Call for Proposals Now Open

Help Shape the Park People & World Urban Parks Congress: Urban Parks Shaping Our Future

Submit your proposal by 4th December 2026

As cities around the world face increasingly complex social, environmental, and climate challenges, parks have an essential role to play in shaping healthier, more connected, resilient, and thriving communities.

So we’re asking:

How can we lead, collaborate, invest, and act differently through parks to help shape the cities of the future?

We are looking for practical examples, bold ideas, innovative research, lived experiences, and inspiring stories from across the globe. We want to hear from people and places testing new approaches, challenging conventional thinking, building stronger communities, and demonstrating what is possible when parks are recognized as essential urban infrastructure.

The Congress will explore four interconnected themes:

  • Living Well: Healthy People - How parks can support people to live well and flourish, and how these benefits can be accessible to everyone.
  • Connected Communities: Belonging & Social Connection - How community and Indigenous leadership, diverse perspectives and knowledge, and inclusive approaches can create parks that better reflect and serve communities.
  • Resilient Cities: Parks as Essential Urban Infrastructure - How parks can contribute to more resilient cities while generating benefits across climate, health, mobility, biodiversity, social connection, and quality of life. 
  • A Thriving Planet: Nature & Planetary Health - Exploring biodiversity, Indigenous stewardship and relationships with the Land, ecological connectivity, restoration, water, urban forests, nature-based solutions, and the role of urban parks in supporting planetary health.

Your proposal can take many forms. Whether you want to share a proven approach, emerging idea, new research, a powerful story, or an important question our global parks community should be exploring, we want you to be part of the conversation.

Submit your proposal by December 4, 2026.

The Congress will bring together park leaders, practitioners, researchers, advocates, community voices, and changemakers from around the world to exchange knowledge, learn from one another, and imagine what comes next for urban parks.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and learning from the global parks community.

The Park People & World Urban Parks Congress 2027
is generously supported by TD Bank Group.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL