About | Greater & Greener

The Premiere International Urban Parks Conference

For more than a decade, Greater & Greener has been the leading international conference for urban park leaders, city planning and design professionals, public officials, advocates, funders, and innovators to explore the role of parks and recreation in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing 21st-century cities. The highly curated sessions, workshops, and tours facilitate an honest dialogue around solutions, cross-sector and peer-to-peer networking, and tools for building successful park partnerships.

Greater & Greener explores how urban parks can be designed, developed, programmed, funded, and sustained to meet increasing city demands. By expanding the discussion to new audiences and emphasizing the relevance of urban parks to engage leaders from across sectors, Greater & Greener aims to inspire reimagining of parks in a broad new context of economic, environmental, and social opportunities.

Our Host City: Philadelphia, PA

Birthplace of America and a city of firsts, Philadelphia embodies founder William Penn’s vision for a “green country town.” Its 10,200 acres of parkland include seven large watershed parks and more than 300 neighborhood parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers, public spaces that have played central roles in its development and resurgence in more recent times. Join more than 1,000 park leaders from around the world as we explore the future of Philadelphia’s parks – driven by a 21 century vision grounded in equity, access, and sustainability – and the creative ways the city is evolving to meet the needs of its diverse communities.

2021 Conference Tracks

Addressing the Emerging Issues of Today’s Park and City-Building Professionals

Greater & Greener conference tracks have been carefully curated to foster an honest dialogue around social equity, cross-agency and cross-sector partnerships, funding models, and repeatable solutions for parks. Sessions are developed with input from all sectors of the park community: City Parks Alliance members, parks and recreation agency leaders, other government agencies, designers, researchers, advocates, and other leaders in the park and city-building fields.

Resilient Cities

The future of our communities depends on our capacity to respond and recover from disasters of various types and the underlying inequities of everyday life. To build a resilient future for all, parks and open spaces must be at the center of strategies to help cities mitigate stresses on our ecosystems, our infrastructure and economy, and our residents.

Co-Creating Civic Life

Residents, institutional leaders, and government are coming together to ensure public space systems reflect local diversity and adapt to changing community needs. Authentic and inclusive design, programming, and management for and by diverse populations has the power to showcase local cultures and to support civic participation.

Partnerships and Solidarity

Building sustainable partnerships helps urban park and recreation systems solve complex social, environmental, and economic challenges. Diverse demands and limited resources require leaders to collaborate in new ways, bringing opportunities to leverage the resources and expertise of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Safe, Healthy, Playful Communities

Parks, trails, and public spaces are central to people’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. Healthy cities and communities depend on a public realm that is connected, accessible, engaging, playful, and safe.

Equitable Economic and Community Development

Parks have the power to drive equitable economic and community development for surrounding areas. Parks can support resilience, wealth creation, and quality of life for all, but mitigating potential negative impacts of growth requires proactive planning, new policies, and a coordinated approach with other sectors.

July 15-19, 2023

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a fast-growing city that is transforming its urban waterfront into a destination for tourists and residents and yet smartly reconnecting it to its historic city center. Seattle is likewise looking to creatively tap into private spaces for public use and exploring new park funding mechanisms to guarantee maintenance and programming capital for its parks.

City Parks Alliance

City Parks Alliance is the only independent, nationwide membership organization dedicated solely to urban parks. Our mission is to engage, educate and nurture a broad-based constituency to support the creation, revitalization and sustainability of parks and green spaces.

We recognize that city parks are integral to ensuring that communities are equitable, healthy, green, and that cities are economically competitive and resilient. Join City Parks Alliance today for discounted registration rates for Greater & Greener, year-round membership benefits, and networking opportunities.

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