Chris Fair

A futurist, marketing strategist and facilitator, Chris holds a Masters degree in Studies of the Future and has married his marketing expertise with futures methodologies to help a wide variety of clients envision and create development strategies, plans and brands that shape the future of places around the world. As President of Resonance, Chris leads a team that has completed more than 100 visioning, strategy, planning and branding projects for destinations, cities and developers in more than 20 countries. Chris is the Chairman of the Urban Land Institute’s Travel Experience & Trends Council, a member of the Project for Public Spaces Leadership Council, and a past instructor in Placemaking at New York University. In 2013, Chris was recognized as the “Place Branding Thought Leader of the Year” at the World Sense of Place Summit. In 2016, he designed the World’s Best Cities rankings in partnership with National Geographic to analyze and rank 400 global cities based on a unique benchmarking model that blends core statistics with millions of consumer ratings and reviews in 23 different categories. The World’s Best Cities rankings are now the most widely read and publicized city ranking on the planet. Last year, Chris founded and launched the WRLDCTY Festival – a multi-city global gathering to shape the future of cities and urban development.