The City of Williamsburg’s Future Festivals have been shortlisted for a 2023 City Nation Place Award in the category of Best Citizen Engagement.
The City Nation Place Awards celebrate and benchmark the very best in strategic thinking for places – the only specialist global awards designed to showcase the best approaches to building and managing the reputation of destinations, towns, cities, regions, and nations of all sizes.
In the fall of 2022, the City of Williamsburg hosted eight public input sessions called Future Festivals, during which attendees played games designed to gather feedback that would inform the development of the City’s two-year workplan, known as the Goals, Initiatives, and Outcomes (GIO) document. More than 900 people attended Future Festivals, and more than 700 answered a GIO-related survey, resulting in more comprehensive data from a more diverse participant pool than ever before.
The City of Williamsburg is shortlisted alongside seven marketing and engagement campaigns from across the globe:
- Abitibi-Ouest, Canada, Unité Légendaire - A Legendary Story, entered by Visages Régionaux
- Ansfelden, Austria, "We are One" - Citizen Participation In A Creative Brand Building Process, entered by SERY* Brand Communications
- Bad Vöslau, Austria, Bad Vöslau - Working Together For A Good Life, entered by message Marketing- & Communications GmbH
- Chicago, USA, Choose Chicago Neighbourhood Tourism Marketing And Engagement Program, entered by Choose Chicago
- Tasmania, Australia, Little Tasmanian, entered by Brand Tasmania
- The Bahamas, People-to-People Experience, entered by The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Aviation and Investments
- Ukraine, #TheUnityWave, entered by Brand Ukraine NGO
The award winners will be announced at the City Nation Place Global conference on Nov. 9, 2023, in London, England.