Seeing the World from Busan... 'Busan World City Brand Forum' Held

Held at Westin Chosun Busan on the 18th at 1 PM

Busan City is coming together to explore urban branding strategies for a better future with leading city brand cities from around the world.

WCBF Forum Poster.

On the 18th at 1 p.m., Busan City will hold the 2023 ‘Busan World City Brand Forum’ at The Westin Josun Busan.

This forum is being held for the first time this year as Busan, which declared a new city brand in March, aims to establish itself as a leading city in global city brand trends.

Taking this forum as an opportunity, the city plans to promote Busan’s city brand worldwide and seek ways to strengthen urban competitiveness and improve quality of life based on mutual solidarity among leading cities.

In particular, the forum draws attention as renowned global experts in design, branding, and marketing, as well as officials leading urban branding issues from various countries, will visit Busan in person.

Participants include international companies such as ‘iF,’ one of the world’s top three design awards, and Mercer, a consulting firm that has analyzed the quality of life in cities worldwide for over 70 years, as well as experts from Kobe City (Japan), Porto City (Portugal), and Singapore?cities recognized for their successful urban branding cases.

Not only government-led urban branding but also cases of city brands developed primarily by the private sector will be shared, making this a collaborative platform where public and private sectors jointly explore urban branding strategies and creative ideas for a better future.

The first part of the forum, themed ‘Urban Branding and Global Competitiveness,’ will feature ▲an opening ceremony, ▲keynote speeches, and ▲vision presentations to share insightful experiences from major speakers.

In the keynote speeches, ▲Uwe Kremmering, Chairman of ‘iF,’ a global design professional service company, will speak on ‘The Impact of Design Trends on Cities According to Mega Trends,’ and ▲Kazunori Ohara, Deputy Mayor of Kobe City, the first Asian city designated as a ‘UNESCO Design City’ (2008), will present on ‘Kobe’s Urban Branding Policy and the Spirit Behind BE KOBE.’

Following these, ▲Slazhin Parakatil, Global Head of Research at Mercer, a world-renowned consulting firm, will present on ‘Livable City, Busan,’ offering opinions on Busan’s strengths and challenges.

Notably, ▲Mayor Park Hyung-jun will also appear as a speaker to present a vision for ‘Busan, Asia’s Happiest City.’ Mayor Park will emphasize the importance of a dignified city brand for urban competitiveness and introduce Busan’s elevated city brand value and potential through initiatives such as the ‘Busan Initiative’ established in connection with Expo 2030 Busan World Expo.

The second part, themed ‘Global City Brand Trends and Marketing,’ will feature urban branding experts from around the world conducting ▲expert sessions and ▲comprehensive discussions.

In the expert sessions, ▲Isabel Moreira da Silva, Head of Communication and Public Relations of Porto City, who led successful urban branding by developing unique icons using traditional patterns (Azulejo), and ▲Eunice Tan, CEO of TSLA in Singapore, who created city-wide unity through branding reflecting history and identity, will share their experiences in urban branding and marketing.

▲Hwang Bu-young, the general director who led the development of Busan’s new city brand, will also participate as a presenter to share the progress, significance, and application cases of Busan’s urban brand and offer suggestions on future branding directions.

In the subsequent comprehensive discussion, chaired by General Director Hwang Bu-young, the presenters from the second part, Shin Hyun-seok, Director of Busan Research Institute, and Slazhin Parakatil from Mercer will participate as discussants to engage in in-depth discussions on urban branding.

The forum will be accessible to anyone through Busan City’s official YouTube channel.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “If a city brand carries a positive image, that city can have tremendous urban competitiveness in business and investment attraction, tourism industry, and talent recruitment,” adding, “Busan will rise as a global hub city and Asia’s happiest city through five growth engines: a logistics hub city, financial innovation city, digital new industry city, culturally attractive city, and global tourism city, all based on a warm citizen happiness community.”

He also expressed expectations, saying, “Through this forum, I hope to explore ways to strengthen urban competitiveness by observing global urban branding in Busan and to have active discussions for a better future.”

In the lobby on the 18th, a side event titled “Busan is good for Branding&Blending” will be held to globally imprint ‘Coffee City Busan.’

The event will feature world champions representing Busan, baristas Chu Kyung-ha of Momos Coffee and Moon Heon-gwan of Moons Coffee, who will provide direct experiences of the coffee city through hand drip demonstrations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.