Latest News

Tonight (29th August 2025) Blackpool's world famous lights will once again light up the promenade which is a tradition that has been sparking joy, debate, and cultural fascination for over a century. For the Institute of Place Management, Blackpool has been a focus of research for over a decade, with the Illuminations forming a central strand of that work. Through a series of s ...

As the Institute of Place Management prepares for its upcoming Masterclass on Place and Economic Development this September, Professor Steve Millington is encouraging place managers to refocus attention on a critical but often overlooked concept: the foundational economy. In a new bitesize 6-minute video, now available in the IPM Members Area, Professor Millington explains how ...

With the Second Reading of the English Community Empowerment Bill scheduled for 2nd September, the Institute of Place Management is sharing this blog by a number of IPM Fellows and Senior Fellows to help stimulate conversation about what the legislation could mean in practice. We know the Bill presents opportunities - but also risks if local governance reform becomes a tick-box ...

Readers almost certainly will have experienced irritating piped muzak in a hotel lobby, or those times when an intimate conversation has been drowned out by an over-zealous DJ. Such frustrations reflect deliberative attempts to manage and control the atmospheric qualities of place. Whereas this might prove effective in the controlled space of a shopping mall, interventions can ...

Place managers across the UK are increasingly dealing with Privately Owned Public Spaces (or POPS as they are becoming know as) from city squares and retail plazas to repurposed industrial sites. A new open access article by Dr Jenny Kanellopoulou, Dr Nikos Ntounis and Prof Steve Millington, explores how these spaces are managed on the ground and what that means for their ‘publ ...

As we celebrate Graduation Week 2025 at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Institute of Place Management is looking to the future - and inviting organisations to support the next generation of place leaders.

Working with Manchester Met’s Apprenticeship Team, we are developing a new Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship, designed to create a structured pathway into place-based careers across the country.

The Institute of Place Management is proud to congratulate five students who have successfully graduated from the Place Management and Leadership programme at Manchester Metropolitan University this summer - three achieving their MSc and two completing the Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip).

In 100 days from now, the place branding, place marketing and place management community will meet in Manchester for the annual conference of the International Place Branding Association.

The Institute of Place Management is delighted to share the news that Dr Chloe Steadman and Dr Alessandro Graciotti have been awarded research funding from the Academy of Marketing to develop an innovative ‘tastewalk’ methodology and toolkit designed to explore how food and drink shape people's perceptions and experiences of places.

Overtourism continues to challenge regions and communities across the globe - from UNESCO World Heritage sites to cultural landscapes under pressure. In response, proximity tourism has emerged as a promising yet complex alternative.

At IPM, we’re supporting the forthcoming Journal of Place Management and Development special issue, which invites critical perspectives on proximity tourism: