Registration is open! Hundreds of placemaking leaders from around the world will gather in Toronto from June 8-11, 2025 to take part in the Global Placemaking Summit. The Summit is a unique opportunity to learn from, support, and shape the global placemaking movement. The Summit will be hosted by leaders and an amazing local team of Toronto Placemaking leaders and organizations working in collaboration with Placemaking Canada and PlacemakingX.
The summit will be a four-day, participatory event hosted in venues across the city in collaboration with local partners. The event will begin on June 8, followed by co-creative roundtables on Monday, June 9, where global placemaking agendas will be shaped. On Tuesday, June 10, high-level panels will be live-streamed and recorded at the World Urban Pavilion. The final day, June 11, will focus on learning from and supporting Placemaking Canada initiatives.
This event will celebrate, support, and shape the evolution of placemaking learning, leadership, advocacy and action. We will work to support and connect the 30+ national and regional placemaking networks and build on the placemaking agenda development from the first Placemaking Summit that occurred in Mexico City in November 2023, thanks to Fundación Placemaking México.
The dynamic program, to be heavily shaped by those who register early and their interests, will be released in the coming weeks. There are limited tickets available at these rates, and early registrants will have the opportunity to help shape the program.
Summit Goals:
- Convene the leaders of the global placemaking movement, including strong representation from most of our 30+ PlacemakingX national and regional networks.
- Set the course for the next 5 years of the global placemaking movement.
- Develop the key placemaking agendas and programs to advance the movement toward broader impact and deeper systemic change.
- Support Placemaking Canada to grow its community, capacity and impact.
- Highlight, connect, learn from, and grow Toronto’s public space leadership. Build broader collaboration, conviviality and leadership for placemaking in Toronto.
The 2nd Global Placemaking Summit will be building from and celebrating:
- 50 years since Project for Public Spaces was founded by Fred Kent to put the work of his mentors William H. Whyte and Jane Jacobs into practice.
- 25 years since the principles of placemaking PPS developed were published in the book How To Turn A Place Around.
- 20 Years of supporting Placemaking as an international movement.
- 15 Years of collaboration with UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) to advance public space and placemaking globally.
- 10 years since Placemaking Canada was founded in Montreal through a broad convening and report organized with the McConnell Foundation(9 years since the first Placemaking Week was organized in Vancouver with Placemaking Canada).
- 5 years since PlacemakingX’s global launch at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi.
Spacing is a media sponsor of the 2025 Global Placemaking Summit
