Parks & Greenspace Conference

Monday, March 24, 2025 | Atlanta Botanical Garden | 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Each year, Park Pride hosts the annual Parks & Greenspace Conference, the largest parks conference in the southeast, showcasing thought leaders from Atlanta and across the nation. Through education and inspiration, the conference focuses on best practices for companies and individuals who are united by a common desire to improve parks and strengthen communities.

2025 Conference Theme

Connecting on Common Ground

In 2024, Atlanta broke into the top 25 in the Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore, up from 52nd in 2016. This annual index compares the top 100 most populous cities and ranks their park systems based on equity, access, investment amenities and acreage. This also coincided with the City of Atlanta crossing the 500,000 population barrier for the first time ever.

These milestones force us to consider what it means to be a big city and what we should expect from amenities like our parks, trails and greenspaces. Atlanta is not only growing in numbers but also in diversity. Parks are places of (literal) common ground that give us a shared sense of community. They are places where people from diverse backgrounds, ages and incomes can play, interact or enjoy solitude in nature. Parks remind us that our differences aren’t as big as we sometimes imagine. This year’s Parks & Greenspace Conference will highlight the theme of “Connections” in various forms, and the notion that parks provide the common ground that makes our cities places to live and thrive.

Our focus areas are Cultural and Historical Connections, Nature Connections, Infrastructure Connections and Uncommon Connections.

The conference program—consisting of keynotes, panels, workshops/demonstrations, and outdoor presentations—is led by both local and national experts.

With over 500 attendees, the Parks & Greenspace Conference is a wonderful environment for networking with elected officials, community leaders, and park advocates who are driven to improve parks and strengthen communities.

Keynote Speakers

Torey Carter-Conneen serves as the Chief Executive Officer at the American Society of Landscape Architects. Prior to joining ASLA in 2020, Torey served as Chief Operating Officer of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

 

 
 
 
 
Hannah S. Palmer is a writer and artist from the Southside of Atlanta. Through essays, memoir, and public art projects, she explores how hidden histories and wildness shape our lives in the urban landscape. Her memoir Flight Path: A Search for Roots beneath the World’s Busiest Airport (2017) was included on Atlanta Magazine’s list of “essential books that explain today’s Atlanta.” Palmer’s new book, The Pool Is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim was published by LSU Press in October 2024.

 

 

Jon Jon Wesolowski is an avid urbanist, national speaker, and content creator passionate about decoding what makes spaces great. His TikTok channels have garnered over 8.6 million likes and 406k followers. After spending eight months abroad exploring cities, he continues to advocate for better urban spaces.

 

 

 

 


Who Should Attend

  • Parks & recreation professionals 
  • Government policy makers
  • Architects & landscape architects
  • Urban planners
  • Citizens who want to build or improve a neighborhood park
  • Environmental & civil engineers
  • Real estate developers
  • Environmental lawyers
  • Anyone who loves parks!

Conference Sponsors

Presenting

Cox

Community Building

Georgia Power

Venue

Atlanta Botanical Garden

Lunch Sponsor

Bezos Earth Fund

Session Sponsor

The Conservation Fund
The Trust for Public Land

Park Advocate

Chick Fil A
Greenfields
Gresham Smith
HGOR
Integrated Land Design
Kompan

Friend

Alston & Bird
Central Atlanta Progress
Dancing Goats Coffee
Lord Aeck Sargent
Thompson Hine