The International Place Branding Association (IPBA) was established in 2015 as an independent association of academics and professionals who are involved in the brand development and management for places including cities, regions, nations and destinations.

The conference, which is taking place at the university’s Bay Campus and at the Marriott Hotel from Tuesday until Thursday, brings together academics, industry experts and Swansea University tourism and marketing students.

Professor Nigel Morgan, Head of Business Management at the School of Management, is responsible for bringing the event to the city. He said the School was delighted to host such a prestigious conference.

Professor Morgan said: “We are lucky to be welcoming place branding experts from across the world to Swansea including Geerte Udo, from Amsterdam Marketing, and Don Dioko, Professor and Director of International Tourism Research Centre of Macau in China. Macau is known globally as “the Vegas of China” or  “the Monte Carlo of the Orient” and is a wonderful example of place branding on a huge scale.

“The conference will see branding experts from academia, industry and policy making gather to discuss this fascinating element of marketing - from tourism, economic development, events organisation, heritage management, spatial design, public diplomacy to human geography.

“It will be opened with a keynote from Mari Stevens, Marketing Director at Welsh Government, who will talk about how Wales is evolving its brand strategy with the Year of the Sea in 2018 and the recent launch of the Wales Way.

“PhD students from the School of Management will also be attending and will take part in discussions about the impact of the digital age and social media on how we “market” our cities, regions and nations.

“This event  builds  on  the  success  of  IPBA’s  inaugural  conference  which took  place  in  London  last year   and  earlier  events in Aosta, Beijing, Cardiff, Corfu, Macau, Poznan and Stockholm.”

Dean of the School of Management, Professor Marc Clement, said: “The School of Management was ranked in the top 20 in the UK for marketing this year and the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 showed the University has achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research university.

“I am delighted that our commitment to transformative learning and global research impact sits perfectly with hosting such an important and prestigious event. We are proud to host the conference and hope our students will benefit from being part of such cutting edge discussions.”

The 2017 IPBA Conference takes place from Tuesday, December 5 to Thursday, December 7, at Swansea’s Marriott Hotel and Swansea University’s Bay Campus.