Source: Erasmus Centre for Urban Management Studies

Come and learn from smart initiatives, creative minds and inspiring examples from across the globe. A sample of internationally acclaimed speakers:

• Mr. Jeremy Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, USA
• Mr. Winy Maas, architect/partner MVRDV
• Mrs. Sharon Nunes, Vice-President of Technology, IBM
• Mr. Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Chair International Advisory Board, Rotterdam
• Mrs. Liesbeth van der Pol, Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands
• Mr. Brent Toderian, Director of Planning City of Vancouver, Canada
• Mrs. Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University

More information: Rotterdam Global Urban Summit 2009

Jeroen Klijs, Leo van den Berg and Alexander Otgaar, photo by Sebastiaan Knot

During the symposium on the 21st of September the Partners for Healthy Cities not only presented the results of the international study, but they also announced the kick-off of a pilot project in Lombardijen, a Rotterdam neighbourhood. Under the slogan 'From ground to mouth' the Partners want to bring the production of healthy food back in the city. The pilot project was set up during a two-day workshop with representatives of the five partner organisations, other (community-based) organisations with a stake in the neighbourhood and citizens.

Apart from the report, the Partners also presented a magazine called 'Springlevend' (alive and kicking) including a summary of the study's main conclusions and information about the pilot project.

More information (in Dutch)

Ms. Rachel Xian Feng at Erasmus University Rotterdam

SECURC’s primary goal is to foster cooperation on research between the Shanghai Normal University and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the field of Urban Management. The platform allows researchers to cooperate on urban management issues, which may stimulate the development of interesting new research avenues.

Source: www.ecums.nl

The new brochure can be downloaded here.

In their contribution, Van den Berg and Otgaar summarized the results of an international study on industrial tourism with case studies in five European cities and one Chinese city. This research analyses the conditions under which industrial tourism can be beneficial for both cities and the businesses that open their doors. They emphasized that benefits are not only to be found in the direct income company visits generate, but also in the more indirect effects such as an improved reputation for firms and image enhancement for cities.

Click here for more information about the report, such as how to order a copy.

The first contribution of this study is the development of a clear concept of city marketing that is based on a customer-oriented perspective, acknowledges the important of perceptions of places in the decision making process of the city’s customers and that delineates urban products. The analysis results in a framework for city marketing management that distinguishes between city marketing activities that need more oversight and central coordination and those activities that are best dealt with close to groupings of specific customers.

It is argued that the effective use of city marketing requires a more integrated approach to city marketing. This integrated approach rests upon two dimensions. The first is the embeddedness of city marketing in urban governance - the fit of city marketing in the city’s wider policy framework. The second concerns structural conditions for city marketing management. Next, the study has identified four factors that stimulate and contribute to the embeddedness in urban governance and another four that are supportive factors for city marketing management.

The empirical part of the thesis contains a comparative analysis of the city marketing experiences in Basel, Birmingham, Göteborg and Rotterdam. The comparative study has explored these eight factors. The empirical analysis supports that these eight factors are indeed contributing to the embeddedness in urban government and are supportive for city marketing management. An integrated approach to city marketing is a necessary condition for the effective use of city marketing. The study is relevant for academics but it also provides cities a concept for city marketing and eight critical factors for its effectuation.

At the WHO conference in Zagreb, Alexander Otgaar presented the paper 'success conditions for joint investments in healthy cities'. This paper identifies four conditions that healthy city initiatives should meet in order to be effective. In the international comparative study, several projects and programmes will be analysed to gain more insight in how these conditions can be met in practice.

Download the paper here.

Source: NV Rede

On the 9th of October Euricur will present the results of an international comparative study on industrial tourism at a seminar in Rotterdam. The study demonstrates that Rotterdam has a lot of unused potential, while the demand for company tours is growing: tourists and excursionists are looking for content and unique experiences they can add to their collection. Moreover also companies increasingly recognise the added value of industrial tourism, notably in view of the access to qualified labour, with the World Port Days as one of the illustrations.

The final report comprehends case studies of Wolfsburg (Autostadt, Volkswagen), Cologne, Pays de la Loire, Turin, Shanghai and Rotterdam. For more information, check the documents section.

The full article in Dutch can be found here.