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Natural Awakenings Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex Edition

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EarthX 2025 Congress of Conferences

Jan 31, 2025 08:48AM ● By Bernice Butler

The EarthX 2025 Congress of Conferences will take place from April 21 through 25 at the Hilton Anatole, in Dallas. Now in its second year in a five-day format and differing from previous EarthX Expo-style events, organizers are assured it will continue to have a powerful impact on environmental conversations. Since beginning as Earth Day Dallas, EarthX has promoted ecological awareness through interactive experiences, with exhibitors representing organizations and businesses that operate, educate and trade in environmentally conscious spaces.

As the event grew from a street festival to a large exposition drawing around 177,000 visitors prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was consistently a reliable cornerstone of conferences that brought together unlikely stakeholders including nonprofits, activists, businesses, governments, agriculture, academia and more to work together for eco-conscious solutions.

Fair Park, the long-time home of EarthX, was under renovation last year, so the conferences were moved to Hilton Anatole. “This year we deduced to keep the format since it was such a success in 2024,” says Peter Simek, conference director of EarthX. “Part of EarthX’s DNA from the beginning was bringing more people into the conversation about environmental awareness. Dallas isn’t the first city that comes to mind when talking about environmental activism—and that’s the whole point. If we can turn Texas green and environmentally conscious, then we can shift the broader conversation toward reestablishing communication across the aisle through multipartisan conversations. We all live on one planet, so how do we all work together to find solutions, especially in these polarized times?”

The EarthX Congress of Conferences has evolved with that mission in mind. Four main conference tracks include The Future of Energy, the Circular Economy in Action, Ocean Conservation and the Blue Economy, and Conservation “Texas-Style”: Private Sector Solutions for Strengthening Wildlife and Habitat Ecologies. There will also be three invitation-only summits, several partner conferences and side events. “Conference attendees often tell me that they’re not seeing all the people they usually see at other environmental events. EarthX features different groups of people creating environments to cross-pollinate and collaborate,” says Simek.

Trammell S. Crow, founder of EarthX, says that he regularly receives enthusiastic feedback from conference attendees. “Most people I talked to would grab me by the lapel and tell me that this was the best conference they’d even been to.” EarthX 2025 scheduled speakers include Vladimir Ryabinin, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and a global leader in marine science. Simon Mainwaring, author and CEO of We First, an organization dedicated to brand purpose and social impact marketing, will lead a conference. Other well-known figures include Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, guitarist of The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, who is now a defense and nuclear energy consultant, as well as General David H. David Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.).

Partner Conferences Add Depth

Crow has established myriad contacts and built a large network of conference speakers and attendees. He enthusiastically observes how many of those people have partnered and spun off into their own mini-conferences and events. Those partner conferences include Green.org, on April 21, which brings millennials together to showcase innovators in sustainability, tech, finance and AI, and how it will impact the future of business. The North Texas Day conference, on April 22, is sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, bringing stakeholders together to discuss sustainable solutions for urban density and sprawl, along with green building and LEED certification.

The Island Resilience Partnership, which Crow says stemmed from ongoing EarthX relationships with the United Nations, consists of approximately 15 ambassadors from island nations that discuss sustainability measures. The Rotary Xperience conference will bring together global leaders and innovators dedicated to advancing Rotary’s 7th Area of Focus: The Environment. This growing pool of speakers has also led to discussions about timely topics such as immigration and the environment, regenerative agriculture and the food supply chain, and wildlife conservations among animal advocates and hunters.

EarthX 2025 Congress of Conferences is accessible via one-day and five-day passes that include lunch. Location: 2201 N. Stemmons Fwy, Dallas. For more information and to purchase passes, visit EarthX.org.