...was a rhetorical question asked Peter Knowles, Englishman and former CEO of the 2008 FINA swimming championship in Manchester, when speaking to the Windsor City Council in reference to a bid by Windsor to get the championships.

Knowles added that the lack of name value in Windsor’s possible bid could be addressed by playing up the city’s connection with the Motor City.

“Everybody in the world has heard of Detroit,” Knowles said.

Francis said that Windsor’s proximity to Detroit and the potential to market the event as taking place in “two nations” would give our bid “one advantage no one else has. Full Article: Windsor Star
Play off the Detroit name was the message. And IMO this makes a lot sense for all of us.


Looking North on Oulette in Windsor, Ontario toward downtown Detroit, Michigan.

Detroit [of which the City of Detroit now comprises only 15% or the metro population] is based, as we all know on the name of an international waterway, not some city that happened to name itself after it. Le Detroit, French for 'The Straits', most likely was a further translation from Native American name for the waterway.

We have great mutual benefits and potential by not simply thinking of ourselves as Detroit and Windsor or even Canada and USA when it comes to marketing our international city. Instead we need market our region as something like 'Detroit-Windsor: World's Greatest International Metropolis', at least when it comes to image and marketing.

How would you market and image-brand our common metropolis to the world?