The January 2021 issue of Parks & Recreation magazine is out now, and this month’s issue features the highly anticipated cover story, “Top Trends in Parks and Recreation 2021,” by Rich Dolesh, NRPA’s retired vice president of strategic initiatives and Parks & Recreation magazine’s editor at large. On today’s bonus episode of the podcast, we’re replaying the full session of our “Emerging Trends in Parks and Recreation” Coffee Talk from the 2020 NRPA Annual Conference: A Virtual Experience (NRPA Virtual) this past October.

In this session, we had the opportunity to sit down with Rich, as well as Greg Weitzel, an NRPA board member and director of the Las Vegas Department of Parks and Recreation, and Brendan Daley, director of strategy and sustainability at the Chicago Park District, to talk about some of the trends park and recreation professionals will be seeing in near future — and some that we’re already seeing come to fruition.

Tune in below to hear our full Coffee Talk with Rich, Greg and Brendan to learn:

• How the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated trends that they have seen occurring or that they predict will take place.
• What technology changes will increasingly influence parks and recreation, and why will they happen.
• How climate change is having a greater impact on parks and recreation every year and what the greatest impacts are, as well as what is causing them to accelerate.
• What new trends they see over the horizon and how will they affect parks and recreation in the future, and more!