World Town Planning Day

2026 World Town Planning Day Online Conference

November 6, 2026 | Navigating Change to Shape Better Futures

8:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m. CT

CM | Multi

Planning is most powerful when it is done together. By working together, planners, and communities, can co-create places that are not only well-designed, but equitable, resilient, and life-enhancing for all.

The American Planning Association and its International Division, along with our Global Planners Network partners at the Canadian Institute of Planners, announce the 77th World Town Planning Day online conference to be held all day November 6, 2026 from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Chicago time. Registration for the event is free.

In a world facing interconnected social, environmental, and economic challenges, planners have a critical role in facilitating inclusion and partnerships to address major change (social, environmental, technological, demographic, security threats) and in enabling inclusive processes that lead to tangible, positive outcomes

Building on the 2025 focus on participatory planning, the November 6th event will showcase planning practices of collaboration, co-design, and shared ownership between planners all the built and natural environment professions and communities with a focus on outcomes that address inequities, improve the quality of life, and achieve outcomes and measurable impacts on achieving the 2016 New Urban Agenda and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Keynote Speaker: Shubhagato Dasgupta

Shubhagato Dasgupta is the Chief of Planning and Finance at the UN Habitat Global Solutions Division. With nearly 30 years of international experience across the public, private, multilateral, academic, and non-governmental sectors, he has led transformative initiatives in urban planning, housing, municipal finance, and sustainable urban development across South Asia, East Asia, and Africa.

Registration is now Open

2026 World Town Planning Day Program

Friday, November 6, 2026

Central Time (CT) U.S./Chicago

8:00 AM (CT) Welcome and Overview

Sandra Pinel, PhD, AICP – APA International Division

Sue Schwartz, FAICP – President, American Planning Association

Leslie Cabott, RPP, FCIP – President, Canadian Institute of Planners

8:15 AM (CT) Keynote: Planning to Achieve the New Urban Agenda

Shubahagato Dasgupta – Chief of Planning and Finance, UN Habitat Global Solutions Division

8:45 AM (CT) Revising Development Control Regulations through Earth Observation: Addressing Peri-Urban Flood Vulnerability in Panvel, Maharashtra, India

Amruta Khairnar, Priya Mendiratta, Sumar Kuman

9:30 AM (CT) Humanizing the Hills: Inclusive and Resilient Himalayan Cities

Dr Mahreen Matto, Ramesh Negi, Krishna Shrivastava

10:30 AM (CT) Better Homes, Living Heritage: Regenerating Drinchengang Village, Bhutan

Richard Streitz, Phub Rinzin, Tashi Norbu

Revitalizing Jepara’s Global Identity as the Carving City of the World: Digital Collaborative Citizenship through JIFBW (Fast and Fun Session)

Nur Ahmad Budi Yulianto

11:30 AM (CT) Data and Digital Planning (Fast and Fun Sessions)

'Charli’ – AI Assistant for Bogotá’s Occidental Savannah Region’s Inclusive Strategic Plan

Michelle L. Oren

Can Technology Make Cities Safer? Lessons from Pakistan

Irum Abassi

Beyond Connectivity: TPAY as a Bridge to an Inclusive Digital Economy in Timor-Leste

Sesaltina Jannet da Rosa Maia

AI Lives Somewhere: Governing the Local Footprint of the Global AI Boom

Brian Christian

Planning for a Just Nickel Transition: Community Resilience in Indonesia’s Critical Mineral Frontiers

Muhammad Obie

12:30 PM (CT) Break for Lunch

1:00 PM (CT) Hand in Hand: Building Indigenous Housing Together

Emily Johnson, Bronwyn McLean

2:00 PM (CT) From “City Building” to Place Value: Reforming Planning Education for Ukraine’s Democratic Reconstruction

Gala Korniyenko, Oleksandra Pantiukhina, Nathan Hudson

From Planning to Resilient Infrastructure: Connecting Project Risk, Lifecycle Value, and Community Outcomes (Fast and Fun Session)

Casey La France

3:00 PM (CT) Well-being, Climate, and Resilience (Fast and Fun Sessions)

Casey La France, Emmanuel Mishiame, Seher Erbey Aksoy, Amanda Padilla, Erwin Nugraha, Isaac Baah

4:00 PM (CT) Centering Resilience on Community

Charles Kelley, Roberto Morris, Tijana Tufek-Memisevic

5:00 PM (CT) From Vision to Visualization: Pride of Hayti Commons and Emergent Tools in Equity Planning

Maritzelena Chirinos, Cayden Hercules, Maiya Washington

5:45 PM (CT) Synthesis and Conclusion

Bruce Stiftel, FAICP, APA International Division, Canadian Institute of Planners

About World Town Planning Day

Note: APA's 2026 World Town Planning Day Online Conferece will take place two days early on Friday, Novemember 6th.

On World Town Planning Day, 8 November every year, planners and communities all over the world come together to celebrate how good planning improves the lives of people and benefits society at large, creating places where to live, work, and play together.

Argentinian professor Carlos María della Paolera, a graduate at the Institut d'urbanisme in Paris, started World Town Planning Day in Buenos Aires in 1949.

World Town Planning Day is celebrated in 30 countries on four continents each November. It is a special day to recognize and promote the role of planners and planning in creating healthy, prosperous communities.

APA members are invited to share their knowledge and leading practices with colleagues around the world on this day, and also to learn from international success stories in housing for all; building city resilience; planning responses to urban crisis; inclusive and ambitious climate measures, and other areas that would enhance U.S. planning practice.