The American Dream Coalition is holding its 8th annual conference in Orlando, Florida this year on September 23rd through September 25th. This is the nation’s only conference dedicated to free-market approaches to land use and transportation policy. It’s also the only conference that really reaches out to the grass roots. (Full disclosure: I have attended seven of these conferences and speak regularly on panels and in sessions.)
Florida is a particularly relevant place for this conference because Florida’s antisprawl statewide growth management law has been in effect for over twenty years, and an initiative is on the statewide ballot to require all local plan changes to go to popular vote. All activists and policy analysts will benefit from the discussions and networking that occurs at this conference where leading free market thinkers like Wendell Cox, Randal O’Toole and Tom Rubin interact continually with those working on the ground for real change in state legislatures and in local city council.
This year’s conference has added two really interesting features: A stakeholders session and an elected officials caucus. Both sessions are focused on helping conservative and free-market grass roots activists and officials form practical strategies for implementing free market reforms on the state and local level. Tea Partiers will find these sessions very useful because it provides a lot of policy content to support their efforts.
Here’s this year’s agenda:
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tour of Orlando Smart Growth, land use and transportation projects, including the New Urbanist town of Celebration and the innovative Crosstown Expressway. (This is a classic don’t miss event.)
4:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Registration & Reception
7:00 pm — 9:00 pm: Welcoming Remarks — The Honorable Chris Dorworth, Florida State House of Representatives followed by The Great Debate — How Should Our Cities Grow? Amendment 4 & the Future of Florida
Friday, September 24, 2010
8:00 am — 10:15 am: First Plenary Session — Tomorrow’s Transportation: Personal Mobility & the Road to Prosperity
10:30 am — 12:00 pm: Mobility Workshops on Transit Transparency & Funding, Mobility & the Environment, and Cost-effective Transportation Strategies
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm: Lunch & Keynote Address
1:30 pm — 3:30 pm: Second Plenary Session — Freedom & Homeownership in the Balance: Federal Plans to Regulate Away Your Choices
3:45 pm — 4:15 pm: Land-Use Workshops on Property Rights & Private Enterprise, Suburbia, Smart Growth & Sustainable Development
5:00 pm — 6:45 pm: Special Meetings Stakeholders’ Roundtable — Elected Officials Caucus — Transparency in Transit
7:00 pm — 9:00 pm: Dinner & Keynote Speaker
Saturday, September 25, 2010
8:00 am — 10:15 am: Third Plenary Session — Framing the Debate & Defining Victory
10:30 am — 11:45 am: Fourth Plenary Session — Fighting for Freedom at the Local Level