JOIN US FOR THE MRPC ANNUAL MEETING THIS SEPTEMBER!
Baton Rouge, LA
Join the Mississippi River Parkway Commission this fall in Louisiana’s capital city for three days of engaging and informational sessions at our 2025 Annual Meeting, which will be held September 10-12, 2025, in Baton Rouge.
Hear from authors, river experts, and commissioners from all 10 states as we discuss what’s happening along the Mississippi River now and how to leverage partnerships along the Great River Road and beyond to promote our amazing All-American Road.
We’ll also celebrate the Great River Road’s selection as the Best Scenic Drive in America in this year’s USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards and discuss plans for the Great River Road as part of the country’s 250th birthday celebration (America250) in 2025 and 2026.
Meeting Registration
Register for the 2025 Annual Meeting here.
Meeting registration includes:
- Welcome reception and dinner (Wednesday night)
- All general sessions and materials
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursday
- Breakfast on Friday
Lodging Information
Lodging is available at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center. Make your hotel reservation for the Hilton Baton Rouge here or call (800) 955-6962.
Room rate is $110 per night.
The hotel cutoff date is August 25.
Meeting Schedule (Working Agenda)
Stay tuned for additional agenda updates throughout the summer.
Wednesday, September 10
- All Day Free to explore downtown Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Capitol, Louisiana Old State Capitol, Old Governor’s Mansion, Third Street
- Noon-2pm Registration
- 3 pm MRPC Board Meeting
- 6 pm Welcome Reception
- Tour Louisiana River Road Museum
- Dinner at Houmas House
Thursday, September 11
- 7:30-8:15am New Member Orientation
- 8:30am-5pm General Sessions
- The Mississippi River and the Opening of Atlantic Trade (Susan Gaunt Stearns)
- In Empire of Commerce, author Susan Gaunt Stearns takes readers back to a time when there was nothing inevitable about the United States’ untrammeled westward expansion. Her work demonstrates the centrality of trade on and along the Mississippi River to the complex development of the political and economic structures that shaped the nascent American republic. Stears’s perspective-shifting book reconfigures our understanding of key postrevolutionary moments—the writing of the Constitution, the outbreak of the Whiskey Rebellion, and the Louisiana Purchase—and demonstrates how the transatlantic cotton trade finally set the stage for transforming an imagined west into something real.
- America 250
- Partnerships (America’s Watershed)
- Navigation of the Mississippi River (Mississippi River Pilots Association)
- Tips on Grant Writing
- Technical committee meetings: Transportation; Marketing; Culture, Heritage, & Environment; Recreation & Agriculture
- 6pm Pilot’s Banquet and Awards
Friday, September 12
- 8:30am-Noon General Sessions
- Corridor Management Plan: IC Signing Standards
- US Bike Route and Mississippi River Trail
- Operation Pollination
- Interpretive Center Highlights
- Mastering AI for Productivity
- Presenter: Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital
- AI is changing the way we complete tasks. It’s a powerful tool that can accelerate results. We’ll learn practical and tangible ways to use AI to get better results faster.
- Krista Neher is a six-time bestselling author, having written six books on digital marketing, including a textbook and a “Dummies” book. Krista is an international speaker and an award-winning entrepreneur. She has worked with companies like Facebook, Nike, Procter & Gamble, GE, Macy’s, Google, Morgan Stanley, and the U.S. Senate and has been featured as an expert in the New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, NBC, CBS, Entrepreneur, and the Associated Press.
About the Great River Road
