10th Anniversary Annual IPBA Conference

The conference is the main vehicle to advance the aims of the International Place Branding Association, which include providing a forum for the exchange of ideas around the theory and practice of place branding, linking the members of the international place branding community, bringing scholars and practitioners closer together and advancing the professionalisation of the field.
Building on the momentum of the 2025 IPBA conference, the 2026 anniversary IPBA conference endeavours to bring together scholars, practitioners and students of place branding and related fields (nation branding, public diplomacy, city branding, country branding, destination branding) working at the intersection of marketing, tourism, economic development, public diplomacy, events organisation, heritage management, spatial design, public administration, political science, human geography, architecture, communications, and related fields.
The 10th anniversary IPBA conference in Lisbon offers a timely moment to reflect on the field’s evolution and its growing global adoption. It will spotlight place branding as an inherently interdisciplinary practice capable of catalysing positive change across sectors and communities. By bringing diverse perspectives together, the conference seeks to advance both understanding and theory in place branding.
Special opportunities for networking will be offered.
We particularly encourage submissions that:
• Advance and enrich the theoretical and practical understanding of place branding.
• Explore the symbiotic relationship between place branding and other disciplinary realms.
• Advance the clarification of major concepts (e.g., place marketing vs. place branding vs. place promotion vs. diplomacy).
• Explore and analyse the differences between major application fields (e.g., tourism vs. resident attachment vs. investment attraction) and/or major place scales (cities vs. regions vs. nations) as well as cross-border areas.
• Focus on the role and potential of place branding for sustainable development.
• Examine the overlaps between place branding and public diplomacy as well as the intersection between crisis communication and place branding.
• Develop an agenda for engaged scholarship in place branding.
• Critically examine the use and potential of digital technologies and social and mainstream media in place branding.
• Examine the role of culture, creativity and innovation in place branding strategies.
• Analyse the significance of stakeholder engagement for effective place branding and methods to facilitate it.
• Use multiple, comparative case studies that reflect on cross-case conclusions.
• Focus on branding and marketing local food and culture, geographical indications, gastronomy in destination branding, culinary and cultural diplomacy.
• Explore country of origin effects, soft power and place branding, branding for talent attraction and investment promotion.
• Examine the roles and practices of Destination Management and Marketing Organisations in accordance and/or conflict with place branding strategies.
• Focus on practitioners’ learnings (from policy makers or consultants) based on cases or applied research.
We also invite doctoral candidates to submit presentations to the Doctoral Colloquium.
Finally, we invite submissions to the 2026 edition of the IPBA Art Gallery, a special feature of the IPBA conference that presents place branding-inspired artistic and innovative work by scholars, researchers, artists and students converging artistic, creative and scientific methods and means of presentation.