Keynote Speakers and Conference Committees
We are delighted that the IPBA 2025 Programme includes keynote addresses by four prominent place branding experts.

Keynote Speakers
Prof. Sebastian Zenker

Sebastian is Professor at the Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Management, Copenhagen Business School
Ms Victoria Braddock

Victoria is Managing Director
at Marketing Manchester
Therasa Garrod & John Till

Therasa is Tourism and Place Manager in Bolsover, UK and John is Founding Director at Thinkingplace
CONFERENCE COMMITTEES
LOCAL ORGANISSING COMMITTEE:
- Mihalis Kavaratzis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Chair)
- Chloe Steadman, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Co-chair)
- Nikos Ntounis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Co-chair)
- Robert Govers (Representing IPBA)
- Gary Warnaby, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Doctoral Colloquium Chair)
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:
- Mihalis Kavaratzis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Chair)
- Nikos Ntounis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Co-chair)
- Chloe Steadman, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (Co-chair)
- Gary Warnaby, University of Manchester, UK (Doctoral Colloquium Chair)
- Don Dioko, IFT Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao SAR, China
- Hong Fan, Tsinghua University Beijing, China
- Magdalena Florek, IPBA
- Nigel Morgan, University of Surrey, UK
CONFERENCE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
- Eli Avraham, University of Haifa, Israel
- Cecilia Cassinger, Lund University, Sweden
- Alex Deffner, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
- Keith Dinnie, University of Dundee, UK
- Don Dioko, IFT Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao SAR , China
- Jasper Eshuis, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Hong Fan, Tsinghua University Beijing, China
- José Fernández Cavia, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
- Joao Freire, IPAM – Marketing School for Business, Portugal
- Magdalena Florek, IPBA
- Massimo Giovanardi, Universitá di Bologna, Italy
- Sonya Hanna, Bangor University, Wales, UK
- Marta Hereźniak, University of Lodz, Poland
- Andrea Insch, University of Otago, New Zealand
- Lisa Källström, Kristianstad University, Sweden
- Mihalis Kavaratzis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Arja Lemmetyinen, University of Turku, Finland
- Andrea Lucarelli, Stockholm Business School, Sweden
- Chiara Mauri, LIUC – Università Cattaneo, Italy
- Nikos Ntounis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Nicolas Papadopoulos, Carleton University, Canada
- Cecilia Pasquinelli, University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Italy
- Olga Rauhut Kompaniets, Halmstad University, Sweden
- Chloe Steadman, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Efe Sevin, Towson University, USA
- Viriya Taecharungroj, Mahidol University, Thailand
- Gary Warnaby, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Staci Zavattaro, University of Central Florida, USA
- Sebastian Zenker, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
ART GALLERY CURATOR
- Mihalis Kavaratzis, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
DOCTORAL COLLOQUIM CHAIR
- Gary Warnaby, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK