Masterclass

‘What I thought was appealing was the high level of interaction, concise and relevant material and information.’

‘I appreciated the flow of the programme and the interactiveness of the selected tools. Not all coaches can get all of us to participate.’

‘Interesting subjects - very useful for my career.’

‘It was super didactic, personally the best lecture we have had... without discrediting the others, this was beyond limits. It was an interactive virtual conference, involving all of us.’

‘The use of quizzes makes the course more interactive - Your willingness to respond to doubts and questions was nice.’

‘I appreciated the interactive way you organized the slides, in order to be more engaging. Another positive aspect is that you give us real example to work with.’

‘Best one so far. Very interactive, inspiring and insightful.’

‘What was appealing was the content, in particular those real cases. Plus, the delivery method was very engaging, despite the fact that it was delivered online.’

‘I appreciated the real examples of projects, your personal opinions about the best way to undertake place branding projects and many reading materials provided afterwards (news, blogs, projects).’

‘I appreciated the use of many examples. It helped a lot to understand better all the concepts related to place branding.’

‘I liked the fact that you challenged us with our knowledge about the subjects before explaining them.’

‘Fun, interesting, providing knowledge of lots of new places.’

‘I appreciated the examples because they make things easier to understand.’

‘I appreciated you breaking down the misconceptions of destination branding + discussing how to do it properly - and the real-life examples which were used in order to deliver the message.’

‘I appreciated your overall approach and attitude, the jokes and the interesting facts and examples that increased my interest toward the subject area.’

‘You provided an interesting analysis of the concept of nation and city brands, real case studies, practical tools to verify the subject discussed.’

‘I really loved the fact that you managed to keep us active with your quizzes. I sensed your passion and even if place branding is not my "thing" I recognised its value and the importance that it might play in our future careers.’

‘I really appreciated the effort using menti.com. You did a great job trying to secure our attention and this is not something that all coaches do! I also liked the real cases perspective, very useful to learn!’

‘Mr. Govers thank you very much, you were able to keep our attention level high. Not many coaches are able to do that! Love the course!’

Masterclass Programming and Cost

Depending on selection of topics, cases and depth, the masterclass can last anywhere between 4 and 24 hours.
The cost varies between €5,000.- and €20,000.- based on length, location, number of participants and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
The number of participants can be between 10 and 150.

Potential Masterclass Content

Specific aspects and cases are addressed in varying degrees of depth depending on programming. These include:

• Nations, cities and regions as brands in a globalizing world
  • Globalization
  • Introduction to branding and marketing
  • Branding and marketing applied to cities, regions and countries (communities/places)
  • The 3-gap Place Branding Model (Govers & Go, 2009)
  • Competitive Identity (Anholt, 2007) and Imaginative Communities (Govers, 2018)
• Place brand analysis
  • National, regional, urban identity
  • The Good Country Index
  • Perceived image and reputation
  • Nation and City Brand Indexes
  • Mainstream media and social media analysis
• Place brand strategy
  • Brand identity
  • Brand values
  • The limited role of logos and slogans
  • Imagineering place/community
  • Value matching markets
• Place brand implementation
  • Construction of substance (events, policy, projects...)
  • Cooperation and collaboration
  • Communication and Web 2.0
  • Symbolic actions and imaginative initiatives
  • Public diplomacy

Masterclass Objectives

At the end of the masterclass, participants will:

• Appreciate the importance of reputation management in a globalizing world where the physical is increasingly interlinked with the virtual;
• Understand the difference and linkages between the marketing and branding of places/communities;
• Be able to analyse community identity and image to subsequently develop a place brand;
• Gain an initial understanding of how to monitor place brands’ key performance indicators;
• Appreciate the importance and potential of substance, symbolic actions and communication (incl. public diplomacy).

Target audience

Cities, regions and countries can only build their reputation through collaboration. Government cannot do it alone and if the challenge is left to be tackled by a particular economic sector or civil group, it is likely to lead to an imbalance. Hence, anyone who is or should be concerned about the reputation management for the city, region or country should attend the masterclass. Particularly senior government and externally facing agencies such as the tourism management organisation, investment and export promotion agency, international affairs / public diplomacy units, or talent attraction bureau should participate. The rest of the list of potential delegates is long and might include, but is not limited to, representatives of: chambers of commerce, labour and sector organisations, sports clubs, cultural institutions, major exporters and local businesses, Olympic committee, real estate developers, hospitality and travel companies, media agencies, tech clusters and event organisers.

If the course is used as an internal educational programme for a place branding unit and its recruitment, it is advisable to consider people with the following backgrounds. They should all have received higher education (or have equivalent experience) in disciplines such as:

• Pubic policy, as place branding requires imaginative policy making;
• Political science / international relations, considering the importance of (public) diplomacy;
• Consumer psychology, to understand consumer perception;
• Marketing, considering tourism / investment / export promotion;
• Communications, bearing in mind the need for strategic communication;
• Geography and anthropology, considering the importance of community, place and identity;
• Architecture, urban planning and design, considering the importance of imagineering;
• Economics, considering the intended brand equity impact and policy objectives;
• Research, for consumer, stakeholder and media research.