Placemaking Week is a global gathering of public space professionals and advocates that emphasizes hands-on learning and innovative social events, while leaving behind a placemaking legacy in host cities.
This conference will take place over three days and consists of plenaries, breakout sessions, on-site and off-site workshops, networking receptions, and more.
Embracing a wide variety of sectors and disciplines, the event creates a dynamic forum for attendees to develop and share concrete strategies to advance placemaking both locally and globally. The International Placemaking Week conference has proven to be a vital platform to build connections and share ideas across borders, to provoke local debate and action on public space, and to experience the host city’s places, issues, and initiatives firsthand.
The next International Placemaking Week will be in Detroit, Michigan, USA, from June 24-26, 2026!
The majority of the event, including plenaries and most breakout programming, will take place in venues around Downtown Detroit, and mobile workshops will be organized to take place across the city. We will share more information about specific venues on our website later in 2025.
Don’t miss out on important announcements! We will continue to update www.placemakingweek.org, including this FAQ page, with all conference news as soon as they’re available, including call for proposals, registration, program content, speakers, hotels and travel, events, and more.
Make sure to sign up for Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking Roundup newsletter to receive the latest right in your inbox!
Next Up: Stay tuned for our call for proposals in October 2025, early registration opening in February 2026, and more to get excited about with the conference and our host city!
Support of Placemaking Week aligns your organization with a globally recognized movement for community-driven public spaces while connecting you to tens of thousands of public space leaders worldwide. Your support directly funds scholarships, helps us showcase innovative public spaces, and connects an international audience for deeper collaboration.
Our sponsorship package will be available in September 2025. In the meantime, for questions about sponsorship, please email Jacob Cohen at jcohen@pps.org.
A call for proposals for Placemaking Week breakout sessions will open in October 2025, and we will notify applicants of their status in January/February 2026. Acceptance will be based on completeness and quality of the application, the presenter’s expertise, contributions to the field of placemaking, and the proposal’s demonstrated focus on equity. Selected speakers will also receive a discounted registration rate.
For questions about proposals, please contact us at info@placemakingweek.org.
To learn more about Placemaking Week—its programming, activities, and impact—check out the conference report from our most recent event in Baltimore, Maryland, which includes a highlight video and photo gallery that will give you a sense of what to expect. You can also see the reports from our conferences in 2019, 2017, and 2016.
We look forward to sharing program details in the coming months!
To get a sense of what to expect in the 2026 program, please take a look at the program from our 2024 event in Baltimore, where you can see a range of tours, mobile workshops, breakout sessions, plenary sessions, and speakers. Check back for more!
More details will be shared in late 2025, in advance of early registration opening in February 2026.
Registration will include access to all conference activities, including plenary and breakout sessions, a mobile workshop of your choice, coffee breaks, and evening events, some of which will include a drink and small bites. There may be opportunities to sign up for offsite activities as well, such as tours.
To get a sense of the Placemaking Week experience, check out the conference report from our most recent event in Baltimore, Maryland, complete with highlight videos and photo galleries.
We will open a pay-what-you-can scholarship application in February 2026 during early registration. If your application is successful, the awarded scholarship amount applies directly to the cost of registration fees only. Scholarships do not cover travel, accommodation, or other expenses.
We will share hotel and travel information on our website in late Fall 2025 on a dedicated Travel & Venues page. We will offer a limited number of rooms in one or more hotel blocks.
We will also share information about Placemaking Week’s various venues and other useful information, such as restaurant guides and transit links to help you plan your stay.
The placemaking movement is vast and growing worldwide! Between our International Placemaking Week conferences, please visit our partners at PlacemakingX, which curates and supports many regional placemaking networks and events around the world. These networks grew out of earlier efforts by Project for Public Spaces and our partners to convene placemaking leaders around the world.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, Project for Public Spaces has spent the past five decades bringing some of the most successful public places in the world to life. Today, it remains committed to putting community participation at the center of everything it does, from placemaking partnerships with corporations and foundations to workshops, trainings, conferences, on-the-ground design and planning services, and more. The interdisciplinary team has helped over 3,500 communities in 52 countries create inclusive places that change society for the better. Project for Public Spaces is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
