First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

I will be the speaker at the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

The agenda looks interesting.

October 29, 2009

16:00 Pototsky Palace (Kopernika Str., 15)
Solemn opening of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

Welcoming word:
• Lviv City Mayor – Andriy Sadovyy
• Head of Lviv Regional State Administration – Mykola Kmit
• Head of the State Tourism Service – Anatoliy Pakhlia
• Head of the Tourism and Resorts Council - Yevhen Samartsev


17.00

Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President of European Cities Marketing Association, Managing Director, Graz Tourism Office, Graz, Austria
• “How can you make use of an international network like European Cities Marketing”

Igor Goncharenko, Project Manager, “Effective Management” Foundation
• Lviv Tourism strategy and its role in the increasing of economic competitiveness
• Representative of Monitor Group consulting company
• “Role of Tourism in Lviv Economic Development”


October 30, 2009Parallel Sessions:
10.00 – 13.00 Hotel “Suputnyk”, Knyahynya Olha Str., 116
Participants' Registration
Round Table “Lviv Hotels as a component of the tourist infrastructure of the city”
9:00 — 18:00 Pototsky Palace (Kopernika Str., 15)

9:00
Registration of the participants of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

9.30
Dieter Hardt-Stremayr, President of European Cities Marketing Association, Managing Director, Graz Tourism Office, Graz, Austria:

• “How does it feel to be a second city (since Vienna is # 1 followed by Salzburg and Innsbruck as far as tourism is concerned); including a short case study what tourism in Graz is all about”
• “How can cities cooperate (for instance within a country; example: Creative Austria)”
Brigitte Weiss, Vienna Tourist Board and its tourist information center, Vienna, Austria
• “Vienna Tourist Board as a Tool for Tourism Development in Vienna”
• “Vienna Brand”
• “Activity of the Tourist Information Center in Vienna”


Ossian Stiernstrand, R&D Director, Göteborg & Co, Göteborg, Sweden
• “Competitors with similar challenges: Medium-sized cities in a world of superlatives”

Dr. John Heeley, Founder and Director of Best Destination Marketing, Great Britain
• “City Branding in Western Europe. Best Examples of Branding”


Wolfgang J. Kraus, Strategy director, Vienna Tourist Board, Austria (until 2008)
“Win with the lion. The destination marketing jobs”


13.00-14.15 – lunch break

14:30
John Heeley, professor at the University of Nottingham, founder of the Best Destination Marketing company, Great Britain
• “Measuring the Impact of City Tourism and City Marketing”


Adam Mikolajczyk, Executive Editor & CEO, Brief for Poland, Warsaw, Poland
• “Tourism positioning and innovations in promotion of regions and cities – Polish experience”

Ostap Protsyk, Head of the Information Policy and Foreign Relations Office at Lviv City Council
• “Lviv City Brand”


Andriy Sydor, Head of the Office for Culture and Tourism at Lviv City Council
• “Lviv as a City of Festivals”

Zenoviy Mazuryk, Head of the Association of Museums and Galleries, Vice-President of the National ICOM Committee, lecturer at the Arts Management Department of Lviv National Academy of Arts
• “Museums as a Component of the City Tourist Product”


Oleh Zasadnyy, Head of the Department "Euro-2012"at Lviv City Council
• “Euro-2012 in Lviv”

18:00

Official closing ceremony of the First Lviv Tourism Conference “Win with the Lion!”

Piano stairs

Mówi się, że mieszkańców jest bardzo trudno namówić do czegokolwiek - a tutaj mamy genialny przykład, że można, trzeba jedynie podejść do tego w kreatywny sposób. Poza tym.... to wspaniała inspiracja dla Warszawy i innych miast Polski w kontekście zbliżającego się Roku Chopinowskiego.

Jamaica considers cashing in on its image

Boltmania has Jamaica trying to protect its brand through trademarking anything from the national colors to its celebrities.

Usain Bolt had just been crowned the undisputed sprint king when a businessman boldly walked into the government office here hoping to cash in on the Jamaican track star's record-setting dash. The visitor from the Cayman Islands sought to brand his creative ideas: U-Sane Energy Drink and Lightening Bolt Energy Drink.

``Our antennas went up immediately,'' said attorney Carol Simpson, who heads the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, which oversees trademarks, patents and copyrights. ``The truth is we are very, very careful in looking at instances like this.''

Before Bolt's world records in Beijing and Berlin, the gentleman might have gotten his way. Not any more. In an unusual move for one of the most marketed countries in the world, Jamaica has launched an aggressive campaign to protect its image -- and profit from its brand.

``That Jamaica Brand, that sort of thing that pops up in people's minds because of the Bolt-mania, that can lift you over the edge,'' Prime Minister Bruce Golding told The Miami Herald, referring to the renewed interest in all things Jamaican after Bolt set world records in the 100 and 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics last year then broke them at the recent World Championships in Berlin.

Brand Jamaica is everything distinctively and creatively Jamaican: from Blue Mountain coffee and Bob Marley, to reggae and Rastafarianism to herbs and seasonings.

But while Jamaica has one of the strongest images of any country in the region, thanks largely to its successful tourism marketing campaigns, the country's economy doesn't profit much beyond tourism from its powerful identity.

``Lots of firms around the world use Jamaican imagery to promote their products and services but Jamaica remains firmly stuck in a holiday destination stereotype,'' said Simon Anholt, who advises governments on how to improve their image.

``We don't have a problem creating stuff; the problem is monetizing it,'' said Dillon Powe, marketing executive with Passa Passa, a popular street party in one of Jamaica's roughest neighborhoods. ``Whether it's music or culture, there is something about Jamaica that draws people in. It's just a question of how to capitalize on it.''

GOING TOO FAR?

Still, Anholt said Jamaica may be going too far with its branding campaign.

Though Jamaica's campaign is centered around creating a ``Nation Brand'' -- a term Anholt coined in 1996, Anholt believes the term ``encourages politicians in the belief that they can simply spin their way into a better national image.''

``Countries have images, and those national images are as important to the prospects of those countries as brand images are to corporations,'' he said. ``Countries with a powerful and positive image find that everything they do ... is easier and cheaper.''

The Jamaica campaign is not unlike what South Africa did after apartheid, rebranding itself into the ``Rainbow Nation'' under Nelson Mandela.

No one can say with certainty how much Jamaica loses every time its name or black, gold and green colors appear on a pair of Puma tennis shoes, or when its familiar flag is hoisted.

Everybody seems to be benefiting from the Jamaica craze -- except Jamaica, said Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

``From Puma in terms of Bolt and his shoes to major entities that are using things that were created right here in Jamaica,'' he said. ``We are going to take a very aggressive and proactive approach to the branding in so many respects, in sports and in foods... to make sure we benefit.''

Added Lisa Bell, the deputy president of Jamaica Trade and Invest, a government agency working with companies to help them understand the benefits of brand marketing:

``[The Jamaica Intellectual Property Office] gets complaints on a daily basis of companies infringing on our intellectual property and our brand. We have to lock it up and make it authentic.''

NOT AN EASY SELL

But getting Jamaicans to buy into the idea of managing intellectual property is not an easy sell. Bell said she had a tough time before the Olympics convincing companies -- and even potential Olympians -- to trademark their brands. Few did.

``Can you imagine a consortium of Jamaican companies wrapping up their intellectual property related to the MVP runners club, tying that up, designing products using Jamaican expertise,'' said Bell, referring to the MVP Track and Field Club, whose members include former world record holder Asafa Powell and other top athletes.

Bruce James, president of the club, said he's spoken to the intellectual property office and isn't totally convinced of the benefit of trademarking his runners. ``We have 100 athletes in the MVP Track and Field Club. It's not practical,'' he said. ``What I do in Jamaica only covers Jamaica. I would have to do the same thing in all 200 countries of the world and major markets.''

One Jamaican athlete has been aggressively protecting his image: Bolt. He registered several trademarks, including his famous stance after winning gold in China. He has trademarks in Jamaica, the U.S. and several other countries.

But protecting an athlete's image globally can get expensive because Jamaica is not a signatory of the Madrid Protocol, which provides trademark protection in signator countries with just one registration. Lawyers, eager for business, have lobbied against joining the agreement but government officials say they're making an effort to get Jamaica to sign.

Last month, the government introduced a National Branding Committee. Its task could include researching whether the word jerk, which refers to both the seasoning and a specific way of cooking chicken and pork, can be protected.

Even the name Jamaica is being considered for a trademark, officials say.

But Anholt, the international image expert, said trying to legally protect the nation's assets through branding is a ``dangerous'' idea that is ill-advised.

``It's surely more important for Jamaica to work on ways of leveraging and profiting from its wonderful image,'' he said, ``rather than dreaming up ways of preventing others from doing so.''

By Jacqueline Charles
www.miamiherald.com