How to Convince Your Boss to Send You to the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference

So you want to attend the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference (RVP). It sounds awesome, right? Three days of networking, learning relevant skills, and seeing real-life examples of neighborhood revitalization up close. But your boss needs some convincing. After all, you’ll have to be away from your day job and spend money on travel and conference registration—it can be a tough sell for a manager! 

We’re here to help you make the case. 

Collect the Facts 

Whether you’re scheduling a meeting or writing a formal email request, you’ll need to be prepared with your five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.  

Who: RVP is put on by the Center for Community Progress. We are the only national nonprofit providing urban, suburban, and rural communities battling systemic vacancy with the policies, tools, and resources needed to address the full cycle of property revitalization. We’ve delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. Put simply, our goal is to set local leaders up for success to turn vacant spaces into vibrant places. 

What: The Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference has been around since 2007, bringing together about 1,000 attendees in cities across the country every two years. It is the only national community development conference dedicated specifically to reusing “blighted” properties—what we call vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties.  

When: October 9-11, 2024. There is an optional service project (a creative placemaking installation on a vacant lot) happening in the morning. Opening remarks begin at 1pm CT, followed by breakout sessions and mobile workshops. The conference ends at 12pm CT on October 11. See the agenda. Tickets are $800 for public sector, and $875 for private sector. (Register by August 1 and save $175!) 

Where: Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch. A limited number of hotel rooms are available at a special conference rate of $185/night (plus taxes and fees). The room rate ends on September 16, 2024 or when the room block sells out. 

But probably the biggest question you’ll need to answer is… 

Why Do You Need to Attend RVP? 

1. You’ll learn about new laws and issues affecting vacant property.   

Your community is facing different challenges in 2024 than it was in 2007, and even in 2022. The sessions at RVP reflect that! Our conference agenda covers timely, pressing topics. We have sessions on how recent Supreme Court decisions could change the tools your state uses to tackle vacancy; leveraging VAD property to address the housing affordability crisis; using vacant land to mitigate the effects of extreme weather; and much, much more.   

2. You can create a curriculum around exactly what matters to your community.   

Attending RVP will help you better serve your constituents, no matter your role. You could build a schedule of sessions about vacant land reuse, or arts and innovation, or land banking. We even have a “lawyer track” in 2024 to let you focus on legal tools related to code enforcement and tax foreclosure, and eminent domain. No matter your focus area, you’ll find something among the 34 sessions and 11 mobile workshops tailored to the specific issues that affect your neighbors and neighborhoods. 

3. You’ll get ideas for new things to try.  

RVP is geared towards helping you think outside the box by learning from the successes (and struggles) of your peers. When you attend RVP, you can ask what it took a similar city to get a program off the ground and learn how much projects cost—which can help save your community time and resources in trial-and-error. You’ll also see neighborhood revitalization in progress on our mobile tours of St. Louis; new data visualization approaches in our trainings; and more effective ways to use familiar tools like tax enforcement in our breakout sessions.  

4. You’ll connect with your people: peers, civic decision-makers, vendors, or prospective clients.  

At RVP you can test-drive a data or mapping tool from one of the exhibitors; meet planners, consultants, and technical assistance providers; and build a relationship with someone who does your same job in a different city. With 1,000 attendees representing local governments, academia, law, planning, vendors, and more, RVP is one of the only opportunities community leaders like you get to build a network across the country.  

5. You’ll be inspired to keep up the fight against vacant, abandoned properties—because progress is possible.  

If you’re feeling understaffed, under-resourced, and over-stretched, RVP is a moment to catch your breath. Tackling vacant and abandoned properties is hard, slow-moving work, and the results can take years to see. RVP isn’t just a professional convention. It’s a reminder that revitalization can and will happen because of your hard work. Community revitalization takes perseverance, and RVP provides the inspiration to fuel you to keep going. 

Make the Ask 

Asking your boss or organization to invest in your professional development can be challenging—especially when community funds are tight and you want to be smart steward of your community’s budget. But it’s important to remember that learning from best practices and seeing examples of revitalization in action will help you more efficiently and effectively serve your neighbors and neighborhoods. 

Ready to register? We can’t wait to see you!