This note likely finds many of you back-in-office after a momentous conference experience in Seattle. Jon Scholes and his team at the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) were gracious hosts, and the city of Seattle dazzled us all week. Many thanks to DSA and partner agencies from across the Seattle metro, plus our awesome IDA team for constructing a conference worthy of this organization’s 70th anniversary celebration. In addition to folks who juggled logistics and planning this conference for 1,400+ visiting city builders, the hundreds of experts who contributed their subject matter expertise to the event also deserve our thanks. Sharing knowledge and transferable experiences is core to the purpose of IDA, and sharing your successes and lessons learned is essential to the success of these events.
Among the key themes that resonated in Seattle was IDA members’ gratitude for one another as inspiration, colleagues and friends. I recall attending my first IDA conference two decades ago, feeling unsure whether I belonged, and starstruck to be in the same room with city leaders whom I now consider peers. Those individuals, and hundreds more I have since met, still inspire me today. Our Annual Conferences have become awash with inspiration – whether via a personal story of creativity or perseverance or an award winner who illuminates our personal lightbulbs about an innovative way to do something spectacular back home.
With its fascinating, dynamic and driven professionals, this industry reminds me that cities are shaped by people like us – individuals privileged to make a tangible impact in their communities. And jampacked with inspirational people, IDA events become a laboratory for city-building ingenuity. With a little more than a year until the 2025 Annual Conference & Marketplace, we can apply what we learned in Seattle and prepare to make Washington, DC another unforgettable and invaluable experience.