In mid-August, the American Society for Public Administration announced the theme of its 2025 annual conference (March 28-April 1 in Washington D.C) and at the same time put out a call for proposals for potential program presentations, including those that include up to five academic papers. The deadline for submission is September 13.

The conference title “Not Robots Yet: Keeping Public Servants in Public Service” is driven by the challenges (and benefits) of technological change, but the potential for workshops and panels goes far beyond that singular theme. The conference is all about how government works – and how to make it work better.

The theme in 2025 is driven by a familiar concept that “public service operates in an environment where the only constant is change.” As an article in ASPA’s “The Bridge” points out, current challenges are driven not just by technological change but  by multiple societal shifts that dramatically affect the lives of public servants and require “a different mindset for how we approach ‘serving the public.’”

For presenters interested in submitting a proposal, there are multiple tracks that will be part of the conference, touching:

• Good Governance and Service Delivery

• Social Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

• Ethics, Trust and Accountability

• Tools (such as Generative AI , cyber-safety, facial recognition, etc.)

• Human Resource Management

• Public Service Around the World

Click here for examples of the kind of topics ASPA is including in each of the tracks, with policies and guidelines for presenters also available. (We should also mention that we are both executive advisors to ASPA and very much look forward to participating in the 2025 conference ourselves.)

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