PastForward Milwaukee 2025 - Advancing Innovation  

In 2025, the PastForward conference will explore cutting-edge innovation, ground-breaking creativity, and experimentation in the dynamic field of preservation.  

With your peers from a range of fields—advocates, archaeologists, architects, developers, economic development officials, engineers, family historians, geographers, historic trades, historians, Main Street directors, mayors, policy experts, planners, and regulators—help us examine technological changes and new ways to increase the connections to our past and to each other. For example, new technologies allow someone to survey historic resources more thoroughly and more quickly than before while new ways of creating cultural districts can help us expand engagement with new audiences.   

Together we will also explore Milwaukee’s unique history and culture, where local citizens proudly continue their long history of innovation in manufacturing, culinary arts as illustrated in the most recent Top Chef series, music, and more!   

The National Trust is currently seeking proposals for great content to highlight during PastForward: 

• Responding to Challenges - Consider proposing sessions to show how preservationists, and those in the allied fields like housing creation and carbon reduction, creatively respond to challenges such as the lack of a trained rehabilitation workforce and the need for sustainably sourced materials. Offer to teach how improved incentives and new policies make this work possible.  
• Using Different Educational Formats - In addition to content that showcases innovative practices, the National Trust is also seeking innovative ways to present educational content through different formats. Submit a plan that will leave conference attendees more educated, more inspired, and more able to preserve the places and traditions that matter to them.  
• Sharing Lessons Learned - Sometimes the best lessons come from our failures – so please also consider sharing how your pioneering effort failed the first, second, and third time so attendees can avoid making similar mistakes. Also, if you are a subject matter expert, consider proposing a session that provides a good grounding for those new-to-the-field. 
• Describing the Wide Range of Innovations - From survey to storytelling and retrofits to research, please consider describing how recent innovations improve efficiency and extend the reach of our work during the PastForward conference.  

The conference encourages participation of new and diverse voices as session presenters. We are particularly interested in featuring content and narratives of underrepresented groups of people. Underrepresented groups include, but are not limited to, women, immigrants, Asian Americans, Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ+ communities. PastForward 2025 will offer a variety of formats to complement the cutting-edge content presented by dynamic speakers. Submit your proposal by January 10, 2025.

For technical assistance with the application form, please visit https://www.submittable.com/help/submitter/

For any other questions contact conference@savingplaces.org. 

The Diversity Scholarship Program provides support for attendance to PastForward, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual conference, being held in Milwaukee, WI, September 16-18, 2025. Note: a reception will be held for scholars the evening of September 15th.

The Diversity Scholarship Program convenes established and emerging leaders in the historic preservation community and allied fields. To date, the program has provided over 2,800 scholarships to conference participants from historically underrepresented groups including race, ethnicity, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, and people with accessibility needs. Those who identify with one or more of these underrepresented groups are eligible for the scholarship. Passionate volunteers, students, and professionals are all encouraged to apply.

Scholars receive complimentary registration (valued at $800) and a travel stipend to attend PastForward 2025 in Milwaukee, WI. Scholars will also have the opportunity to participate in bi-monthly, virtual convenings which will be held through September 2026. These convenings provide practical guidance to maximize opportunities with the National Trust and facilitate important networking opportunities with outstanding national leaders from a variety of professions within the wide-ranging movement.

At this year's PastForward conference, the National Trust for Historic Preservation closes its celebration of its 75th anniversary and the evolving practice of preservation in one of the country’s most historic cities.

The conference will be held at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center at 509 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53203.

Please visit the conference webpage to learn more about the conference, opportunities to connect, and important news.

   For technical assistance with the application form, please visit https://www.submittable.com/help/submitter/
   For any other questions contact conference@savingplaces.org