Becoming a Local Host School

Hosting Criteria for the NASPAA Annual Conference

 

One of the signature events that NASPAA offers is the fall Annual Conference on Public Service Education. This conference has steadily grown in attendance and evolved in scope since the first occurrence in 1971. Today’s conference reflects a diverse set of programmatic breakout sessions, local and national speakers responding to current public policy and public administration challenges, as well as ample networking opportunities for attendees to meet colleagues from across the United States and around the world. Typically, the conference occurs in October, Wednesday through Saturday, with special pre-conference programming on Wednesday, main conference sessions on Thursday and Friday, and local tours on Saturday.

Conference planning begins with selecting a conference site and a local host school. NASPAA is unique in that we will only hold our conference in a city that has a member school, as that school is a partner in the conference planning process. Approximately two years in advance, NASPAA invites proposals from member school to apply to host the conference. The proposals are reviewed by a Site Selection Committee who assess each application based on their geographic diversity (compared to previous years), the variety of local venues and activities, and their alignment with NASPAA mission and goals.

For upcoming Request for Proposals for Host Sites of NASPAA Annual Conferences, please contact Leigh Anne Elliott.