Leadership that Creates the Culture Your Utility Needs

Public power leaders must adapt to stay competitive and relevant in a quickly evolving industry. Explore what it means to lead in this era of transformation, and how to shift your mindset and utility culture to a customer-centric approach that anticipates needs and delivers exceptional experiences. 

Emergency Management and Mutual Aid: New Practices & Policies

Long before a disaster strikes, everyone involved in emergency response and recovery in a community should be prepared with an understanding of what to do, how to access resources, and have established relationships for smooth coordination. Explore the latest practices in emergency operations planning, including how utilities are incorporating new technologies, what makes for effective drills and exercises, and get a refresher on when and how to leverage the Mutual Aid Network. Discuss strategies for handling media inquiries during crises, lessons from recent events like California’s wildfires and windstorms, and weighing options for insurance. Learn how policy reforms are affecting disaster recovery and resilience, including how FEMA support is evolving.

Emerging Technologies Shaping the Future of Public Power

A wave of cutting-edge technologies promise to transform generation, storage, and grid management. Explore where technologies from long-duration energy storage to small modular reactors, geothermal and AI are in development and what utilities can expect from them in the next decade. Join a lively discussion with tech experts and industry peers on how and when public power should evaluate emerging technologies and how they might help you meet reliability, sustainability, and affordability goals.

Navigating Standards, Generation Challenges, and Policy Uncertainty

Dive into the factors creating challenges for public power leaders in ensuring resource adequacy and system reliability. Hear different perspectives from across the sector with a panel of executives on how they are navigating the uncertainty surrounding large loads, conflicting federal and state policies, and long-term investments. Discuss practical options for securing new resources — from locally owned projects and microgrids to SMRs and emerging technologies. Weigh your options and share strategies to adapt, innovate, and maintain reliability in today’s evolving energy landscape.

Networking Lunch

Continue the conversation and connect with your fellow public power leaders over lunch hosted by APPA.

Keynote: Navigating Global Risk, Geopolitics, and the Opportunities of Tomorrow

Understanding the impact of world events that are unfolding is critical to assessing future risks and opportunities. Each industry is affected in different ways by world events—from energy, infrastructure and finance to manufacturing, supply chains and technology. And turmoil in hot spots such as China, Iran, Russia and Ukraine demands that leaders gain better insights into emerging threats, opportunities and risks.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers
Former National Security Agency Director and head of US Cyber Command and the Central Security Service; Senior Fellow and Professor | Northwestern University