What an inspiring moment it was at this year’s PLACExNordic – The Place Attractiveness Conference in Uppsala, Sweden.
In front of an engaged international audience of place professionals, we had the pleasure of celebrating the winners of the inaugural Place Brand Impact Story Awards — a new initiative by TPBO and its community of engaged professionals around the world, recognising places that use branding not just as a marketing tool, but as a means to create real and lasting positive impact.
The Overall Impact Award went to Royal Djurgården, the green heart of Stockholm, in recognition of its long-standing commitment to sustainability, collaboration, and cultural vitality. This special place has evolved into a model of community-driven development and purposeful storytelling. Congratulations to Camilla Zedendahl and her dedicated team for this well-deserved recognition.
The Originality Award was presented to Brand Tasmania for its bold, values-led approach to place branding, particularly through the Little Tasmanian initiative. With clarity of purpose and deep local engagement, Brand Tasmania has redefined how places with strong identities can shape their global reputation. Congratulations to Jessica Radford for leading this inspiring work.
Our finalists this year were Limerick City Region in Ireland, Durham Region in Canada and Barnet Borough in London.
Special thanks go to our panelists Robert Govers and Michael Persson Gripkow, who joined us in Uppsala to reflect on the judging process and what made these winning stories stand out. We are equally grateful to all the jury members, and to everyone who joined the ceremony — your presence helped make it such a memorable occasion.
To explore the full list of judges, learn more about the awards, and discover the winning entries, visit our Place Brand Impact Story Awards page.
Stay tuned as we continue to shine a light on stories that show the power of place branding to shape better futures.
With thanks to Future Place Leadership and Brand Finance for supporting our inaugural awards – you rock!
