12/20/2024

2025 State Conference Announcement!

The APA-IL is excited to invite Illinois planners and allied professionals back to The Old Post Office in Chicago!

Conference Details
2025 APA-IL State Conference
The Old Post Office
October 8-10, 2025
#APAIL25
ilapa.org/apail25

Margaret Kerrison
Your 2025 Keynote Speaker

We are pleased to announce that storyteller Margaret Chandra Kerrison will be the 2025 Keynote Speaker. She is a Creative Lead and Writer for multiple award-winning projects around the world, including Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, National Geographic Museum of Exploration, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

She is the author of Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds (2022), Reimagined Worlds: Narrative Placemaking for People, Play, and Purpose (2024), and The Art of Immersive Storytelling: Strategies from the Gaming World (2025).

The tie between storytelling and urban planning might not be obvious - but it should be. Born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, Margaret's experience in the realm of immersive experiences will enlighten, inspire, and empower planners to get out and tell the planning story.

Margaret will not only provide attendees with a wonderful keynote that ties our worlds together. She will also have a fireside chat, and a 1.5-hour workshop. That's right - you can bring your project or problem to the workshop and apply Margaret's STORY Method to your work.

Call for Sessions & Mobile Workshops

Please consider leading a session or mobile workshop for the 2025 APA-IL State Conference. Similar to past years, the 2025 APA-IL State Conference will offer sessions in several different formats.

While any and all quality planning content is welcome, we encourage proposals that will give your attendees insight into your own planning stories. Maybe it's creative placemaking, an example of public engagement or your own personal planning story. Maybe you have a skill that you'd like to teach your fellow planners. This is a conference by planners, for planners, and it requires all your passion and creativity.

• Debates
• (NEW) Small Groups
• Facilitated Discussions
• Fast, Funny, Passionate
• Mandatory CM Sessions
• Mobile Workshops
• Speed Planning
• Technical Demonstrations 
• Topical Panel Presentations

Do you have a new, round idea that doesn't fit into a square box? Email APA-IL Executive Director, Paula Freeze. Let's talk about it!

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2025 @ 5:00 pm

Click HERE to learn more and to submit your idea!

Introducing Your 2025 Conference Chair: Phil Green, AICP

If you know Phil, he loves a good story and he also loves planning. He has been to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge three times in two different locations!

Phil is determined to make this year's conference program one to remember! Do you have a good idea or want to become a conference volunteer? Let us know! Email Phil.

Heading photo credit: The Old Post Office