Linköping is one of three finalists for the Placebrander of the Year award for the work on Framtiden's city centre. The prize is awarded every year to actors who have carried out impressive efforts in place development and place marketing.

The Placebrander of the Year award recognizes efforts that are carried out to strengthen the attractiveness of a place, increase pride and attract residents, visitors, events, investments and establishments. It is a national award that has been awarded since 2013.

Linköping is now a finalist and is being recognized for its work with Framtiden's city centre. In June 2022, 30 actors with operations in Linköping's inner city signed a joint declaration of intent on how they will work together for the development of the city centre.

- It is great fun that our work with Framtiden's city center is being recognized nationally and that we are now finalists for this fine award. Linköping is the city of the future - that we are innovative in how we, together with associations and businesses, develop our city center is crucial for a safe, vibrant and attractive inner city, says Stefan Erikson, (M) municipal councilor and chairman of the community planning committee.

30 actors with the same goalThe goal of the work in Framtiden's city center is to create an inner city that is attractive, now and in the future. A number of different collaboration initiatives are underway, including better coordination of excavation work so that disturbances are reduced, planning so that the number of residents and businesses in the city center increases and new technology solutions that are developed together with the university to increase safety in the inner city. The collaboration in Framtiden's city center was also a part of Linköping being the first Swedish city to receive the iCapital Awards and being named 'European Rising Innovative City'.

- Through Framtiden's city center, we work more closely together to make Linköping's inner city even better. By creating more homes and workplaces, we attract more people to the city centre, this has positive effects both for the business world and for the perceived security in the city. It's great that our work is being noticed, hopefully our work can inspire more cities, says Oscar Åhman, CEO of Vasaparken Fastighets AB and chairman of Cityfastighetsägarna.

LKPG Culture Pop-UpAn example of the result of collaboration within Framtiden's city center is the LKPG Culture Pop-Up, where cultural actors are offered free of charge for a few summer weeks to use vacant premises in the city center to showcase their activities.

- We are working hard on this year's Culture Pop-Up, it feels very nice to soon be able to present this year's exhibitors. Last year, the initiative was a fantastic success with around 30 cultural actors and great interest from visitors to the city centre. Culture Pop-Up attracted visitors to the city centre, cultural practitioners had the opportunity to showcase their activities and reach out to a wider audience at the same time as otherwise vacant premises were filled with local creativity and creation, a win-win-win, says Jessica Stille Törnqvist, CEO at Linköping's City collaboration.

If Linköping wins the Placebrander of the Year award, we will find out on September 5 when the award ceremony takes place during Placebrander Day in Jönköping.

Note: This is an automated translated version of the story which may have translation errors. Please always refer to the original story: https://www.linkoping.se/nyheter/nyheter/linkoping-finalister-for-arbetet-med-framtidens-stadskarna/