Some of the most renowned experts in the field of European Capitals of Culture were speakers at the ‘How to Communicate ECoC’ seminar in Rijeka – city that is European Capital of Culture in 2020. They shared their experiences and emphasised that dialogue is one of the crucial processes of society transformation and progress. Apart from increasing wide recognisability of a city, the goal of every European Capital of Culture is to include as much people as possible in the very process, which was discussed during the seminar.

The seminar covered three topics that have been identified as the most important ones, and which relate to communication and marketing plan. Nemanja Milenković, CEO of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’, and members of the team for communication and marketing had a chance to see the best examples and experiences by listening to the leading European experts during the seminar. Some of the speakers were Xabier Paya, Programme Director of ‘San Sebastian 2016’ and Neil Peterson, director and founder of Inside Track consulting agency for culture and creative industries that offers helps to clients in achieving positive social and economic changes through culture, creativity, sports and other participative events, who was engaged within the ‘Liverpool 2008’ project.

Karin Arvidsson, within the presentation entitled From the borders of Siberia to the centre of Manhattan – a journey to make a small town famous, spoke about the marketing strategy of Umeå 2014, and about communication process in years before and after 2014. She emphasised the relation with the local media, saying that her team suffered great critiques by the public, mostly for the project expenses. However, she said that they had a good return on the invested money.

One of the most important priorities of each ECoC is to improve visibility of the city at national, and most importantly, at the international level. This is the reason why it is crucial to select proper ways and means of communication, and models of branding.