Over 300 planners attended the conference in Erie, PA in October. We ask two planners—one newer planner and one certified planner—to share their experiences attending the conference. Here’s what they had to say.

“As a newer transportation planner, I look forward to attending the APA-PA conference every year. While I enjoyed all of the conference sessions, two sessions were particularly helpful in my professional development. The panel in the session “So… You Want to be a Planner” was incredibly lively and encouraged me to get excited about planning, as well as helping me better understand other fields of planning beyond transportation. I also found the session “AICP: Is This Certification for You?” to be very informative. The session taught me how the AICP certification could help with my professional growth and also provided insight into what to expect from the AICP exam. I appreciated the chance to network with other planners, attend a variety of workshops, and learn about successful projects happening in other parts of the state. Overall, the conference gave me a variety of tools that I can directly apply to my work moving forward.”

—Jonathan Shaw, Transportation Planning Manager, NEPA Alliance

“The Annual PA Chapter conference is a great opportunity to carve out time with colleagues to learn from one another and push our practice to the next level. This year’s conference was no exception. This year’s keynote speaker, Phil Myrick, shared poignant insights related to the hardscape and softscape of planning in the built environment — encouraging thoughtful, ecological, and inviting design which is so critical to activating public spaces and downtowns. We had the opportunity to meet with key leadership in DCED and hear the latest housing policy initiatives and priorities from the Shapiro Administration. Our team was proud to sponsor the APA PA conference and always looks forward to the rich content and valuable time with our Pennsylvania planning colleagues.”

—Amy Murdock, AICP, Senior Director of Planning, Altair Real Estate Services