Unlock the power of visual storytelling to elevate community engagement. Learn how planners can utilize tools like AI and Canva to create compelling narratives that enhance public awareness, build trust, and drive meaningful participation in planning projects.

Learn about a unique collaboration between city government, community organizations, artists and community members to plan the restoration of historically and culturally important streets in Houston's Freedman's Town. A strategy balancing infrastructure provision, accessibility, resiliency, cultural heritage preservation, and placemaking.

Is your community outreach process leaving critical voices unheard? Discover how to connect with every corner of your community, turning participation gaps into opportunities for stronger engagement and better planning.

Recent applications of the U.S. EPA's National Public Health Assessment Model (N-PHAM) are advancing health equity in planning. Learn about two case studies that integrate advanced metrics to support long-range transportation planning and guide infrastructure investment decision-making.

Step into the ring – the Brownfields Boxing ring! Discover knockout strategies to tackle climate change issues and other brownfields redevelopment challenges. Learn to dodge the usual punches and land a TKO with proven tactics and processes to achieve success!

A connected system of habitat, public spaces, and surface stormwater (HPS) improves our mental, physical, and spiritual health; turns waste into valued resources; uses land more efficiently; and builds social cohesion which results in more resilience in communities.

This session will explore how planners can empower communities to design change within their own neighborhoods and how design processes can center community voices in developing urban-level equitable solutions.

​​Government staff, including planners, can work together with community leaders to center equity in government decision-making. This session will help planners understand how different equity tools can support equitable outcomes and uplift community priorities.​

The frequency of extreme weather events in Michigan has rapidly increased. This presents new challenges for siting large solar projects, predominantly on farmland susceptible to severe flooding. Use of drones and native landscape design techniques can help address these concerns.

Hear from tribal planners and explore how to build respectful partnerships, plan with equity, and earn AICP Equity CM credit—essential skills for any planner committed to inclusive, community-driven work that reflects diverse voices and real collaboration.

Approximately 100,000 religious facilities are estimated to close over the next few years. Planners compare the excess in faith properties to the dearth of affordable housing and view a match made in heaven but it won’t happen on its own.

To tackle the housing crisis, robust community engagement is crucial. Discover how one community’s dynamic approach to zoning reform overcame barriers and built trust. Learn how proactive engagement can streamline reform adoption and drive attainable, inclusive housing development.​

The Michigan Office of Rural Prosperity is working with communities to help them prepare for and respond to complex changes facing rural Michigan. New programs and research led by the Office are offering important solutions for planning in rural areas.

Community members often lack access to the knowledge needed to effectively influence systems that serve them even when they are invited to the table. Without sustained investment into community capacity-building and relationships, community engagement tools will continue to fall short.

The heightened expectations of the State of California raised standards for housing programs in cities of all kinds. Three vastly different cities serve as examples of successful executions of housing elements that confront housing issues through meaningful and measurable programs.

Explore how Charging Smart, a technical assistance and designation program, can support local planning and zoning officials in accelerating equitable electric vehicle (EV) charging development within their communities.

This presentation focuses on the perspective and approach of three different cities (Charlotte, Minneapolis, and Portland) to filling the missing middle housing issue that prevails countrywide. It provides historical context, visioning process, policies, adopted regulations, challenges, lessons learned and successes.

Discover the Chihuahuan Desert Climate Fellowship, launched by El Paso's Office of Climate and Sustainability. Learn how fellows from underserved communities gain experience to become climate advocates while driving impactful change within their neighborhoods, shaping the regional climate action plan.

Changes in society and the economy over the past few years create new challenges and opportunities across the country for downtowns. Learn how several planning directors are meeting the challenge and adapting their downtowns for an inclusive future.

Climate change is wreaking havoc on home insurance rates and coverage nationwide, and planners are grappling with the fallout. This panel discussion will explore what planners need to know about this crisis, and what it means for the future.

John Register is a two-time Paralympian, Paralympic Games Silver Medalist, Persian Gulf War veteran, and TEDx Motivational Speaker. He embraced a “new normal mindset” in becoming an amputee following a misstep over a hurdle while training for the 1996 Olympic Games, after participation in two consecutive Olympic trials.

This panel explores how gender-inclusive mobility planning creates safer, more equitable transportation systems for women and gender minorities. Planners will gain tools to address the gender data gap, improve public engagement, and design streets and services that work for all.

A cumulative impact assessment is one tool that the government can use to understand the disproportionate burden over time within its communities. This course will highlight the role planners can play in facilitating assessments that center on community leadership and equity.

Local climate planning and action are critical to addressing the global climate crisis through strategies for economic and environmental resiliency and GHG emission reduction. Ideal for planners at a range of scales looking to focus their efforts on high-impact solutions.

Active transportation and freight networks often conflict, with serious safety risks. Limited coordination between freight and bike/pedestrian planners worsens the issue. This session explores solutions to improve safety at this complex modal intersection through network planning, better design, and evaluation.

Congestion pricing programs have long been a goal of urban planners working to improve safety, environmental, economic, and livability standards in their cities. New York City is in the process of implementing its program and offers many valuable lessons.

This session equips planners with practical tools to transform ideas into funded projects by aligning goals with funding priorities, integrating data, fostering collaboration, and engaging communities to deliver impactful, implementable projects.

The daylighting of Tibbetts Brook – a historic Bronx stream – will use green infrastructure to improve water quality while creating recreational space. It will also catalyze community change, anchored in ecological improvements and amenities at nearby Van Cortlandt Park.

"What keeps you up at night?" Liability for regulating development in flood-prone areas should not be on your list! Learn about a valuable resource for local planners, floodplain professionals, and their legal counsel in navigating the law surrounding floodplain management.

Climate change intensifies risks for marginalized communities historically excluded from planning processes. Planners must adopt inclusive and creative strategies to address these disparities, ensuring that all communities in the future are stronger, resilient, and equitable.