EUROCITIES 2010 Zaragoza_ Interview with Greg Clark
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I think the importance of city branding has really changed
am twenty five thirty years ago people thought of city branding
as esentially a mechanism for attracting tourists
you had a city brand in order to attract people to come and visit your city
now I think city leaders are increasingly realising that city branding is not as it was simply a way to sell the city
is actually a way to build the city. I'm more than really means is a city brands are now being developed
the talk to the citizens and all of the stakeholders within a city
and talk to the neigbours and the higheties of government
as well as possibly tourists and others who might visit
so that's one change another change is the range of things that are in a city's economy
has become much more mobile so is not only tourits that cities are looking for
it's students it's investors innovators
entrepreneurs, institutions, companies, so
there is a much more complex match of different kinds of mobile activities
that might land in a city. So city brand this days has to be something that's quite multifunctional
it consorts to different audiences.
and then I think the last thing to say is that these days also is being realised that
so much changes happening in cities that that change has to be shaped
there has to be a story that helps us to connect the past
the many changes that are happening in the present
and some idea of the future
and a brand is one of the ways that you can try to connect people to the idea that
cities can change and actually is a good thing cities can become
even more themselves rather than becoming different
The political leader of the city is the key person
often is one individual often as well is a team
but the city leader really has to do three things
the first thing is that only the city leader
can take responsibility for talking to the citizens, listening to the citizens
and then trying to articulate
as he was the first citizen of the city
the common agenda of all of them
so somehow the city leader has to do that.
the second thing is city leader has to be decisive
has to make choices. Cities can't be every thing
they can't do everything. They have to focus their attention in one or two areas
where they are able as it was to lead
they are able to supply to their own strenghts
the leader has to understand what those are
to really make the decissions to take every one there.
and then thirdly because cities have a very uneven
an even pattern of governance where many
different organisations are somehow involved
in managing the city. The role of the elected city leader is to bring them together
to create his team so that cities have some kind of functional arrangements
and can be managed well, despite the fact the responsibilites are spread
and dispersed amongst many bodies