If you’re anything like us, a conference entirely about complete streets, public health, and placemaking is the highlight of the year! And you’re in luck - We are happy to announce that early-bird registration is now open for the Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place Conference, the premier active transportation conference in the world. Join us in Pittsburgh, PA this September 8-11 along with over 1,000 participants from all over the world including planners, architects, public health professionals, realtors, educators, advocates, and more than a few zealous nuts just like you!

For over thirty years the Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference earned a reputation as the most dynamic training and learning experience for folks interested in and advocating for more vibrant and livable communities, and this year's topics are poised to be the best yet! We are thrilled to announce that our call for proposals received an overwhelming response with over 300 submissions! While the conference review committee culls through the exciting responses, you can get a better sense of what the program may look like by checking out the 2012 Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference schedule here.

The Ideal Setting. Pittsburgh is continually lauded as one of the most livable cities in America, thanks to the city’s robust transportation system, walkability, and bikeability. Pittsburgh provides us with the ideal Placemaking laboratory full of unique cultural destinations everyone can enjoy. Stroll along the bustling street markets that make up the ‘Strip District’; enjoy a cup of joe and the shade of an elm tree in Pittsburgh’s historic Market Square; or bike along Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Heritage Trail, situated on the edges of  Monongahela, the Allegheny, and the Ohio rivers and take in the stunning views of downtown!

While at the conference, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in any of our mobile workshops and really experience what the city has to offer first hand. Our experts will guide you through Pittsburgh’s extraordinary places and present on topics including beneficial bus stop design, a mobile video workshop with Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson Jr., and a tour of Market Square with our very own Fred Kent! (And stay tuned for more!)

The conference program will be organized thematically into four major tracks: Change. How we mobilize people to change minds, policies, systems, and priorities. Connect. Planning and infrastructure needed to support and encourage walking and bicycling by people of all abilities and ages. Prosper. Economic, health, and social benefits of investing in walking, bicycling, and Place. Sustain. Broadening our audience, shifting our transportation/land use paradigm, and preserving our environment.

Read more about last year’s conference here and register now to take advantage of early bird rates! We’ll be sending you more updates in the coming months about keynote speakers and the complete schedule of events. In the meantime, you can stay up to date with the National Center for Bicycling & Walking - a resident program of PPS - by signing up for their bi-weekly Centerlines e-newsletter, or by keeping up with us on Facebook and Twitter. See you in Pittsburgh!