The Public Lands Alliance has announced its 2027 Annual Convention and Trade Show will take place Feb. 7-11, 2027, at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, Washington. Registration opens Oct. 15.
According to Daniel Fineberg, vice president of development for the Public Lands Alliance, the show moves every year to showcase the variety of public lands in regions across the United States. The February 2026 show was in Daytona Beach, Florida, and he notes that PLA is planning to locate in Reno, Nevada, in 2028.
The Bellevue destination for 2027 offers attendees the opportunity to visit and tour public lands across the Pacific Northwest.
“Home to some of the largest tech companies, Bellevue sits at the intersection of technology, sustainability and outdoor access, and the surrounding Pacific Northwest provides some awesome field trip opportunities,” Fineberg says. “We are fortunate to have some great nonprofit members and partners in this region who are collaborating with us on how best to showcase Bellevue and the public lands around it. All of that made it a natural fit for our 2027 theme, Innovation for Impact.”
The trade show component of the event will feature approximately 150 exhibitors and include vendors and companies that support and connect with public land and park retail buyers. Fineberg notes that many of these vendors work with park retailers as well as zoos, museums and other souvenir retailers.
“There’s a lot of crossover with the souvenir and gift industry,” Fineberg notes. “Many public lands buyers operate retail stores, visitor’s centers, bookstores and nature centers. The vendors who serve that community offer merchandise that spans industries. Anyone who holds a role that touches or impacts buying would get a lot out of this event.”
In addition to the trade show, the show will offer educational sessions across four days of the event, built around the theme of Innovation for Impact. Some of these sessions will touch on retail strategy and operations.
“The sessions each day are focused on real, on-the-ground experiences that our nonprofit members and attendees are facing and navigating at their sites,” says Fineberg. “Topics include donor growth and fundraising, retail strategy, board management and governance, interpretation and storytelling, partnership management and adapting to local, regional or federal policy changes. Our education sessions are led by industry peers, and it is an extremely connecting and supportive community.”
The upcoming event also marks PLA’s 50th anniversary with a celebratory event taking place on Feb. 10 in the exhibit hall. In honor of that milestone, Fineberg says the February convention will also take a look at how partnerships have shaped public lands across the country since the 1970s and consider what the next 50 years of public lands might look like.
“Since 1986, this has been the only convention and trade show that is built specifically for the public lands community,” says Fineberg. “It’s a huge, welcoming community that stretches from coast to coast, and everyone is here for the same reason — to find ways to protect, support and steward public lands and the relationships that keep them open and accessible to all. Helping equip attendees with ideas and resources they can put to work at their own sites is always our goal, and we’re excited for this convention.”
For more information, visit, https://www.publiclandsalliance.org/pla2027.
