, Director of Arlington Economic Development in Virginia USA  [one of the winning places in the race to host the new headquarters for Amazon] commented, ironically it can be when you are most successful that you need to advocate the most.

To make sure we’re on the right track at City Nation Place, we’ve been talking to place branding leaders around the world – those responsible for place making strategy, for tourism promotion, for economic development, for nation branding, for regional development and for city marketing strategy. There are come clear themes emerging around the common challenges, and perceived opportunities and so, as a preview of the topics we will be building into the Forum agendas, here’s our list of the eight key place branding trends for 2019…