Early Bird Registration Opens May 23rd

In one week, Early Bird registration for the 3rd International Placemaking Week will open on Thursday, May 23rd [2], so be sure to purchase your tickets to the event at the lowest price possible before the July 12th deadline!

This year's conference will take place on October 1-4, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We couldn't be more excited, and we think you will be too! Read more about what's in store below.

Working closely with the conference's Local Host Committee and co-organizer The Enterprise Center, Project for Public Spaces will present an inspiring and engaging conference without walls [5], full of hands-on sessions, off-site workshops, tours, and networking events, all designed to take full advantage of the many community-oriented organizations and spaces clustered in and around Chattanooga's innovation district.

Along with this year's core focus on how we make placemaking more equitable and inclusive, here's a taste of more specific topics we expect to feature in the program: Grassroots placemaking; innovation and entrepreneurship; creative placemaking; rural placemaking; food accessibility and urban agriculture; play and designing for youth; and so much more.

In the coming months we will provide you with all important information relating to Placemaking Week via this newsletter, including registration updates and deadlines, our roster of sessions and speakers, and all other conference related news. Stay tuned!

Getting to know Chattanooga

With each newsletter we will use this space to share more information and stories about our host city:

• Want to know about how Chattanooga is promoting digital equity? Read this piece [6] by Peter Moskowitz, author of How to Kill a City, and also past keynote speaker for the European Placemaking Network's event in Stockholm in 2018.
   
• Chattanooga shows us how placemaking can help a city come to terms with its complicated past [7], in an interview with Courtney Knapp, author of Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
   
• A research collaboration between Chattanooga's publicly owned college, hospital, and electrical utility just won the IDC Smart Cities North America Award [8] for its efforts to promote next generation transportation, energy, and health care.
   
• Learn how a city burdened with empty factories, a deteriorating downtown, sprawling suburbs, and the worst air quality of any city in the country turned itself upside-down to get right-side-up [9]. (Spoiler: The city was Chattanooga.)

Call for Proposals

Thank you to everyone to applied to present at Placemaking Week - we received over a whopping 250 quality proposals this year!

The program for the event is quickly developing into an engaging set of topics, presenters, and activities with a little something for every placemaking practitioner and enthusiast.

Sponsorships

Interested in sponsoring Placemaking Week this year, and having a positive impact on our host city? Get in touch!

Your support at the event gives directly back to our host city and its communities by providing funding for local projects, scholarships for individuals who might not otherwise be able to attend the event, and a range of networking experiences for our attendees who travel from far and wide to collaborate and share knowledge with their peers.

You can find our sponsorship package here [10].