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Inspire the profession.
Influence the conversation.

The 2026 National Planning Congress is calling for changemakers, thought-leaders and innovators ready to shape the future of planning in Australia.

This milestone year marks 75 years of the Planning Institute of Australia - and what better place to celebrate than Canberra, the nation’s planned capital and home of bold ideas.

We are looking for perspectives and provocations that challenge convention, spark dialogue and drive action - from housing and climate resilience to planning with Country, digital transformation and design excellence. 

This is your chance to share your story, showcase your impact, and influence how decisions are made and places are shaped.

Lead the change. Be heard.


CALL FOR 
ABSTRACTS OPEN

CLOSED

CALL FOR
ABSTRACTS CLOSE

CLOSED


ABSTRACT
REVIEW  PROCESS

December 2025/January 2026

AUTHOR
NOTIFICATION

February 2026



PROGRAM STREAMS 


Turning Plans into Places

This theme explores the practical milestones and achievements that have shaped Australian cities and regions, from the work of our first planners to the bold vision of Canberra. It celebrates the nuts and bolts of planning in action: the decisions, policies, and projects that turned big ideas into reality. By reflecting on these successes and lessons from the past, we can better inform the choices shaping the cities of tomorrow.


Planning for a Changing Nation

This theme is focused on the big structural challenges Australia faces today and into the future, including housing needs, infrastructure delivery, population growth, and demographic change. It explores how our profession must now tackle these challenges with renewed ambition and confidence. 


Country, Climate, and Resilience

This theme highlights planning’s central role in embedding First Nations knowledge, addressing climate change, and shaping truly resilient communities. It emphasises the need to prepare our systems, practice and frameworks to meet the critical challenges and opportunities of the decades ahead. 


The Future of the Profession: Skills, Technology and Leadership

The next generation of planners will need new skills, digital innovation and adaptive leadership. This theme examines how professional planners can be best ready to lead Australia’s next chapter, to ensure fit for purpose statutory and strategic planning systems.


REVIEW PROCESS

The Program Advisory Committee will be responsible for reviewing abstracts for both events and will determine a recommendation for successful abstracts. To continue to provide a high quality and engaging program, all abstracts will be reviewed by at least two reviewers against a set of review criteria.

Abstracts will be reviewed according to review criteria including: 

  • Quality and alignment with the theme and sub-themes 
  • Potential appeal of the abstract to a broad spectrum of delegates 
  • Author demonstrates the capacity of the abstract to cover the topic within the timeframe 
  • Abstract introduces new and innovative concepts & projects, solutions to problems facing the profession and showcases technology and digital initiatives relevant to the profession 

Abstract acceptance, or otherwise, is at the discretion of PIA and the Program Advisory Committee. To ensure a varied and balanced program, PIA and the Program Advisory Committee additionally reserves the right to limit acceptance for presentations to one abstract per presenting author.


ABSTRACT FAQs

CONCURRENT SESSION:

20-minute presentation slots. You must be able to define the trend you see impacting on the profession, identify if this is a trend impacting now, to prepare for (approx. 5yrs), or to watch and learn (10+ yrs). Explain its impact and what the profession needs to adapt, learn &/or change. All delivered with pizzazz to keep your audience engaged.    

WORKSHOP:

These workshops are outcome focused and must have a strong learning objective. If you can help planners learn a valuable skill crucial to a trend impacting on the profession, we want to hear from you. Workshops will be limited to 80 people and run for 1.5 hours. We will supply a room in any configuration you need, and work with you on any other materials needed for your facilitation. Please note, workshop places within the program are limited.

Some real rock stars with impressive abstracts may be asked to present during the plenary session or be invited to participate in panel discussions. Timing and format for this will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

  1. CONTACT DETAILS: Name, position, organisation, address and email address needed for the main presenter
  2. CO-PRESENTER INFORMATION: Name, position, organisation needed for your co-presenters
  3. YOUR HEADSHOT: Head and shoulders photograph
  4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY: Maximum 50 - 100 words
  5. THEME: Which theme you would like to submit for
  6. PRESENTATION TYPE: Select which presentation type you prefer to submit your abstract for
  7. ABSTRACT: Copy and paste your abstract into the portal field (Max 300 words)
  8. A VIDEO LINK: To continue to provide a high quality and engaging program for attendees, we require all authors to submit a video to showcase their presentation ability. Ideally this video should be of you presenting at another conference, and/or you talking about your submission and what you plan to present. As video files cannot be submitted due to size, you will need to submit a link to the video hosted on a file sharing platform, e.g. YouTube, Dropbox etc.

  • All submissions must be submitted in English. Please ensure you thoroughly check your submission for spelling and grammatical errors as accepted abstracts will be printed as per your submission.
  • Abstracts are to be no more than 300 words.
  • References, author and affiliation information and abstract titles are not included in the word count.
  • Abstracts must not contain bullet points, pictures, charts, diagrams or tables. Please ensure any acronyms are spelt out in the first instance.
  • Ensure that all author information (names, affiliations and presenting author biography) is included and entered correctly.
  • For full call for abstract guidelines view here

Below criteria will be taken into consideration when reviewing the abstracts.

  • Case studies of projects, policy and development in practice, including the lessons learned, both good and bad
  • New information, evidence and tools to support better planning
  • Innovative approaches that generate new ways thinking and challenge to the status quo
  • Perspectives and experiences from the end users and stakeholders of planning
  • The inclusion of credible demonstration of the importance of the subject matter to the preferred theme
  • The introduction of new and innovative concepts not previously canvassed or fully explored
  • The inclusion of intercultural, cross-cultural and/ or multicultural considerations
  • The potential appeal of the proposal to a broad spectrum of delegates; the proposal should include appropriate comments if it would appeal to the career stage (e.g. Emerging Planners or DA Planners)
  • The demonstrated capacity of the proposal to allocate appropriate time for coverage of the topic, and, if for a panel, to include all presenters
  • The title of the proposal conveying to delegates what they can expect from the session

  1. Click the “SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT HERE” button above
  2. If you are a new user, "CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT" to allow you to return to portal to edit your draft, or to submit more
    1. If you have already created a new account, sign into the portal using your email and password
    2. If you are submitting an abstract on behalf of the main presenter but not part of the authors, please create an account with the main presenter's name, organisation and email address.
  3. Go to "CONTACT INFORMATION"tab and update your details and photo
  4. Go to "ABSTRACT SUBMISSION" tab
  5. Follow the MENU on the left hand side for each process
    1. Title and Presentation type
    2. Theme - select which conference and theme you would like to submit for
    3. Authors and affiliations
    4. Abstract
    5. Review your abstract
    6. Submit
  6. Make sure you SAVE YOUR DRAFT. 
  7. SUBMIT

  • If the abstract is accepted, presenters must register for the conference to attend to present. By submitting your abstract, you acknowledge that you understand all presenters must register and pay to attend. All accepted presenters and co-presenters will be entitled to a discounted speaker registration fee by PIA; presenters acknowledge this discount and accept that PIA is unable to provide presenters with free passes.
  • To ensure the integrity of the program, and to guarantee the program will be as advertised once released, we will require all presenters to register and commit to attend the congress. Any presenters not registered by the deadline will not have their abstracted included in the program.
  • If an abstract is successful, you are providing consent for presentation slides and photos taken during your presentation to be used and published by PIA, including being provided to delegates of the congress.
  • Only abstracts from authors/presenters who will be attending the congress will be published.
  • If abstract is successful, you are providing consent for their presentation slides and photos taken during your presentation to be used and published by PIA, including being provided to delegates of the congress.
  • Presentations may be recorded during the congress which may be published online post congress.


SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES



CONGRESS ENQUIRIES


congress@planning.org.au


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