Development & Design
Leadership Program

Each participant is required to attend and actively participate in all sessions, although a participant can still graduate with the class if no more than one virtual meeting is missed for a good reason.  Each participant is also responsible for submitting a critique for each presentation at the first gathering.  The class as a whole is responsible for giving a presentation or presentations at the final gathering that identify specific ways to overcome the hurdles that make it difficult to build cities with NU principles.

It will be held over the course of one year that starts at the annual Guild Summit, and concludes at the following annual Summit.  The Summit is held in late October or early November.

It will consist of 12 gatherings, three of which will be in person--- two at the Guild Summit, and one at a partner event such as the Strong Towns National Gathering/CNU Congress.  The remaining gatherings will be single-day virtual meetings that occur once each month (except December).

While the size of each class might fluctuate from year to year, the intent is for it to range from 12 to 15 people who represent a wide range of professions that impact the built environment such as engineers, developers, urban designers, architects, public officials, community leaders, planners and landscape architects.

Each gathering will have a thematic focus.  Set out below is the initial summary of the scheduled focus areas for each gathering.  These topics are intentionally broad and will cover a host of subtopics that are not listed such as suburban retrofit development, retail, affordable housing, sustainable development, tactical urbanism, public engagement, etc.