By Carrie Machuga, AICP, McCormick Taylor

2025 was my first time presenting at the state conference, and it was a great experience. My colleague, Jillian Dierks, and I presented a session called, “Public Engagement is a Whole Different Animal: How Different Personalities Engage in Planning Processes.” It was a fairly low pressure speaking event to a very friendly audience. We used a fun, interactive audience participation activity during our session, and everyone was a good sport about joining in. I look forward to presenting again, and I would encourage others to consider submitting a session for future conferences. It was a fun way to present a topic that I am very interested in and meet other planners who work in that area or want to learn more.