Johan Arvidsson is the communication strategist and project manager Smart Move at Örebrokompaniet, the city’s marketing organisation.

Here is a provocative thought. A smart city is about smart moves. And according to Örebro, a mid-sized city in Sweden, the smart move is moving to a city like theirs. Ideally, from larger cities like Stockholm. 

Welcome to the Greater Örebro Area, a conglomeration of 12 municipalities. This is the near-ideal size of a city, combined with a fantastic offer of work, life and their balance. In their own words, Smart Move is a lifestyle portal that proves why this is one of Sweden’s fastest-growing regions. Visiting the website as a prospective student, worker, parent, entrepreneur or investor is a visually pleasant as well as informative experience, as this portal aims to offer comprehensive information about the region if you are serious about considering moving there.   

Full disclosure: we at Future Place Leadership have had the pleasure of working with Smart Move before and stick to our words: “It is truly changing the way we see talent attraction for smaller cities and regions.”

How to become smart 

Smart Move is a joint effort to attract and retain expertise in the Örebro region. The initiative is run by Business Region Örebro and Örebrokompaniet in close collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce in Mälardalen and Örebro university. Örebro city has some 127 000 inhabitants.  According to a study commissioned by AFRY, a Swedish engineering firm, the majority of European youths want to live in cities that have 100 000 or fewer inhabitants. This coupled with reports of people (with means) moving away from large metropolitan areas like New York to the countryside may augur a new era for smaller places. Looking at initiatives like Smart Move that are creative in their nature and are the result of the work of many parties over several years, that era may just be on the horizon. 

Johan and Jenny Johansson will talk about talent attraction and how to innovate place marketing.