Get a sneak peek at some of the session topics coming to Annual Conference!

Subject to change. Please check back often for updates.

Each year, the AWC Annual Conference offers a wide variety of sessions for elected officials and senior level staff. This year, attendees will have more than 40 concurrent sessions to choose from. Select a topic and follow it through, or round out your knowledge with a variety of sessions. We have specialized breakouts for mayors, new elected officials, clerks, and city managers.

Our sessions focus on topics as diverse as our cities: legal requirements, roles and responsibilities, and ethics; budgeting and financial management; infrastructure, transportation, and land use; building safe, healthy, and thriving communities; and effective local leadership.

Check out these sample tracks!

Executive mayors

• Pre-conference session: Mayor as CEO
• Developing positive police department culture
• Maximizing AI at city hall
• How the chair and the clerk can get things done
• Disaster preparedness and leading through a natural disaster

Small cities

• Small cities roundtable
• Exploring the needs of small, rural communities
• Finding and managing outside funding with limited staff resources
• Ask MRSC
• Cybersecurity threats and resources

Essentials for new and returning elected officials

• Pre-conference session: Short Course on Local Planning
• All things open meetings
• Ask MRSC
• How the chair and the clerk can get things done
• Jurassic Parliament: Using motions to get out of a pickle

Hot topics

• AI for beginners and maximizing AI at city hall
• Preparing for the 2025 FIFA World Cup
• Updates from the other Washington
• Social media and First Amendment rights
• Leveling up your communications kills

Budgeting and financial management

• Tax increment financing—who is doing it and how it works
• Exploring revenues and revenue options
• Wrestling with tight budgets and considerations for budget cuts and revenues
• Funding models for fire service

Planning for your community’s future

• Pre-conference session: Short Course on Local Planning
• Adopting comprehensive plans and managing growth
• Mobile tour: Planning for economic development and growth—Economic development in Kennewick’s Southridge and Ridgeline areas
• Navigating issues related to homelessness
• Downtown revitalization strategies and creating a sense of place

Infrastructure investments

• Mobile tour: Kennewick wastewater treatment plant
• Infrastructure funding opportunities and challenges
• Strategic planning for infrastructure
• Cybersecurity threats and resources
• Protecting your critical communications infrastructure

Working with partners and engaging the public

• Pre-conference session: Collaborative leadership
• Cities 101 for the community
• Engaging young leaders: Youth councils and other programs
• Community partners in addressing food insecurity
• Advocacy boot camp

Public safety

• Developing positive police department culture
• Strategies for countering gang crime
• What’s new at the Criminal Justice Training Commission
• Mobile tour: Criminal Justice Training Commission’s regional training center in Pasco
• Cybersecurity threats and resources
• Protecting your critical communications infrastructure

Registration is open for pre-conference sessions and mobile tours!
Choose from a variety of pre-conference offerings before the main event even kicks off. Registration is required for pre-conference sessions. Pre-conference sessions are included in the full Annual Conference registration fee—there is no additional cost to participate. (Please note that there is a cancellation/no-show fee of $25 for pre-conference sessions.)

• Collaborative leadership training: Join our partners from the Ruckelshaus Center to learn how to embrace differing viewpoints and build consensus to solve real-world challenges. Learn more!
• Short Course on Local Planning: This foundational training from our partners at the state Department of Commerce provides a practical overview of land use planning in Washington state. Learn more!
• Mayor as CEO: Mastering your role as the city's executive: Designed exclusively for mayors in mayor-council governments, this session will equip you to better navigate your role as the city's executive. Learn more!
• Hanford Site mobile tour:Come explore the U.S. Department of Energy’s 580-square-mile Hanford Site, which was the primary producer of plutonium for national defense for over 40 years. Learn more!
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) mobile tour: Get an overview of PNNL—its history, mission, and impact—and tour the Grid Storage Launchpad and Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center. Learn more!

Roundtables sessions for:

• Mayors in mayor-council cities
• Mayors in council-manager cities
• Mayors pro tem/Deputy mayors/Council presidents
• New and newer councilmembers (joined council since fall 2023)
• Councilmembers
• City managers
• Clerks, department heads, and other city staff