City Parks Alliance, a nationwide urban parks membership organization, chose Austin to host their 2026 Greater & Greener Conference, an international event bringing industry professionals together to discuss and improve parks, according to a Sept. 26 press release.

The organization partnered with the City of Austin and The Trail Conservancy, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, to organize the conference. The conference will bring over 1,000 city planners, park advocates and urban park leaders together for three days in June.

“Austin is thrilled to host the Greater & Greener Conference 2026,” Heidi Anderson, CEO of The Trail Conservancy, said in the press release. “We are excited to showcase our commitment to sustainability, community engagement and resilience and welcome attendees from across the country and the world to do the same.”

The conference will involve networking opportunities, deep-dive sessions, mobile workshops and weekend tours, CPA executive director Catherine Nagel said in an email. The event will offer roughly 40 tours and mobile workshops.

“We use the city as an outdoor classroom,” Nagel said. “The conference agenda includes dozens of mobile workshops and weekend tours so attendees can get out into the host city and hear directly from people who are using and stewarding the parks in their community. We spend more time outdoors than indoors.”

Local partners assist in building a conference agenda and working with local organizations as they know the city best, Nagel said. CPA works on curating conference themes and recruiting speakers for the event.

According to the press release, the 2026 event will focus on themes such as the economic benefits of parks, equitable access to green spaces and environmental sustainability. 

“There’s so much value in people coming together to discuss the challenges that we’re all facing in park environment and taking inspiration from what other folks are doing,” said Elizabeth Barnes, program development coordinator at Parks and Recreation. “A conference like this creates space and dedicated time to do that.“

Cities are chosen through a national request for proposal process. Cities can submit to host the conference and a panel of urban park experts at CPA review submissions. 

“Austin was selected because it has great stories to tell about public-private partnerships working on parks in a fast-growing city, equitable investment, and climate resiliency,” Nagel said. 

Barnes said that the city is working on improving equity overall which the park department hopes to take into account.

“In the parks department, (improving equity) looks like undoing structural inaccessibility of parks,” Barnes said. “We have some world-class parks, and then we have some people (who) don’t have access to green spaces within walking distance. (The conference) will give us a chance to learn, improve and provide better parks to Austinites.”

Despite the conference taking place in 2026, Parks and Recreation has already started working on organizing. 

“We have a pretty exceptional park system,” Barnes said. “It’s a chance to celebrate all of that, (but) at the same time, it’s a chance to benefit from all of these amazing experts and people who are on the cutting edge of making parks the best they can be.”