4th Destination Branding and Marketing Conference

Last Friday I came home from three very stimulating days at the fourth international Destination
Branding and Marketing Conference, held in Cardiff and organised by the indefatigable Nigel Morgan and Annette Pritchard from the Welsh Centre for Tourism Research at Cardiff Metropolitan University. A really great conference programme drew a global audience of more than one hundred practitioners and academic researchers. The presentations were organised under a number of specific themes - use of digital and social media, consumer relationships and experiences, city and regional brands, and storytelling narrative and places.

With seventy four presentations on the menu it was impossible to take in all of the rich variety and depth of thinking that was available. For me the highlights were:

• Jose Fernandez-Cavia on how to analyse destination web sites and Ana Maria Munger on ways in which tourists can contribute to destination development through social media.
• Tom Buncle from Yellow Railroad on the case for branding destinations in the digital era and how to effectively harness digital technologies.
• Frederic Bouchon on the challenges of place and destination branding in Malaysia (which deservedly won the conference prize for Best Paper).
• Mihalis Karavatis from the University of Leicester on the dynamics of destination branding, particularly the associations that condition identity.
• Nils Frederick Lund on the power of storytelling, specifically using the Holywood scriptwriting formula, using a case study of Vilnius.
• Jon Munro on his work on developing branded content for VisitWales.
• Sofie Flensburg and Israel Ubeda on the work of Visit Sweden promoting the country in Spain and the success and consequences of an innovative Twitter campaign.
• Jose Torres of Bloom Consulting on his work in Brazil developing a brand strategy for a new city devoted to the fashion sector.

The final session of the conference was an open forum chaired by Nigel on what should be the future focus and format of the conference. Among the ideas suggested were three which caught my imagination - case studies on failing places that were attempting to turn themselves around through place brand strategy, presentations by combinations of researchers and practitioners and challenged presentations where presenters would be challenged live by a questioner presenter.

Copies of the papers given at the conference will be available shortly at www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/wctr

And videos of the keynote speaker's presentations, including mine, can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/WCTRtourism

My own keynote paper on "Experience Masterplaning" for Destinations is available at www.placematters.co

London's Skyeline - Iconicity or Prickly Hedgehog

Image by Nick Brown, courtesy of Observer/Guaradian Newspapers

Every now and again Rowan Moore, the London Observer newspaper's architecture critic, writes a stormer of an article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/dec/02/london-high-rise-craze-ruins-skyline

Last Sunday his latest blast was on "Towering and Infernal: London's New Blight". This was not an anti-tower polemic; it was more of a concern for the way that  the skyline of the city is being ruined by the poor quality of the design of an increasing number of tall buildings that are being constructed in and around the city centre and their lack of relationship to their surroundings and their scant regard for placemaking, especially at and around their ground floors. 

Moore laments the rush for height of the current and previous mayors of London, respectively Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, and the scant regard the central London Borough's seem to be taking to their own planning policies and local masterplanning guidelines as criteria for the design and massing of new tower proposals.

Moore is right on the money when he indicates that the recent rash of poorly designed towers are certainly not creating an iconic city or "iconcity" as he terms it and for me its more likely that what we are going to see is something more resembling a prickly hedgehog but one that lacks the elegance of a natural one.

Mapping Places and their Cultures

I've always been interested in how we use maps to convey how places work or their offer of services and I am always on the lookout for new ways of doing so.

Today I read a great blog on the Atlantic Cities site by Eric Jaffee (address below). His post is on how classic maps, such as those for transportation systems, can be adapted to map other aspects of place and its components. The one that particularly resonated with me was a map created by designer David Honnorat on the "Best Movies of All Time", shown below. 

This map entwines 20 "lines" of classic cinema and features a line of "universally acclaimed cinema" at the heart of the map with " stops" at some great movies like The Godfather II, Star Wars, and Citizen Kane, which is connected to other lines that carry other genres ranging from from romance to gangster to animation.

This has got me thinking about the use of such graphic tools and how they might be adapted to map other kinds of offer or services of places. So watch this space for my future posts on place experience maps.

The Best Movies of All Time Map

Designed by David Honnorat.

Eric Jaffee's post can be found at: 

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/11/6-great-transit-maps-arent-transit-maps/3990/

Before You Die of Regeneration - Capturing People's dreams and Ambitions

Today I read a great post on the Sustainable Cities Collective about the "Greenbuild 2012" conference recently held in the US, specifically on the presentation by Candy Chang. Candy is an artist, designer, and urban planner, who explores making cities more comfortable and contemplative places. She is a TED Senior Fellow, an Urban Innovation Fellow, and was named a “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah Magazine. 

By combining street art with urban planning and social activism, she has been recognised as a leader in developing new strategies for the design of US cities. She spoke eloquently on inspiring change to our built environment through very small actions like small space improvements, community gardens and creating spaces for events. 

Candy also created a "Before I Die" wall outside the conference centre. This wall shows people in neighbourhoods how many of their neighbours dreams are actually alike and that they share common desires and ambitions. The concept of creating walls of this kind has been implemented in projects as diverse as South Africa, China and Brasil. its a great way to bring people together, to get them talking and to understand what they want of their lives and the places that they live in.

This seems like a great tool to use in my practice of place making and branding and i am looking forward to trying it out.

Old Oak Common - The New Heart of West London?

                                                        Old Oak Common Railway Sidings

                                                   The site for the new exchange station

Yesterday I spent the day at the Place West London Conference at Olympia in London. This is an annual bash of the movers and shakers of the area who come together to share ideas and information on whats being built and planned for the area.

For me the highlight of the day were the presentations by architect and masterplanner Sir Terry Farrell, Colin Wilson of the Greater London Authority and Nick Botterill, Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, on the development potential of Old Oak Common. This is not actually a common, as in a public park and open space. It is a former railway depot and sidings on the old Great Western Railway route out of Paddington to England's west country. It was originally developed by the pioneer railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the mid nineteenth century. Its strategic importance for west London , and indeed London and the south east region of the UK, lies in its location. It is a place where the main lines out of Euston to the north west and Scotland and the line from Paddington are very close together, a place where the new High Speed 2 route and Crossrail will pass through, and a place intersected by the new London Overground rail service. 

At the moment the rail planners of HS2 see it as just an exchange junction station connecting the line out of Paddington, Crossrail and HS2. A pretty limited vision in my opinion , a view shared by Sir Terry, Nick and Colin who have come together to explore how the linking of these intersecting railway lines might actually create more than just a station but a station that is a place and destination in its own right, a place where people could live, learn, work and socialise - a place that would put west London even more on the map than it currently is.

Watch this space and the press for news on the progress of this visionary idea.

Is the Future of the High Street Online?

                                              East Grinstead High Street West Sussex UK

Last Thursday evening I attended one of the Royal Institute of British Architect's Building Futures debates at the offices of BDP in London. The subject of the debate was a motion that this house believes the future of the high street is online.

Proposing the motion was Anne-Marie Laing of accountants Zolfo Cooper. Opposing the motion was Peter Drummond of BDP architects and masterplanners.

Key points in the case for the motion

·         People no longer want to go to the high street; the offer is poor and declining.

·         The quality of shops on the high street is poor and getting worse.

·         Innovative retailers are now working from home and delivering through on-line channels.

·         Online retail offers a far greater choice to the consumer.

·         Online retail growth will mean that the high street will no longer be viable for shopping but it may be viable for other activities such as health care, learning facilities, workshops and housing.

Key point in the case against the motion

·         Many high streets are still thriving – especially those which have nurtured independent businesses, not just national brand chain retailers.

·         Examples such as Willesden High Road in NW London show what can be done.

·         But the problems are more acute in places like Nottingham and Barnsley where national retail chains are abandoning traditional high streets in favour of out of town locations. But his can present an opportunity to accommodate independents if landlords will accept realistic rents.

·         In low income towns the high street is still the only shopping opportunity for people who cannot afford or who cannot access retail and entertainment on line.

·         In many places the high street remains the only place with facilities for congregation and we need to make it a much more pleasant experience to do so.

·         High streets and town centre remain a vital lifeline for the older people in our communities and for the less mobile.

Key points in the debate

·         The UK government needs to implement its own “Town Centres First” policy and stop ignoring it.

·         This would provide investors and retailers with confidence to develop in town centres.

·         The future of the high street is less about retail than it is about remaking it to be fit for purpose for a new set of needs and wants of local people – needs and wants related to what they want to congregate to do.

·         Online communications are important for the future health of the high street.

·         They will be important to carry “Summons to the Commons” for congregation”.

·         We need to understand what people want to congregate to do together and what role the high street and town centre will play in meeting those needs.

·         Many existing high streets are places of “shared victories” – war memorials and the like, that used to bring people together. What will be their 21^st century equivalents?

·         A great example of a revived high street is Marylebone High Street which benefited from a single clear minded renewal strategy by one landlord.

·         A big problem for lots of high streets is the multiple ownership of landlords and their clinging to expectations of unrealistic rental levels and being happy to keep shops vacant while receiving rent from departed leaseholders.

·         We need “intelligent” landlords, people who are realistic about rental expectations.

·         And a major problem with the large gated shopping malls like Westfield is their lack of diversity and the lack of independent retailers.

·         But there is no standard “silver bullet” answer to reviving the high street – each one will need careful planning by a partnership of local interests.

·         Local authorities can lead this process but they must not dominate it.

The motion was substantially and conclusively defeated

City - A Guidebook for the Urban Age

I've been reading Peter D Smith's book "Cities - A Guide for the Urban Age" while on holiday. What a great book and the more so as Peter is neither a town planner or an architect. He brings a very refreshing insight to the development of cities over thousands of years and offers many sharp and relevant insights on the development of cities over many years that are stimulating for people like me who care about the quality of urban life and experience, with many lessons from past times that we should not forget. In many ways the reading of this book was like a tour d'horizon of my own reading over the last forty odd years since I started studying town planning at the Glasgow School of Art, bringing back memories of the insights of Kevin Lynch, Jane Jacobs, Lewis Munford, Grady Clay, John Stilgoe, Tony Hiss and Peter Hall. Reading this book has both re-affirmed and rekindled my desire to make a meaningful contribution to making urban places better for the people who live and work there. Buy this book and enjoy the author's erudition and insights and be entertained by his wit.