New Partners for Smart Growth

5th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth

Building Safe, Healthy, and Livable Communities

February 8-10, 2007 Los Angeles, California

"The New Partners for Smart Growth embodies a very important concept that all too many disciplines and organizations lose sight of: whether we like it or not, we are interdependent. From the earliest days, this conference recognized that all of us are affected by the environments in which we live, work, learn, shop and play — and all of us have a role to play in shaping those environments. In a sense, New Partners for Smart Growth is a forum for people to find their role in creating environments that nurture the well being of people. As more and more people choose to participate in the forum, we are seeing a shift — a movement — occurring toward both increased collaboration between disciplines and heightened knowledge of the implications of our actions (or inactions). I fully believe this conference is making a difference."

–Al Zelinka, Principal, RBF Consulting's Urban Design Studio

About the Event

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference has grown significantly since it began several years ago — increasing in scope, attendance, and prestige — and is now considered to be the "premier" smart growth conference held each year. The strength of this conference comes from the variety of participants and speakers who cross disciplines to share experiences and insights, and valuable tools and strategies to encourage smart growth implementation and "get it done."

The 2007 conference continues this exciting trend and includes more new partners than ever. They recognize smart growth as a viable solution to the many challenges posed by growth; they may see it as a smart investment, an opportunity to spur economic development, and/or a way to improve the public health. With the challenges our nation is currently facing — at home and abroad — there are more reasons than ever to join hands with new partners and work toward our common goal of creating safe, healthy, and livable communities for all.

Los Angeles provides the perfect backdrop for this premier national smart growth event. The Southern California region offers an excellent laboratory for a close examination of both the impacts and long-term implications of sprawl, as well as some of the most innovative policies and successful case studies and projects that are addressing the significant growth and development challenges this region is facing. Participants will find a region that is reinventing itself as a place filled with opportunities to live, work and play in both urban and rural landscapes.

We expect the 2007 event to be our largest ever, surpassing the tremendous success of the recent 2006 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Denver which boasted nearly 1250 participants, over 250 speakers, and more than 80 sessions over three full days.

Who Will Benefit

The conference will draw a multidisciplinary audience of local elected officials, city and county staff, landscape architects, developers and builders, planners, transportation professionals and traffic engineers, public health professionals, architects, bankers, crime prevention professionals, realtors, urban designers, parks and recreation professionals, environmentalists, advocates for older adults and youth, bicycle and pedestrian advocates, advocates for social equity and affordable housing, labor representatives, and all others committed to building safer, healthier, and more livable communities everywhere.

The Program

The program will include a dynamic mix of plenaries, interactive breakouts, "hands-on" workshops, specialized trainings, and optional tours of local model projects. It will also feature the latest on cutting-edge smart growth issues, implementation tools and strategies, best practices, interactive learning experiences, new partners, new projects, and new policies. Most importantly, this dynamic event offers you the opportunity to network and coordinate with your peers as well as practitioners from many different disciplines with the same goal — building safe, healthy, and livable communities for all.

"Attending the NPSG conference is an important step toward becoming a leader in the emerging smart growth movement. The conference provides the peer learning opportunities and networking the movement needs. I highly recommend the conference for those interested in connecting with the best thinkers and do-ers in the smart growth field."

–Ben Starrett, Executive Director, Funders' Network for
Smart Growth and Livable Communities