This May, CNU 34 takes place in Northwest Arkansas, a region often described through superlatives: fast-growing, well-funded, unusually collaborative for its size and scale. It is an interconnected system of communities: Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, and Springdale, as well as their surrounding smaller towns, each with distinct identities but a shared and mutually iterative future.
Some may imagine the two largest urbanized areas, Bentonville and Fayetteville, as rivals. In reality, they’re two rapidly developing cities solving different versions of the same question: How do you grow without losing what makes you special?
We’re bringing the 34th annual Congress for the New Urbanism to their front porches and town squares to help provide the expertise and tools needed to answer that question.
Due to the expanse of the region, and the distinctive but overlapping challenges facing its small towns and largest cities, this year’s Congress will look and feel much different than previous years. Foremost, this Congress will be multi-locational, meaning attendees will need to choose a primary location for their Congress experience. The location where you reserve your hotel will determine what kind of city lies just outside the door as well as what activities will be within walking distance of your hotel. Rest assured, transportation will be provided to and from all Congress events happening throughout Northwest Arkansas. There will be many unifying events to bring together all attendees, and, we believe, there are compelling reasons to select a primary location based on your professional interests and the differing nature of Northwest Arkansas’ cities.
To help you better understand the region, we’ve posted two primers on Public Square, one focused on Bentonville, the other on Fayetteville.
Both cities are thriving, walkable, creative, and increasingly national in profile, but they grow from different roots. One is pushed forward by a powerful economic engine. The other is shaped by a long-standing cultural institution. Understanding the contrast helps explain why each city feels the way it does and where they could be headed with the help of new urbanist expertise.
Northwest Arkansas is becoming a networked region, and both Bentonville and Fayetteville, along with Rogers, Springdale, and the smaller towns between, are trying to find their connective tissue. Trails, transit, cultural exchange, housing patterns, and economic flow are knitting the region together. Decision-makers and residents recognize this and see a tremendous opportunity for impact and improvement from the ideas and expertise brought by CNU 34.
We hope you will dive into our deeper explorations of Fayetteville and Bentonville, and then take advantage of our early bird registration discounts for CNU 34!
CNU 34.Northwest Arkansas will be held May 12-16, 2026!
“Northwest Arkansas is unlike any recent location for our annual Congress.” said Mallory Baches, CNU’s President. “We are incredibly excited to bring our flagship event to a region offering CNU an opportunity to support a connected network of individual cities and towns. We are committed to leaving a lasting impact on the evolution of this fast-growing region, one that will ensure better outcomes for the existing population as well as the thousands of people projected to call Northwest Arkansas home in the coming decades.”
“When we select a Congress location, we identify major trends and key issues within the local context that we believe our attendees and our broader membership can explore and take important lessons from.” said Margaret Gattis, Executive Director of CNU. “In Northwest Arkansas, we see a rapidly changing region that can benefit from smart applications of coordinated density and increased connectivity, as well as partners that are eager to work with us – and our attendees. It is a part of the country that is already innovating and growing in ways that we can learn from.”
The Northwest Arkansas Congress will be held May 12-16, 2026 and will include dozens of sessions, multiple workshops and technical assistance projects, and a variety of tours that will help attendees engage with communities across the region. CNU’s last annual event in June 2025 was held in Providence, RI with over 1,500 attendees. The annual Congress brings an average of $3M in economic impact to its host region.
“Each year, the Congress is the chance to learn from the best urban change-agents in the country, so we are thrilled that CNU has chosen to bring that knowledge to our community,” said Ward Davis, who is serving as co-host for the Congress local host committee. “This event will be a call to action for our local planning, policy, finance, and implementation industries, to think strategically about the quality of life that we will leave for future generations here in Northwest Arkansas.” Davis is a local developer who has been designing and building using the principles of New Urbanism in the region for decades.
“Accommodating the pressures of growth while maintaining those aspects that make this region unique is a challenge that each municipality in Northwest Arkansas is facing,” said John McCurdy, Director of Community Development for the city of Rogers and local host committee co-chair. “Being able to dive into the details of that challenge firsthand with thought leaders in planning, development, and policy that are the actual authors of best practice is a rare opportunity that we can’t wait to share with our regional partners.”
The Northwest Arkansas Congress provides a unique opportunity for CNU to partner with organizations already making a significant impact in the region. ULI Northwest Arkansas, a regional chapter of the national real estate and development organization Urban Land Institute, has been showcasing that denser urbanism can work in this part of the country through partnerships and gatherings such as the annual Place Summit. CNU and ULI Northwest Arkansas intend to work together to ensure the conversations to develop innovative solutions start well before - and continue well after - the 2026 Congress. This is one of the ways the annual Congress can have a lasting impact locally.
"This partnership represents a transformative opportunity for our region,” said Wes Craiglow, the ULI NWA Executive Director. "Together, we will showcase Northwest Arkansas’s dynamic growth and innovation while addressing some of our most pressing land use challenges. By convening the expertise of ULI and CNU members multiple times, we aim to create lasting, impactful solutions that reflect the values and aspirations of our communities."