Marketing Futures Seminar 2025: The power of place – Crafting Gothenburg’s attractiveness
In our increasingly interconnected world, place attractiveness has become a vital factor for cities, regions and businesses striving to stay competitive and relevant. As marketing continues to evolve, so does our approach to place development and branding. How can marketing contribute to creating sustainable, inclusive and resilient places?
The Marketing Futures Seminar 2025 delves into evolving strategies and innovative trends shaping how we perceive, market and interact with places. At the seminar, four experts will share both international and local perspectives on how the character and identity of a location can be leveraged to bring value to residents, tourists, investors, companies, workforce, and society.
Whether you’re a city planner, marketer, or someone passionate about the future of places, the seminar will provide valuable insights into place, identity, and marketing.
Speakers
- Mihalis Kavaratzis, Professor of Place Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University: “Supporting place attractiveness through place branding and place communications”
- Megan Reif, Talent Intelligence Lead, Volvo Cars: “Push and pull factors when choosing new places for work: How companies and professionals decide”
- Cecilia Cassinger, Associate Professor, Lund University: “Making Vulnerable Areas Attractive”
- Katarina Thorstensson, Sustainability Strategist, Göteborg & Co: “Developing more attractive and sustainable places through tourism and events”
Moderator
- Emma Björner, Researcher, University of Gothenburg
About the speakers and their presentations
Mihalis Kavaratzis is Professor of Place Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. His academic and advisory work focuses on identity-based and participatory approaches to place branding/marketing and place communications. Mihalis has co-founded the International Place Branding Association and is Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management. His extensive record of publications includes the co-edited books ‘City Branding’ (2025) and ‘Inclusive Place Branding’ (2017).
Supporting place attractiveness through place branding and place communications
Places in all scales (towns, cities, regions, countries) take various measures to become attractive for a wide range of stakeholders. Why is it important for places to be attractive? What is the role of place identity and place communications in
this effort and can place branding support it?
In his presentation, Mihalis Kavaratzis will discuss these questions, setting the scene for the whole seminar and the presentations that will follow. The foundations of place attractiveness in place identity will be the starting point and the discussion will move to the co-creative nature of the place brand. A holistic view will be offered of how to address the different aims and the range of diverse place stakeholders through a participatory place branding and place communication process that supports places in becoming attractive, inclusive and resilient.
Megan Reif works with strategic labor market insights as part of the People Analytics team at Volvo Cars and is an active member of the field’s global professional association, the Talent Intelligence Collective. With academic training in political science from the University of Michigan, she has held teaching and research positions in Sweden and the U.S. She has also worked with The Carter Center.
Her international experience spans countries such as Pakistan, Algeria, Indonesia, Bolivia. Megan has called Gothenburg home for over a decade. Before taking on her current role, she spent five years helping diverse employers here find and attract talent both locally and globally for roles in IT/tech, engineering, finance, life science, and design.
Push and pull factors when choosing new places for work: How companies and professionals decide
Deciding between multiple locations as a place to grow—and stay—is a high-stakes choice for both individuals weighing job offers across cities and companies expanding into new markets. Regional, national, and local factors must be considered alongside the needs and input of diverse stakeholders. Whether family members, employees, or leaders of corporate functions such as finance, talent acquisition, R&D, sales, or real estate, each brings its own priorities and criteria.
Location and talent intelligence can be used to identify push and pull elements that make talent and competitor ecosystems relatively more or less attractive. This helps companies decide whether to invest in outreach to attract talent from other cities or to expand into new cities to access professionals with critical skills who are unlikely to relocate. Megan Reif’s presentation offers a corporate lens on how these trade-offs are navigated in practice and what makes cities sustainable for attraction, development, and retention of talent and business over time.
Cecilia Cassinger is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Lund University. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration with a focus on marketing. She has researched, written and worked on place branding from a Nordic perspective for more than a decade. Her work focuses on the transformative power of branding and marketing communication, especially in marginalised places.
Making Vulnerable Areas Attractive
The Swedish Police defines vulnerable areas as places of low socio-economic status where criminal activity affects the local community. Many of these areas originate from the Million Homes programme of the late 1960s, designed as isolated modernist enclaves on the outskirts of cities.
From the outset, locals struggled with negative media portrayals and associations with concrete, standardisation, squalor and neglect - place stereotypes that persist to this day. Efforts to change the image of areas through place marketing are often top-down initiatives, lacking the voices of residents.
In her talk, Cecilia Cassinger explores the untapped potential of vulnerable areas as destinations. She highlights community- and corporate-led initiatives that are slowly reshaping these places - shifting the narrative from stigma to opportunity.
Katarina Thorstensson works with sustainable destination development at the destination organization, Göteborg & Co. She is an experienced strategist and advisor with focus on developing destinations, tourism and events through sustainability, communications and collaboration. She leads the sustainability agenda within the tourism and events industry in Gothenburg, recognized as world leader by Global Destination Sustainability Index. She’s been leading and advising on sustainability in several international meetings and events hosted in Gothenburg as well as leading the city’s winning candidature for the European Capital of Smart Tourism.
Developing attractive and sustainable places through tourism and events
Many places around the world see the potential and the economic benefits in tourism and invests heavily in activities to attract visitors to their destination. Well managed tourism and events can be powerful tools in the sustainable transformation and in developing attractive places.
In her presentation Katarina will share experiences and examples from Göteborg & Co’s more than twenty years of sustainability work and contributions to the development and marketing of the destination. The starting point in the role and context of the destination organization and stakeholder collaboration. Touching upon efficient tools, tangible cases and reflecting on challenges and trends the presentation aims to give a practitioner’s outlook and thoughts.
About the Marketing Futures Seminar
The Marketing Futures Seminar is an annual event organised by the Marketing section at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. We explore trends, technologies, and strategies that shape the future of marketing. Experts from the private, public and non-profit sector, as well as academia, discuss challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Whether you are a marketer, business owner, or simply curious about what’s next in the world of marketing, this seminar will provide invaluable insights. Don’t miss the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and be part of the conversation!