The first-ever Cities Summit of the Americas (CSOA) from April 26-28, 2023 in Denver, Colorado is a U.S. government-led effort to convene city, state, municipal, and regional leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere to focus on shared challenges and opportunities alongside diverse stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, and youth. Together, these groups will ensure the Cities Summit creates new economic opportunities and drives implementation of leader-level commitments from the Ninth Summit of the Americas hosted in Los Angeles, CA in June 2022.

To empower local governments, businesses, and community organizations to collaborate and develop new solutions to the most pressing issues facing cities, including sustainable development, climate resilience, democratic renewal, foreign direct investment, women’s empowerment, uplifting underserved communities, and public safety, among other issues, throughout the region.

Plenary Sessions – The plenary will offer mayors and other local elected officials the opportunity to engage with counterparts from across the Americas on shared challenges and explore opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and mutual investment.

Commercial Expo – The Cities Summit will host a Commercial Expo showcasing small, medium, and large companies that provide goods and services that help communities respond to challenges and seize opportunities. The expo will also drive discussion on foreign direct investment and the conditions necessary to increase flows into cities, which will open new avenues for economic partnership throughout the region.

Stakeholder and Community Programs – The Cities Summit will host a variety of stakeholder and community programs, ranging from cultural exchanges to public exhibits to technology and innovation demonstrations, recognizing that empowering individuals from all corners of a community is vital to its development.

The City of Denver, State of Colorado, and Biennial of the Americas will host this first-ever Cities Summit in partnership with the U.S. government, led by the U.S. Department of State.

City, state, municipal, regional leaders and elected officials, as well as representatives from the private sector, the academic community, NGOs, and youth.

The inaugural Cities Summit of the Americas will take place from April 26-28, 2023 in Denver, Colorado. Additional supporting events will take place throughout the week of April 24, 2023.

Cities Forward is the U.S. Department of State’s peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, capacity building, and diplomatic engagement program focused on solving urban issues in the Americas. Contributing U.S. agencies will connect and equip local leaders throughout the region with new tools and new partnerships to address shared challenges.

Cities Forward follows three key principles: 1) It will be city-led: local stakeholders will lead action plan design and local project implementation; 2) The least are first: actions taken must benefit the cities’ poorest, most vulnerable citizens; and 3) Sustainability: solutions must be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

Interpretation in English, Spanish, and Portuguese will be provided at all official portions of the Cities Summit.