Seminar
Details
Friday April 29
Arrival by plane in Milan, Malpensa Airport until 6pm
Transfer to Cadenabbia
“Villa La Collina”
Via Roma 11
I-22011 Cadenabbia
Telephone: +39 0344 441 11
Fax: +39 0344 410 58
20.00
Dinner
Welcome remarks by Thomas Bernd Stehling, Director, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, London
Saturday April 30
8.30
Session 1
“Place Branding – How To Do It”
Introduction:
Wally Olins, Founding Partner and Chairman, Saffron Brand Consultants, UK
Panel:
Paul R. Hanley, European President, Guerrilla Marketing International, UK
Simon Anholt, Managing Editor, Journal of Place branding, UK
Chairperson:
Samuel Rachlin, TV2/Denmark
As with all top brands, branding a place will need a strategy but before drafting a strategy, an overall understanding of the challenges facing place branding and an assessment of the Baltic Sea region’s strengths and weaknesses are needed. The first session will address the overall issue: Place branding. What is it? What does it take? And how have others managed branding a place? The thinking goes that the region’s internal diversity can be very attractive to tourism but a weakness in terms of market distribution for foreign companies. To address the diversity issue, there needs to be some sort of inclusiveness. Opinions from all sectors of government, industry and the population must be taken into account. Individual states and cities need to brand themselves but subscribe to the overall national brand proposition. So do the companies within the region. Is this at all possible? And if not today, when and how do we make it possible?
10.15
The example “Südtirol”
Presentation:
Uli Mayer-Johanssen, Chief Design Officer, Metadesign, Berlin
Klaus-Peter Johanssen, CEO, Johanssen + Kretschmer Strategische Kommunikation GmbH, Berlin
15.30
Session 2
“Can The Baltic Sea Region be Place Branded?”
Introduction:
Christian Ketels, Principal Associate, Harvard Business School, Sweden
Presentation:
Jörg Howe, Head of Communication, Karstadt Quelle, Germany
Anders Paalzow , Rector of SSE Riga and Chairman of the BICEPS Board
Before you develop a branding strategy for a place, the place you want to brand has to be ready. The second session will assess the readiness of the Baltic Sea region for branding. During the session, the State of the Region 2004 will be discussed and participants will be asked to help “de-construct” the region before “re-constructing” it again with a focus on the region’s strengths. Like consumer brands, place brands have to do ongoing market research in identifying and creating brand values. At the same time consumers are not cultural robots. To generalise across the whole region could be dangerous. An honest assessment of the city, a country or a region is essential because there is no turning back when you are branding a place on the global market. The industry often moves more quickly than politicians and scientists. By the end of a yearlong branding project, some information will be out of date. The ability to move quickly will be essential.
17.15
2 break out sessions – Process consultant, Samuel Rachlin, TV2/Denmark
17.15
De-construction
18.00
Plenum
18.15
Re-construction
19.00
Plenum
20.30
Dinner speech “Baltic Sea Cooperation as Driver of a Place Branding Strategy”
Speaker:
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Chairman, Baltic Development Forum
Like consumer brands, place brands have to have "brand champions" to have both the vision and the political commitment to stay the course if there are political difficulties. The Baltic Sea cooperation was established very early on after the Cold War. Especially, the Council of the Baltic Sea States proved valuable for Baltic Sea cooperation in the early nineties. Who are the “Baltic Sea champions” today? After enlargement of the Union and NATO, is the Baltic Sea cooperation strong enough to carry out a branding strategy? Who should be the “brand champions” to both carry out the vision and sort out the political commitment during a Baltic Sea branding campaign? How do we identify them and what do we do if there aren’t any?
Sunday 1 May
9.00
Session 3
“The Role of the Media in Branding a Region”%%
Introduction:
Wilm Herlyn, Editor in Chief, Deutsche Presse Agentur
Speaker:
Yevgenij Kiselev, Editor in Chief, Moscow News
10.00
“Road To Branding”
Chairperson:
Samuel Rachlin, TV2/Denmark
Panel:
Wally Olins, Founding Partner and Chairman, Saffron Brand Consultants, UK
Simon Anholt, Managing Editor, Journal of Place branding, UK
Following the first three workshops some kind of understanding of place branding in general and the possibilities of branding the Baltic Sea region has been established. Also, discussions on the ability of carrying out a vision and sort out the political commitment for a Baltic sea branding strategy have given participants the necessary overview to come up with an approach to moving on. The outcome of this session will be presented and discussed at the Baltic Development Forum summit in Stockholm. The outcome should point to a possible outline for the work ahead.
12.00
Informal Networking
