Institute Sessions

There is no cost to participating mayors or cities; there are no registration fees and MICD covers all travel expenses. Resource Team members receive a modest honorarium for their participation from MICD.

We think past participants say it best: 

“It is nothing like a typical conference, but rather much more like a grad school cohort. It was all-day learning, very engaging with tactical takeaways from every session.” (Everett, WA Mayor Cassie Franklin) 

“The Mayors’ Institute isn’t a 3-day retreat from the bustle of your city. Instead, it is a reset — a moment to return to the imaginative first days of your term. I filled notebooks with ideas, inspirations, contacts and precedents to address deep issues in my city.” (Salisbury, MD Mayor Jacob Day)

I learned more at MICD than I have in any prior conference. MICD should be required orientation for every mayor – no matter the city size. (Kansas City, MO Mayor Quinton Lucas)

Simply contact us and MICD staff will reach out with an invitation to an appropriate session in the future.

Each MICD session is curated with different themes, commonalities, and city sizes in mind. We invite you to express interest in a particular session, though due to very limited participation at each session, MICD cannot guarantee invitations to specific sessions.

Mayors attend MICD sessions without staff, which allows for an intimate, candid environment for problem-solving. We encourage mayors to include staff in the pre-session site visit, presentation preparation, and follow-up after the session. 

In addition, MICD offers additional programming for alumni mayors that engages key staff members throughout the process. Sign up for our email list or learn more about the MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship, Alumni Technical Assistance, and Virtual Seminars.

The session host will assist you with selecting a project best suited to your Institute Session. For more inspiration, explore past MICD projects here.

After you accept an invitation, MICD will provide detailed information about preparing for your participation. In general, sessions are designed to be an easy lift for the mayor and city staff: simply choose a few potential projects to discuss with the host during a pre-session site visit, prepare a presentation, and participate in the roundtable discussion once you arrive at your MICD session.

MICD is always looking for new design leaders to fit various Resource Teams throughout the year, though participation at MICD sessions is extremely limited. Resource Team members are generally mid-to-late career professionals who have experience working in or with the public sector and have a personal mission to improve the fabric of American cities. Ideal candidates have deep experience in architecture, arts & culture, city planning, community engagement, economic development, housing, landscape architecture, real estate development, transportation, and/or urban design.  

Resource Team members are volunteers who receive a modest honorarium for their service. Each Resource Team member is expected to prepare a short (15-minute) presentation on their area of expertise, participate in a pre-session briefing call, and attend the entire session, offering advice and ideas to the mayors. Resource Team members are also asked to sign agreements stating that they will not seek work on the mayors’ projects for one year following the session. While we often joke that serving on a Resource Team is like “design jury duty”, our alumni often remark that they learned as much from the mayors as the mayors learned from them.

Learn more about getting involved as a design leader.

The RFQ seeking universities and nonprofits to host 2025-2026 Special Sessions is currently open through January 10, 2025.

While MICD staff plans and manages National Sessions around the country, we also partner with universities and nonprofits to host Special Sessions geared toward specific types of cities or project themes.

 In a typical year, MICD launches an RFQ in the fall seeking two institutions interested in hosting these sessions the following year. Universities with accredited Schools of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and/or Urban Planning as well as nonprofit design organizations are eligible to apply. Hosts are selected through a competitive process. Up to $50,000 in funding is awarded by MICD to each selected host for reimbursement of approved direct expenses from the session.

Sign up for our email list to receive updates, and explore past years’ RFQs to learn more about the typical process.