We’re just two weeks away from the start of the Southern California Regional Gathering. The itinerary is set—including keynotes, live podcast recordings, roundtable discussions, a documentary screening, and much more—and we’re ready to introduce you to our featured presenters.

First, though, we’ve got to share some news that—as of this writing—is literally less than an hour old. Due to the generous sponsorship of Fieldstead and Company, we are now able to offer a huge, 75% discount on ticket prices. What this means is that tickets to attend the all-day conference on Thursday just dropped in price from $100 to $25. Tickets for both Thursday and Friday are now just $62.50.

To register, click here, then make sure to enter the code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout.

REGISTER NOW

Okay, here are our great presenters for the gathering:

Speakers

Charles Marohn

Chuck Marohn is the Founder and President of Strong Towns and the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. He is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a land use planner with two decades of experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota. He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He is featured in the documentary film Owned: A Tale of Two Americans, and was named one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen. [FULL BIO]

Giorgio Angelini

Giorgio Angelini is the director of the documentary film Owned: A Tale of Two Americas, a film about suburbanization and mass homeownership in America, those who have benefited from it, and those who have been left behind by it. The film features the work of Strong Towns. Angelini came into film from a longer, multi-faceted career in the creative arts. After touring in bands like The Rosebuds and Bishop Allen for much of his 20s, Angelini enrolled in the Masters of Architecture program at Rice University during the depths of the 2008 real estate collapse. It was during this tumultuous time that the seeds for Giorgio’s documentary debut, Owned, began to take shape. Focusing on film now, Angelini launched his own production company, Section Perspective Films. [FULL BIO]

Steven Greenhut

Steven Greenhut is Western Region director for the R Street Institute. He writes a weekly column for the Southern California News Group, American Spectator and Reason magazine. He most recently served as California columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. In this role, from his base in Sacramento, he wrote a regular reported news column covering the State Capitol and issues outside of San Diego. Previously, he was vice president of journalism at the Franklin Center, where he oversaw a team of watchdog editors and reporters in state capitols. Greenhut is the author of two books, Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain (2004) and Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (2009). [FULL BIO]

Daniel Herriges

Daniel Herriges serves as Senior Editor for Strong Towns, and has been a regular contributor since 2015. He is also a founding member of the organization. Daniel has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota. His obsession with maps began before he could read. His budding environmentalism can be traced back to age 4, when he yelled at his parents for stepping on weeds growing in sidewalk cracks. His love of great urban design and human-scaled, livable places has also been lifelong. Daniel has a B.A. from Stanford University in Human Biology with a concentration in Conservation and Sustainable Development. After college, he worked as an environmental activist for several years, in support of indigenous people's rights and conservation in the Amazon rainforest. He can often be found hiking or cycling. Daniel is from St. Paul, Minnesota, and now lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Joe Minicozzi

Joseph Minicozzi is the principal of Urban3 and an urban planner imagining new ways to think about and visualize land use, urban design and economics. Joe founded Urban3 to explain and visualize market dynamics created by tax and land use policies. His award-winning analytic tools have garnered national attention in Planetizen, The Wall Street Journal, Planning, New Urban News, Realtor, Atlantic Cities and the Center for Clean Air Policy's Growing Wealthier report. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami and Master of Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University. In 2017, Joe was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Urbanists of all time. He is a founding member of the Asheville Design Center, a nonprofit community design center dedicated to creating livable communities across Western North Carolina. [FULL BIO]

Mike Madrid

Mike Madrid is a nationally recognized expert on Latino voting trends. He has served as the press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader and as the political director for the California Republican Party. Madrid served as both the public affairs director to the League of California Cities and as a senior advisor to The California Redevelopment Association where he successfully ran statewide campaigns to protect local government revenues from state incursion. In 2001 Madrid was named as one of America’s “Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business Magazine. Madrid currently serves as a senior advisor to the California Latino Economic Institute. He serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) and currently teaches as a visiting lecturer on Race, Class and Partisanship at the University of Southern California. [FULL BIO]

Michele Martinez

Michele Martinez is the founder and principal of Emergent P4 Advisors, a people first project management consulting firm. Prior to founding EPA, Michele served for twelve years as Councilmember in the City of Santa Ana, CA. During this time, she became the first council member to serve as President of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the first council member to serve as President of the Southern California Association of Governments, and the youngest woman to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Santa Ana. [FULL BIO]

Jacob Moses

Jacob Moses serves as Community Builder for Strong Towns. After graduating from the University of North Texas, he worked as a technical writer in Boulder, Colorado and, most recently, as a grocer in his neighborhood of Downtown Denton, Texas. At Strong Towns, Jacob helps members find the best resources to achieve their community-driven goals. He hosts a weekly podcast called It’s the Little Things, manages Strong Towns’s latest platform, the Strong Towns Knowledge Base, and helps build community in our Facebook Group and on our Community site.

Rex Richardson

Councilmember Rex Richardson is a father, husband, entrepreneur, and policy-maker. He was elected to the Long Beach City Council in 2014 to represent the neighborhoods of North Long Beach in District 9. Elected at the age of 30, Richardson became the youngest councilmember in the City’s History and the youngest African American elected official in the region. He also served as Vice Mayor from 2016-2018, becoming the youngest in the City’s history to hold the position. His work at city council has been recognized by the United States Department of Education, California League of Cities, Southern California Association of Governments, and has received four American Planning Association Awards. [FULL BIO]

Kea Wilson

Kea Wilson serves as Community Engagement Director for Strong Towns. She's based in the great city of St. Louis, Missouri, but she's lived everywhere from Santa Fe, New Mexico to coastal Maryland to far northern Michigan and the exurbs of Cleveland, Ohio. She became passionate about the question of what it means to build a better world when she was in college, where she volunteered at a co-op bike collective and studied (most of) the great works of western civilization, roughly in chronological order. She's worked in community outreach and development for eight years. Before she came to Strong Towns, she worked at a small independent bookstore where she coordinated a not-so-small author events series. She's also an avid cyclist and runner, an armchair economics nerd, and a novelist.

Just Announced: Speakers for the Regional Gathering (and how to get 75% off the ticket price!)