ESSENTIAL: SESSION IDEAS

The Influence of Public Gardens

This list of possible topics is curated directly from feedback from you, our members, speakers, and attendees, and is designed to inspire and guide you as you develop session submissions that explore how public gardens unlock their collective influence. Sessions are not limited to the following list. These ideas are intended to jumpstart your planning process, not box it in. 

These are sample topics for the Influence in Action track, though many could also fit under another track. See the full Track Guide for details.

Sessions exploring how gardens create measurable public, civic, and economic value and how to make that case to funders, boards, and communities.

Owning Stewardship: Public Gardens as Core Civic Infrastructure
Explore what it means for a garden to function as trusted civic infrastructure rather than “just” a green space and how that reframing changes funding, partnerships, and programming. 

The Economics of Being Essential: Gardens as Regional Anchors
Case studies on how public gardens drive tourism, local spending, and regional economic vitality and how to quantify and communicate that impact. 

Capital Campaigns: Start to Finish
Lessons from gardens that have run a capital campaign end to end; from case-for-support to groundbreaking to donor stewardship long after the ribbon-cutting. 

The Soft Power: How Gardens Build Influence Without Saying So
Discuss how gardens use beauty, hospitality, and shared space to build trust and influence that more overtly “advocacy”driven institutions often can’t. 

Sessions on building gardens that reflect, welcome, and are shaped by the communities around them.

Why Public Gardens Matter: Trust in a Distrustful World
Explore how gardens can leverage their position as trusted, place-based institutions to communicate credible information and bring people together around complex issues like climate and science. 

From Visitor to Participant: Designing for Deeper Engagement
How can gardens move beyond the traditional visit to create real opportunities for people to contribute, collaborate, and shape the institution? 

Authentic Collaboration: Partnering With Indigenous Communities
Discuss what meaningful, reciprocal partnership looks like around native plants, land stewardship, and interpretation, beyond a single land acknowledgment. 

Gardens and Well-Being: Supporting Physical, Mental, and Social Health
How are gardens intentionally designing programs and spaces around visitor and community well-being and measuring whether it’s working? 

Sessions on building the pipeline of people, students, career-changers, and staff, who will carry the field forward.

K–12 to Career: Building the Pipeline With Schools
How public gardens can partner with schools and districts on structured pathway programs, from early exposure through paid internships. 

Making Horticulture Visible: Reaching Gen Z
Leveraging social media and peer-driven storytelling, like young-professional testimonials, to reposition horticulture as a modern, viable career choice. 

When the Garden Is the Classroom: Becoming an Indispensable Education Partner
Explore how gardens become essential partners to schools, colleges, and lifelong learners by connecting living collections to science, culture, and career exploration. 

Diversifying the Workforce: Widening the On-Ramp
Outreach strategies for reaching underrepresented communities, first-generation college students, and career-changers looking to enter horticulture. Sessions showcasing how your garden is innovating your internal operations, professional development, and human resource management through technology and forward-thinking strategies.

Sessions that look forward — measuring impact, rethinking what success means, and preparing the sector for what’s next.

Measuring What Matters: Proving the Public Value of Public Gardens
Attendance and membership tell only part of the story. Share frameworks for turning outcomes like well-being, conservation, and economic contribution into evidence for funders and boards. 

Futurism Is Now: The 20-Year View of AI in Public Gardens
What’s the long view of how AI and related technology will transform the day-to-day work of public gardens and what should we be doing about it today? 

Start From Scratch: What Would You Build If You Started a Public Garden Today?
A deliberately provocative look at the future of the sector — governance, collections, programming, and revenue, reimagined from the ground up. 

Where the Money’s Headed: Philanthropy, Government, and Corporate Support
How will funding sources shift over the next 20 years, and what should public gardens do now to thrive in that future state? 

Have an idea? We want to hear it!

These session ideas are a starting point — the strongest sessions still come from your own work and perspective.