Please note: we are always striving to create the best agenda, and so this agenda will be subject to change.
If you have a story to share, or would like to propose a speaker, please contact Clare here.
Day One: Wednesday 23rd September
The opportunity to join an “insider” tour of Bradford on the afternoon of Wednesday 23rd September, providing insights on how the city and District are building renown as a creative hub for communities and businesses - making the most of being the UK's first UNESCO City of Film. The tour will also showcase how Bradford is maximising the gains from hosting the most successful City of Culture in 2025 to continue its regeneration as a thriving UK core city. This can be added to your booking for no extra charge but we do require you to book your place. Official Welcome Reception, hosted by the City of Bradford for all delegates
Afternoon
Evening
Day Two: Thursday 24th September
Bradford Arts Centre
The context of how places operate is shifting fast. Government & investment, delivery partners, workforces & populations - all are changing at speed and places need to respond with clarity and confidence. When should you develop or renew your place brand, and what are the building blocks for sustained impact? To avoid wasting resources or allowing legacy brands to drift, you need a clear framework for evaluating your place branding plans within a volatile marketplace that wants continuity but demands adaptability. Private sector partners are often the best advocates for the purpose of a place brand strategy; and if your community is engaged then they can also be the best ambassadors for continuity. In this panel discussion we’ll hear from places who have leveraged creative and effective approaches to building support for the place brand and the place vision. Panellists include: Join a small group of your peers to focus on specific shared challenges and opportunities; share learnings and leave with actionable ideas. Hear how the East of England LVEP has switched from organisational brand thinking to place-first and customer-first thinking… Diving deep into the six-to-six economy for practical advice from the experience of cities that are curating and managing their Night Time Economy approach. Our panellists will share best practice and learnings of prioritising cultural strategies to deliver regeneration, social impact, and economic growth – and of course, how the place brand strategy drives this…
Seizing the devolution opportunity to create better places for our communities
The art of working together effectively: What place teams are learning about how to support each other and meet shared objectives
Place brands can last 20 years. Others run out of road in 20 months. What does your place need to survive and thrive?
Refreshments
Building a coalition of support for the place vision
Round table discussions
Lunch
How Visit East of England have built a customer-first digital brand strategy
Give Us the Night: Learning from the Cities Behind the Night Time Economy Movement
Refreshments
How culture-led economic development works in practice
Developing models to prove the economic impact of cultural investment
Key takeaways
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Clare is the Founder and Director of City Nation Place, the global forum for the people and stories behind places.
City Nation Place creates connections and shares best practice between country brands, regional brands, and city brands around the world through articles, interviews, surveys, white papers, the advisory group network, and conferences.
Clare’s interest in the complex area of place branding was sparked whilst working on a series of Nation Branding Masterclass events, led by Simon Anholt, one of the first thought-leaders to speak about and promote the concept of place branding. Having listened to Simon address audiences in Accra, Delhi, Dubai, London and Singapore on how policy, governance, and symbolic actions need to combine with branding and marketing to create a competitive identity and drive economic growth, she continued to follow the growth in this sector.
Clare launched the first City Nation Place Global conference in London in 2015. CityNationPlace.com has been steadily building followers and in 2017, the first City Nation Place Americas conference was launched. In 2018 City Nation Place Asia Pacific took place in Singapore, and 2019 saw the first City Nation Place UK, specifically for towns, cities and regions across the UK, and the launch of the first City Nation Place LatAm & Caribbean event.
Clare manages the small team at City Nation Place alongside providing event consultancy and management for a number of clients in the publishing and trade association sector, including running the World Media Awards for the World Media Group and event consultancy for the UK Association for Online Publishers.
University of Southern Maine; 30 years of experience
Matthew Kruchko is the Head of Global Operations for Gravity Global. Over a 30-year career, Matthew has progressed from owning and leading brand marketing agencies for 20 years to serving as a CEO and EVP of Global Strategy and Marketing for a publicly traded company. His expertise, honed in Silicon Valley's challenging environment, combines strategic growth initiatives with a disciplined, collaborative approach to sales, marketing, brand, and operations. He has partnered with clients such as Qualcomm, Warner Bros., Lexus, Smithsonian Institute, Sony PlayStation, the Toledo Region, the City of Detroit, the City of Calgary, UPS, Amway, Detroit Auto Show, and RSA.
Toby has worked in the travel and tourism sector for 13 years, having been plucked from the world of sports broadcasting sales on the promise that it was “more fun honestly”. During that time he has held senior commercial roles at Expedia, Adara, and Epsilon before joining Tiki in June 2025 to spearhead their growth outside the US. He lives in Bath, UK with his wife and two teenage sons.