Thank You for Attending the 2026 GPA Fall Conference on September 23 – 25 at the Marriott Augusta at the Convention Center
Thank You for a Successful 2026 GPA Fall Conference!
What a great few days in beautiful Augusta! The Georgia Planning Association extends a heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us for the 2026 Fall Conference, Masters of Transition: Driving Sustainable Growth.
We welcomed 238 attendees from across Georgia and beyond for three days of learning, networking, and exploring Augusta. Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson kicked off our dinner program with a warm welcome, and Masters swag for a few lucky attendees, including our first registrant, a recent retiree recognized for his commitment to planning, and an attendee who traveled from Germany!
Our keynote speakers from the American Planning Association, Petra Hurtado, PhD, and Ben Hitchings, FAICP, CZO, shared insights from the 2026 APA Trends Report and practical tools for strengthening community readiness and resilience.
Congratulations to our 2026 GPA Award winners! Thank you for the outstanding work you do to strengthen communities and advance planning throughout Georgia.
Attendees also explored Augusta through five mobile workshops, including the sold-out Augusta Canal Heritage Boat Tour. The Emerging Planners Group, Claire Breeden and Elana Oertel, capped off Thursday with a fantastic Happy Hour at Sole Augusta.
A special thank you to District 6 Director and Host Committee Chair Carla Delaney for helping make Augusta a wonderful host city, and to GPA President Allison Stewart-Harris for her leadership and commitment to GPA.
Thank you to our attendees, speakers, sponsors, volunteers, partners, GPA leadership, and everyone behind the scenes who made this conference a success. We hope you left Augusta inspired, connected, and ready for the work ahead.
See you at the 2027 GPA Spring Conference! Stay tuned as we finalize our next conference location.
Kyethea Clark, AICP
VP/Programs
Conference Feedback
The GPA Conference is over and while it is fresh in your mind, please complete session evaluations for the sessions you attended as well as the Overall Conference survey. This feedback helps GPA in planning for the future Spring and Fall conferences.
Find the session evaluations and overall conference survey within the GPA conference app.
Presentations
The 2026 Fall Conference presentations are available here for your viewing.
- A Tale of Two Small Area Plans
- Building Housing Better: Intersecting Programming, Zoning, and Comprehensive Planning
- Building the Digital Backbone: Data Centers, Infrastructure & Policy
- Charting a Path for Atlanta’s Rail Hub
- Climate Pollution Reduction Planning in Georgia – Forests, Landfills, Data Centers & More!
- Community Centered Design and Engagement
- Connecting Our Public & Private Realms: Strategies for Transportation & Land Use Alignment
- Data Center Trends Across Georgia & Community Considerations
- Energy Ready: Energy in Georgia Communities and Preparing for What’s Next
- Ethics of Engagement in the NIMBY Era – What’s Our Role?
- Fixing the Flashy Flint: An Integrated Approach
- From Technical Assistance Panel to Community Action: How Tybee
- Island Leveraged ULI Expertise to Shape the Future of Memorial Park
- GDOT Context Classification of State Routes and GDOT Rural Active Transportation Plan
- Growing with Nature: Agrihoods, Conservation Villages
- Housing is Economic Development: Why Communities Can’t Recruit Jobs Without Homes
- Housing That Fits: Using Planning and Design to Create Context-Sensitive Communities
- Innovative Approaches to Community-Led Implementation in Sustainable Local Food Systems Planning
- Inside the 2026 ARC RDP and What It Means for Communities
- Internships Don’t Make a Cruel Summer
- Introducing Meta-Analysis: A Potential Tool for Advancing Transit Studies
- Keynote Address: A Planners Playbook for Managing the Future
- Mentorship in Practice
- Military Master Planning- Learning, Teaming and Resourcing in Ever Changing Environments
- Planning for Resilient Urban Forests – Understanding Tree Surveys, Assessments, and Preservation
- Presidential Potpourri
- Pull The Lever! Proactive Zoning Isn’t Hard, and You Should Do It Right Now
- Student Session: A Commercial Commons? Analyzing the Rise of Community-owned Commercial Property
- The Neuroscience of Great Urban Places
- Who Gets Heard? An Engagement Design Lab for Planning With Communities
- Who Serves the Planners? From Disaster to AI-Assisted Plan Review
- Whose Place Is It? A Tactile Exercise in Making and Keeping
