Trends from the APA 2015 Conference

The APA Conference in Seattle, Washington had so much going on! This is the fifth year that I, @evanscowley, along with @edgarzebulan, have analyzed the tweets from the APA National Conference (see the analysis of the 2014 conference, 2013 conference, and 2012 conference, with  @b_kubinski, and 2011 conference, with @cubitplanning). I looked at what topics have continued to trend and new emerging topics. Using the official hashtag #APA15, I collected and analyzed what planners talked about at the conference. There were over 6,400 planners in attendance at the conference between April 18th through the 21st, which is an increase of 1,500 more planning professionals from last year. More than 45 percent of conference attendees were tweeting, up 50 percent from last year.

Those in attendance were actively tweeting before, during, and even many days after the conference. There were more than 2,000 tweets in the first day of the conference alone. Between the 18th and 22nd there were 2,334 different topics surrounding the APA Conference. 

Topics of Conversation

Below are the most retweeted tweets of the conference (excluding retweets about announcing an event or session). For Twitter newbies, retweeting is like forwarding an email or message to someone who you are following and is following you. A "RT" to use the parlance of the platform, @evanscowley means that you are forwarding a Tweet from a user, in this example me. There were over 1,600 retweets this year. 

Of all these hot talked about topics , the most retweeted topic this year was a quote actually. The quote was made by Donald Shoup saying, "We’ve got it all wrong, by providing free housing for cars, and expensive housing for people." Some of the other most talked about topics at the conference on Twitter was the Tech Zone at the Conference, the diminishing number of children over the years, how the build environment has become the leading cause of death, the event's Hackathon, and environmental sustainability.

Among the local news outlets the hottest topic was not only the APA Conference itself, but also it was noted how the planners set a record for use of the bikeshare system there. @AustenAllred had the most retweeted image of the conference. This demographic shows how far children were thought to be allowed to safely walk on their own over the years. This image sparked a lot of great debating, over if the area is just that unsafe, or are people more protective of children than they were in years past.

Planners were sharing images constantly, from slides to what they have seen in Seattle, for example a popular image shared was of the city maps shown on every Seattle manhole cover.

The above five tweets were the most retweeted of the conference. 

Conference Influencers

There were clearly key influencers at the conference whose tweets were frequently retweeted. The top influencers at the conference are also influencers all year round with more than 1,000 followers on Twitter: @BrentToderian (tweeting on planning and urbanism), @urbandata (tweeting on urban data), @UrbanistOrg (tweeting on urbanism), @transportdata(tweeting on transportation), @mitchell_silver (tweeting on planning), @stateofplaceorg (tweeting on place making), @BrentToderian (urbanism), @AL_Research (tweeting about active living research), @DrUrbanPolicy (tweeting about urban policy), @ryangravel (tweeting about infrastructure and culture) @mobileplanning (tweeting about technology), and @APA_Planning(tweeting on behalf of the APA).

Resources from the Conference

Conference attendees did a great job sharing links to all kinds of content. Here are just five of the resources shared at the conference.

Making the Case for Designing Active Cities

Companies Trade Suburbs for City Life

Neighborhood Traffic Operations: Traffic Circle Program

Rebuilding Infrastructure Toolkit

A New Neighborhood Approach: Industrial Main Street

Are there any urban planning trends that surprised–either by being here or by not being here? What were the trends at the APA 2015 conference not captured by Twitter? Let me know in the comments.

My takeaway from the use of Twitter at the conference is that a significant number of people use this medium to share and engage in conversations around planning topics that resonate with them. It provided a platform to engage in social conversations that helped people meet each other both on and off line. What more could we ask for from social media in a conference? I look forward to even more participation at the 2016 conference in Phoenix.