We’re proud to share our latest case study, developed as part of our membership with the Institute of Economic Development. It highlights how our place‑led approach is creating meaningful impact for partners and communities, and showcases the thinkingplace commitment to shaping stronger, more confident places across the UK.
thinkingplace is the UK’s leading place branding, place marketing and place making specialist.
For more than five years, the Lancashire-based company has been an Organisation Member of the Institute of Economic Development (iED), building a relationship based on shared values, collaboration and a common commitment to improving places and supporting economic development, occupying a distinctive position within the iED community.
“There aren’t that many organisations we’d see as relevant partners,” said CEO John Till. “We view the iED badge as one that’s definitely worth having and has credibility. We wouldn’t put it on the bottom of our emails or include it in tenders if we didn’t believe that.”
thinkingplace first joined the iED because of the opportunities to engage with the economic development profession through its events programme. “The main stimulus was conferences and webinars,” John explained. “We hosted a couple of webinars with the iED during Covid and the lengthy relationships we’ve built, particularly with Nigel Wilock (Executive Director), have grown and grown over time.
“The other benefit is whenever we’ve asked the iED to support something we’re doing, they’ve done it, and that’s been hugely beneficial. For example, they’ve always promoted Place Pizzazz, our flagship best practice event. We’ve also had Nigel and Tom Stannard (iED Chair) on our ‘right place, right time’ podcast. Reciprocally, we’ve always promoted the iED, conference and other activities. So, we mutually promote each other whenever we can.”
At the IED Annual Conference 2026, John is delivering a breakout session entitled ‘Governance might change but place must always be the hero!’ with Catherine Howe, Chief Executive of Dorset Council, a client of thinkingplace.
“The opportunity to speak at the conference is something we see as pretty prestigious among everything we do throughout the year,” John said. “The conference format works well, and I think we bring something distinctive. It means the agenda includes voices beyond the usual suspects. It’s not just Birmingham, Manchester and London. Bringing Dorset into conversations about economic development is important because those parts of the country often get marginalised, yet they’re hugely significant in terms of defence, clean energy, agri-tech and agriculture. They’re not always on the government’s radar, and I think we have a responsibility to help bring those places to the fore especially given the PM’s comments about ‘delivering good growth in every postcode’.”
Looking ahead, John sees potential for more collaboration particularly around the growing importance of place in economic policy. “Over the last 20 years we’ve seen the role of place steadily rise under different governments, but it’s difficult to imagine it having any greater prominence than it does now,” John commented. “Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s whole strategy is built around place – in fact, place has probably reached its zenith under him – and this presents a genuine moment of opportunity especially with devolution and local government reorganisation.
“We’re probably the only place marketing and brand organisation within the iED’s membership. For us, it’s all about maximising exposure and value, because whilst most of our work comes through recommendations, there will be some local authorities that don’t know why they need to develop a place led approach and what the benefit is. We definitely get what we need from our membership.”
Case study developed: August 2026
