5th Corfu Symposium on Managing & Marketing Places

The Corfu Symposium on Managing and Marketing Places has been held annually on the island since 2014. The Symposium is now organised by the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, and is chaired by Dr Heather Skinner who has lived in Corfu since 2013. The Symposium is unique amongst academic conferences, as it offers academics and local businesses and policy makers to engage directly with place making, management and marketing issues.

In 2017 an open event was held in Corfu Town where local businesses and tourist related organisations could hear short presentations from the academics whose research could have a real impact for Corfu. The Institute aims to build on this even more in future years, encouraging engagement with the business community and encouraging delegates to consider how their work could have more of an impact in practice.

The organizers are very keen to engage with the Corfu Tourism Forum (Rebranding Corfu) that was held from 17-19 November 2017.

The Symposium

The Symposium is a truly international event. The 2017 Symposium presented three keynote speeches from academics and practitioners from three different countries. The Mayor of Corfu, Mr Konstantinos Nikolouzos, welcomed almost 50 delegates presenting 35 papers representing 58 authors from 33 organisations in 21 countries. The furthest delegates travelled from Australia, Thailand and China; the Symposium also attracted many delegates not only from Europe but also delegates from Russia, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Morocco and Albania.

The 5th Corfu Symposium on Managing and Marketing Places in 2018 will be on the theme of “Changing places: Visions of utopia or dystopia?” The theme will include research on SMART growth, inclusive growth, degrowth, devolution, revitalisation, placemaking, place branding, destination marketing and other issues.