Cities of the Northwest Arkansas region - including Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville - will welcome more than 1500 architects, urban planners, policy experts, and real estate professionals for this annual gathering of the Congress for the New Urbanism.
CNU 34.Northwest Arkansas will be held in late Spring 2026!
“Northwest Arkansas is unlike any recent location for our annual Congress.” said Mallory Baches, CNU’s President. “We are incredibly excited to bring our flagship event to a region offering CNU an opportunity to support a connected network of individual cities and towns. We are committed to leaving a lasting impact on the evolution of this fast-growing region, one that will ensure better outcomes for the existing population as well as the thousands of people projected to call Northwest Arkansas home in the coming decades.”
“When we select a Congress location, we identify major trends and key issues within the local context that we believe our attendees and our broader membership can explore and take important lessons from.” said Margaret Gattis, Executive Director of CNU. “In Northwest Arkansas, we see a rapidly changing region that can benefit from smart applications of coordinated density and increased connectivity, as well as partners that are eager to work with us – and our attendees. It is a part of the country that is already innovating and growing in ways that we can learn from.”
The Northwest Arkansas Congress will be held in late spring 2026 and will include dozens of sessions, multiple workshops and technical assistance projects, and a variety of tours that will help attendees engage with communities across the region. CNU’s last annual event in 2024 was held in Cincinnati, OH and drew nearly 1,500 attendees, and its upcoming event in 2025 taking place in Providence, RI is expected to draw a similar attendance. The annual Congress brings an average of $3M in economic impact to its host region.
“Each year, the Congress is the chance to learn from the best urban change-agents in the country, so we are thrilled that CNU has chosen to bring that knowledge to our community,” said Ward Davis, who is serving as co-host for the Congress local host committee. “This event will be a call to action for our local planning, policy, finance, and implementation industries, to think strategically about the quality of life that we will leave for future generations here in Northwest Arkansas.” Davis is a local developer who has been designing and building using the principles of New Urbanism in the region for decades.
“Accommodating the pressures of growth while maintaining those aspects that make this region unique is a challenge that each municipality in Northwest Arkansas is facing,” said John McCurdy, Director of Community Development for the city of Rogers and local host committee co-chair. “Being able to dive into the details of that challenge firsthand with thought leaders in planning, development, and policy that are the actual authors of best practice is a rare opportunity that we can’t wait to share with our regional partners.”
The Northwest Arkansas Congress provides a unique opportunity for CNU to partner with organizations already making a significant impact in the region. ULI Northwest Arkansas, a regional chapter of the national real estate and development organization Urban Land Institute, has been showcasing that denser urbanism can work in this part of the country through partnerships and gatherings such as the annual Place Summit. CNU and ULI Northwest Arkansas intend to work together to ensure the conversations to develop innovative solutions start well before - and continue well after - the 2026 Congress. This is one of the ways the annual Congress can have a lasting impact locally.
"This partnership represents a transformative opportunity for our region,” said Wes Craiglow, the ULI NWA Executive Director. "Together, we will showcase Northwest Arkansas’s dynamic growth and innovation while addressing some of our most pressing land use challenges. By convening the expertise of ULI and CNU members multiple times, we aim to create lasting, impactful solutions that reflect the values and aspirations of our communities."
More information about CNU 34 will be available in mid-Summer 2025.