ICMA has long been recognized for the quality of its annual conference, which regularly attracts nearly 5,000 local government leaders, managers, staff, and stakeholders.  The 2024 conference in Pittsburgh was no exception and next year’s event in Tampa Bay promises to be once again the premier gathering for city and county managers and other professionals working in, for, and with local governments around the world.  2025 is also a great time to engage with other ICMA managed events, some of which have been offered for decades and one coming online for the first time.

Local Government Reimagined Conferences

In 2022, ICMA launched the Local Government Reimagined initiative, the association’s effort to refocus attention on innovation and future proofing for the continuous “challenge of change” that confronts cities and counties at an ever-quickening pace. Since 2023, ICMA’s spring events have been rebranded and recalibrated to provide educational programming on innovations in policies, practices, partnerships, and more.  The 2025  Local Government Reimagined Conferences will be held in Denver, (February 26-28) and Milwaukee (April 2-4) offering educational programming, peer networking, keynote presentations, and interactions with solution providers.  Themes for the upcoming events are leadership and management and building resilient communities. Best value rate for Denver ends Tuesday, January 14. Team rates are available.

National Conference on Economic Mobility and Opportunity

With support from the Gates Foundation, ICMA members are exploring policies and partnerships that are designed to help a community’s most distressed residents grow their economic mobility and opportunities. In addition to providing subgrant funding to member-led communities, ICMA and a network of partnering organizations are organizing the first National Conference on Economic Mobility and Opportunity for local government leaders and community decisionmakers.  The conference takes place in Baltimore, May 21-23, 2025.  Registration is free thanks to the generous support of the Gates Foundation.

National Brownfields Conference

Since 2003, ICMA has been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to organize the nation’s largest event focused on economic redevelopment and community revitalization. During this time frame, ICMA has trained nearly 50,000 attendees on emerging, leading, and prevailing practices for cleaning up and reusing brownfield and related properties.  Brownfields 2025 will take place in Chicago, August 5-8.  With more than 2.500 attendees and more than 100 exhibitors expected the conference will focus on traditional brownfield challenges as well as new ideas for reusing excess commercial office space, affordable housing, redevelopment for renewable energy, and much more. 

ICMA Annual Conference

Rounding out ICMA’s conference and event schedule in 2025 will be the annual conference in Tampa Bay, October 21-25, 2025, with more than 200 educational sessions, an exhibit hall of firms and organizations, keynote sessions, and peer-to-peer engagement.

With the new year comes a new slate of in-person ICMA organized conferences and events covering a wide range of topics and challenges for local government leaders, managers, staff, and stakeholders.  ICMA looks forward to seeing ICMA members and their teams at these events in 2025.