Generation Place 2027
A new international symposium for the people shaping the future of places.
About Generation Place
For decades, the question tourism has asked has been: "How can this place serve tourism?"
Generation Place flips it around: What does this place need to thrive — and how can tourism support that?
We call this approach Place First. It means we look through the lens of place in everything we do.
There are many people already trying to put Place First, an entire generation feeling uncomfortable with tourism and place development that exhausts the place instead of strengthening it.
It is time for them to connect and to share the questions, the answers, and the solutions that they have tried out and that are scattered around the world.
2027 Symposium
The symposium brings people together in Torino who think Place First from tourism, place marketing, citymaking, economic development, culture, and beyond to explore the ideas shaping the future of places.
The symposium isn't another conference about change, future, and destination management — it is the birth moment of a new community that believes that the place comes first. .
Sign up below for exclusive updates on registration, speakers, programming, and event news. With limited capacity, our mailing list is the easiest way to stay connected as GENERATION PLACE takes shape.
Why Torino
Torino is our symbolic host city, and deliberately so. Few cities embody urban transformation as vividly — a place that reinvented its own identity from industrial capital to a city of culture, innovation, and quality of life. That makes it the ideal backdrop for a symposium about the transformation of tourism itself.
What's different?
Alongside plenary sessions and case studies from places around the world, Generation Place is built around a participatory format: every participant is welcome to bring a real Place First problem from their own city, region, or organisation. When you register you'll be invited to share with us your place specific problem. We can discuss this in groups at the conference, or in the months following the conference. You bring something that's relevant and you might put it into practice yourself.
No barriers between speakers and audience. It means that you are open to listen but also to speak and contribute to what it means to put place first
It's really international. It's in English with Italian translation, so we do expect to see professionals and students from both Italy and other places across the globe.
Who's it for
We're building a room that also includes tourism, city marketing, placemaking, urban planning, and regenerative professionals: anyone who shapes what a place is, and who it's for. The name reflects that ambition — Place, not just tourism, and Generation, a signal that this is a forward-looking, next-generation community.
Where will it take place?
The symposium is hosted in partnership with Turismo Torino e Provincia at the Castello del Valentino, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the banks of the Po that has been reinvented again and again — from riverside residence to ducal pleasure palace, veterinary school, barracks, and today the home of Torino's school of architecture. Few venues make the case for Place First so plainly: the castle survived because each generation found it a new purpose.
Photo Credit: Peter Broster
More details to come. Sign up to stay connected!
Programme Preview
Two days in Torino for the people shaping the future of places, built around one question: what does this place need to thrive, and how can tourism support that?
Generation Place brings together professionals from tourism, place marketing, citymaking, economic development, culture and beyond. It is hosted with Turismo Torino e Provincia at the Castello del Valentino, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the banks of the Po. Sessions run in English with Italian translation.
This isn't a conference where you only listen. Alongside keynotes and case studies from around the world, you can bring a real Place First challenge from your own city, region or organisation and work on it with your peers.
This is a preview. Speakers, timings and sessions may change as the programme takes shape.
Day 1: Seeing places differently
Day one moves from why Place First matters, to what it means to see and act differently, to places already working this way.
Get inspired
Place First: why? What changes when we stop managing destinations as products and start stewarding them as living systems.
Place First in marketing. Making your marketing job so much more meaningful.
Place First in action. Keeping tourism value in the community, regenerative visitor experiences, and working with stakeholders.
Place First in sustainability. How do you look differently at sustainability?
Place First in storytelling and branding. How places tell their story and shape their identity.
Share your practice
Pitch your Place First problem. Bring a real challenge, and peers help you solve it in small facilitated groups.
Here's where you get some great insights and ideas to add to your daily practice.
SEND YOUR PITCH TO US BEFORE JAN 15, 2027
Day 2: Widening the lens
Day two takes the conversation beyond tourism into strategy, placemaking and governance, then heads out into Torino itself.
Get inspired
Place First in strategy. Lessons from destinations across five continents.
Place First in placemaking. From the city scale down to the neighbourhood.
Place First in governance. How Place First changes the way tourism is governed and managed.
Place First in narrative. The language and meaning behind how places are described.
Place First and the next generation. A new generation of destination managers.
Resonance tourism. How a visit can really resonate on the long term.
Place First in the meetings industry. What putting place first means for conferences and events.
Share Your Practice
Take Place First thinking into action through an interactive session focused on Torino's evolving tourism strategy, The Torino Tale, and its ambition to make tourism a force for good.
Together with fellow participants and stakeholders from Turismo Torino, you'll explore opportunities and challenges facing the destination, exchange perspectives and uncover practical insights to bring back to your own place.
Choose from five discussion themes:
Making Social Impact Visible: Connecting tourism with positive community outcomes.
Surrounded by Green: Bringing Torino's natural surroundings into the visitor experience.
From Craft to Code: Connecting visitors with local makers, innovators and businesses.
A Living City in Every Neighbourhood: Encouraging meaningful exploration beyond the city centre.
Growing Tourism Responsibly: Learning from Italian cities to manage growth while protecting local quality of life.
We'll be in touch ahead of the event to invite you to select your preferred discussion table. Please make your selection by January 15, 2027.
One Last Opportunity to Connect
We'll close Generation Place with a special aperitivo at a surprise location in Torino, with the venue to be revealed closer to the event. It's a chance to continue the conversations, strengthen connections with fellow participants and reflect on two days of fresh perspectives and shared ideas in a relaxed setting. A fitting way to end our time together, celebrating the people, places and possibilities at the heart of Place First thinking.
More to come
More speakers, sessions and evening plans will be announced as the programme evolves. Places are limited, so sign up below for updates to hear first about registration, speakers and programme news.
Who are you meeting?
Anna Pollock
Founder at Conscious.Travel
Associate Partner of Place Generation
Anna Pollock (UK) needs no introduction. She introduced the concept of regeneration to the tourism world although her knowledge spans many fields. If you've never heard her speak, you're in for something special. She'll take on the question at the heart of it all: why Place First?
Giovanna Sainaghi
Place Generator
Giovanna Sainaghi (Italy) is a place generator with a long international career in tourism will not only be your host at the Symposium but will also bring her in depth knowledge in what it takes to (re)generate a place.
Luca D'Angelo
General Director of Dolomiti Paganella Tourism Board
Luca D'Angelo (Italy) is General Director of the Dolomiti Paganella Tourism Board, Italy's first DMO Benefit Corporation. He will share how destinations can actively shape their future, drawing on the Dolomiti Paganella Future Lab and its work to make tourism a tool for generating wellbeing for the environment, local communities and guests.
Cathy Ritter
Founder & CEO at Better Destinations LLC
Cathy Ritter (USA) has been leading two state DMOs in the USA and has shaped plans for communities all over the United States. She'll explain the impact of Place First on the way tourism is governed and managed.
Frank Cuypers
Co-Founder of Place Generation
Frank Cuypers (Belgium) teaches and speaks about places, and has worked with more than 70 destinations across five continents. He will draw on those examples as he explains how we can integrate the Place First idea into our strategies.
Edoardo Zaffuto
Co-Founder of Addiopizzo Travel
Edoardo Zaffuto (Italy) is a co-founder of Addiopizzo Travel, a Sicilian tour operator born from the anti-Mafia movement Addiopizzo. He will share how tourism can serve the place itself—supporting responsible local businesses, creating value for communities and connecting visitors with the people and pathways driving change.
Elke Dens
Co-Founder Place Generation
Elke Dens (Belgium) has been in leading roles in the European tourism world. She will talk about her own path and how a Place First perspective can create more meaningful marketing.
David Ermen
Managing Director of Destination Capacity
David Ermen (New Zealand) has spent more than 20 years advising destinations across the world on sustainable tourism and destination development. He will explore the shift from sustainability to stewardship and how tourism can drive positive outcomes for places when managed well.
More details to come as the planning evolves...