How does place branding evolving during a pandemic? Mark Thomas, President of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance - and one of our jurors for the upcoming City Nation Place Awards - joined us to explain the thinking behind Pittsburgh's re-brand and how they're putting the focus on inclusive recovery. 

Austin has seen phenomenal growth in recent decades, but what does this mean for the future of the city’s place brand proposition? We reached out to Tom Noonan, President & CEO at Visit Austin, to understand how they’ve been managing the momentum of their growth and what they’ve done to support their local residents and businesses as they recover from COVID-19.

As we recover from COVID, there will be lessons from this that continue to affect and shape longer-term strategies going forwards. But what does this mean for the KPIs that we use to measure success? We reached out to Kelly Brough, President & CEO at Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, to understand how they’re evolving KPIs to match new success-criteria and what this means for the future of economic development.

What do the polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, and Greenland’s new tourism strategy have in common? Answer: They both built their success around Inuit knowledge and the spirit of exploration. We caught up with Hjörtur Smárason, CEO of Visit Greenland & one of our 2021 CNP Awards Judges, to understand how Greenland is forging a path to recovery.

Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo was facing an unusual challenge in early 2020 – how to create and launch a place brand during a global pandemic. We reached out to Andrea Haley, Director of Brand and Corporate Services for Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo Economic Development & Tourism, to understand how they turned lockdown into an opportunity to build community support for the place brand strategy.

Berlin is arguably one of the cultural powerhouses of the world. With the global cultural sector devastated after a year of lockdown, we reached out to Burkhard Kieker, CEO of Visit Berlin, to discover what the city’s plans were for recovery, and how they have reframed their approach from ‘attracting tourists’ to ‘having guests’.

It's critical that a place brand strategy is representative of your community - and that your community is engaged with your approach. Al Hutchinson, President & CEO at Visit Baltimore, joined us to share the story behind Visit Baltimore's brand re-design, and how they put community voices in the spotlight with their messaging.

What can we learn from New York City, the cultural melting pot of the world? Nancy Mammana, Chief Marketing Officer for NYC & Company joined us to share how they’re giving a platform to marginalised voices and ensuring that the recovery is equitable.

For this International Women’s Day, we wanted to put the spotlight on just a few of the incredible women who are rethinking what’s possible and paving the road to a more resilient, sustainable future for theair places and their organisations…

How are cities evolving to meet global challenges? And what does the future talent market look like? We reached out to Mateu Hernandez, Director at Barcelona Global, to understand how Barcelona is putting talent and equitable development in the spotlight as they work towards recovery.