World Town Planning Day

2025 World Town Planning Day Online Conference

November 7, 2025 | With Planning We Can!

The American Planning Association and its International Division, along with our partners at the Canadian Institute of Planners, invite planners and related professionals to join us for the 76th Annual World Town Planning Day online conference on Friday, November 7 .

This year's theme is With Planning We Can! and we are celebrating how good planning empowers communities and provides pathways to prosperity for all. We are shining a spotlight on the contributions of planning, showcasing projects and initiatives that have led to positive impacts for our cities and communities across the globe. From delivering the right homes and in the right locations, linking services and infrastructure planning to the places where we live, work and play, to working with nature to address urban heat or manage water challenges, and working with multiple stakeholders to bring collective solutions for better outcomes for all. We want success stories: reports of innovations, breakthroughs, promising new ideas, but also lessons from planning programs that fell short. When possible, we should show planning as the tool which makes the ideas of elected officials, or the work of other professions become reality.

The call for session proposals is now open!

Review the 5 track focus areas and submit your session proposal by Friday, October 10, 2025.

Propose a Session

About World Town Planning Day

Note: APA's 2025 World Town Planning Day Online Conferece will take place a day early on Friday, Novemember 7th.

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.