When the 2000 Summer Olympics were staged in Sydney, the beauty and energy of Australia's largest city were on worldwide display.

"All Olympic games shine a spotlight on the host city," says Tania Rhodes-Taylor, vice-principal of external relations at the University of Sydney, "and Sydney experienced this more so than any other city because of how successfully the games were run."

People already knew about Sydney's beautiful beaches and weather, but the Olympics highlighted the city's multicultural population and genuine hospitality. "It was this combination of charm, organization, and beauty that really left a lasting impact on the world," Rhodes-Taylor says.

This good publicity continues to draw students to the university. It underscores how Sydney and other universities around the world have found creative ways to leverage the power of place, as CASE Vice President for Communications and Marketing Rob Moore explores in the latest issue of Currents.

"An institution's location is a key asset. Are you fully optimizing yours?" he writes.

Here are three steps to begin that process.

First, know your city and context. You have to understand the brand-the public perception-of your neighborhood, town, city, or region, writes Moore. Is the area seen as peaceful or energetic? Is it well connected or a place where individuals can step back and immerse themselves in scholarship or research? Is it fun or seriously serious?

You also need to understand the civic, cultural or demographic contexts of your location, he advises. Are civic, corporate or cultural leaders moving forward with initiatives that would shift public perception of your area? Are there external opportunities—as happened with the Olympics in Sydney—around which you can build a program or increase your visibility?

Second, plan programs. After you understand how you might align yourself within the location, you are ready to take the second and most important step in the process: developing programs that tie directly to your location's brand context, writes Moore.

Ideally, your faculty already have relationships in your surrounding community. Your job is to elevate those relationships so that your institution is perceived as a real player in local cultural and civic life, not just a place that's only relevant to students for the few years they spend on campus.

Alumni are also a powerful force in this relationship. Can you engage alumni in institutional programs that also tie into the community? Or, conversely, involve the institution in alumni-run community programs? Such activities could yield deeper alumni engagement with the institution.

Third, identify the key voices. Once you understand the importance of your location and the role your institution plays in the health and vitality of its community, you're ready to take the next step: raising more money to generate an even stronger presence, writes Moore. Start by identifying those local movers and shakers—alumni, boosters, icons, donors, corporate leaders—who would be interested in participating in the initiative you're developing.

For more on how to capture the power of place, see Moore's full article in May/June Currents.