Who is it for?
Practitioners and leaders from both public and private sector:
-
Municipalities, regions, and governments working with talent attraction, foreign and domestic direct investments, tourism, place marketing, urban planning, placemaking, and economic development,
-
Science parks, chambers of commerce, startup hubs, universities and key stakeholders / umbrella organisations,
-
Destination companies,
-
Marketing and communication firms,
-
... And many more!
![NPBC23_REBRAND [Recovered]-03_edited.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/25a962_ac6483ec83794cd2b8cb7764cefe7926~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_54,h_107,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/NPBC23_REBRAND%20%5BRecovered%5D-03_edited.png)
Why attend?
The conference connects place leaders and practitioners from the European ecosystem and international players under one roof.
Share your experiences and network with your international colleagues while co-creating learnings and practices together. And then take those learnings with you back home to make your Place better.
![NPBC23_REBRAND [Recovered]-01.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/25a962_3fd2defc0b9143aaafbae422bd83011b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_105,h_52,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/NPBC23_REBRAND%20%5BRecovered%5D-01.png)
Benefits
-
The latest inspiration, insights and trends around the attractiveness, development and marketing of places.
​
-
Best practice cases with practical lessons from the Nordics and Europe (and Chile!).
​
-
Exchange of experience and networking with 200+ industry colleagues from over 20 countries in Europe.
​
-
Opportunity to find partners for collaboration and joint project applications.
![NPBC23_REBRAND [Recovered]-02.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/25a962_b773382a2c594a82b42715a79cdbdde5~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_53,h_106,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/NPBC23_REBRAND%20%5BRecovered%5D-02.png)
What is PLAXExNordic?
Listen to our Conference Director Morten King-Grubert explain why you should join us in Uppsala May 12-13, 2025.
Nordic Place Branding Conference is now PLACExNordic - The Place Attractiveness Conference!
A platform for discussing how we create better, more attractive places for people – with people.
Where colleagues from the fields of economic development, place marketing, talent attraction, investment promotion, tourism and place and urban development come to co-create and be inspired together.
At PLACExNordic we take a holistic view on how places can be attractive to its target audiences.
We cover place promotion and economic development from sub-areas such as place branding, talent attraction, investment promotion, tourism, and place development.
We look for best practices from smaller places to government led initiatives. And we look for common denominators or principles - if you will - that are transferable from one industry to another.
We bring those ingredients together to reimagine the places we are all from, and to drive change and cross border collaboration from the inspiration on stage, the topical deep-dives during break-outs and extracurricular activities, and the ongoing peer to peer dialoge during the conference.
2025 marks the 10 year anniversary of the conference.
Editorial - Why is PLACExNordic as important as ever?
We live in unprecedented times. Shifting macroeconomic forces, changing geopolitical landscapes. Public diplomacy or Power "diplomacy" on full display in front of the world and behind the scenes. Challenging to say the least.
Given the turbulent developments we are seeing in the world right now, our places – cities, municipalities, regions, innovation environments and countries – have important roles to play in securing and creating economic development, green transition and safe and attractive living environments.
But we need to think new – and sometimes reimagine what we can do.
How do we do this? What are the latest, innovative and creative approaches to creating attractive places for people, investments and businesses – today and in the future?
That is where we at Future Place Leadership strongly feel PLACExNordic has an important voice, role and enabler of good things (places) to be developed.
The conference has become an obvious meeting place for Nordic, European and international players from even further markets across:
​
-
Place marketing and place branding
-
Tourism and destination development
-
Economic development and investment promotion
-
Talent attraction and immigration
-
Urban and place development
-
​
And we see that these different subindustries of economic development for places are intersecting more and more:
Reimagine places: Electrifying change – Creating attractive and liveable places of tomorrow for people and businesses
That is the theme of this conference.
Together we are inspired by leading speakers, exchange ideas in workshops and build valuable relationships with colleagues from all over Europe. We use the time we have together for insights, peer knowledge exchange and well... reimagine our own places. Then we go home to our respective places and act while we work together on creating change and impact!
Will you join his on that journey?
Your friends at Future Place Leadership
![NPBC23_REBRAND [Recovered]-01.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/25a962_3fd2defc0b9143aaafbae422bd83011b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_104,h_52,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/NPBC23_REBRAND%20%5BRecovered%5D-01.png)
Letter from the CEO
Future Place Leadership & Place Leadership Academy are proudly introducing our new and improved flagship conference: PLACExNordic!
We have re-launched the Nordic Place Branding Conference that so many of our partners, collaborators and industry peers within economic development, place marketing, talent attraction, investment promotion, tourism, and place development have come to enjoy over the years.
We hosted the first Nordic Place Branding Conference in 2015, and it has grown to a point where we had participants from 22 different countries joining us in Helsinki in 2023.
During the same period, the world, our industry and the decision making factors of our target audiences have changed significantly.
Places – both cities and rural areas – in the Nordics, in the rest of Europe and around the world face a bunch of pressing challenges. Climate change, safety, pollution, lack of green areas, lack of sustainable mobility options, declining city centres, empty offices, and ageing population, to name a few.
We simply need to create better, more attractive places for people – and with people. Through place branding and place marketing, but also through development of better places.
It’s only through means of sustainable development we can create truly good, attractive, and healthy places for people – and places that can attract talent, investment and tourists. Place branding as a topic will still be an integral part of the conference, but we will broaden the scope to discuss all themes related to how we create better, more attractive places.
The vision of PLACExNordic is to become the natural meeting place and platform for discussing the future of places.
The first part of our new name symbolises exactly this X factor we believe as fundamental for places, yet one we need to meet, discuss, and develop together in the years to come.
We also continue to drive Nordic values and purpose-driven methodologies centred around empowerment, trust, and co-creation.
In a way we are introducing a Nordic approach and an invitation to a dialogue with the rest of the world with best-in-class cases from not only the Nordics but also the rest of Europe and beyond.
We were very excited to be in Tallinn, Estonia for our inaugural PLACExNordic conference in May 2024, in partnership with award winning Estonian Business and Innovation Agency and Work In Estonia!
In recent years, Estonia and Tallinn as its capital, have emerged as trailblazers in the fields of place branding and development. We truly experienced that.
We cannot wait to have you join us on our journey and to meet us in future PLACExNordic events around the world. In 2025 will be be in Greater Stockholm region with the actual conference taking place in Uppsala. Try close to Arlanda airport for our international guests.
Sincerely and on behalf of the Future Place Leadership family,
Marcus Andersson
CEO, Future Place Leadership
