This is where the TWSBA network comes alive. Past attendees consistently point to the same thing: the value of being in a room with people who are solving the same problems from different places, with different communities, and with hard-won experience they are willing to share. This year we are actively working to bring more international, Indigenous, and young voices into the program. People leave with curriculum they can use Monday morning, connections that turn into partnerships, and a clearer sense of where their program fits in a growing national movement.

The Center for Wooden Boats sits at the edge of Lake Union, a working waterfront that reflects what we care about: passing skills across generations, keeping young people connected to the water, and a shared responsibility to protect it. Expect hands-on time in the shop and on the water, honest conversations about the real challenges facing small boat programs, and the kind of peer connection that does not happen on a screen.

REGISTRATION RATE
$400

2026 Financial Support

You are not ready to register today? Don’t worry. TWSBA is committed to making the 2026 conference accessible to as many members of our community as possible.

Registration discounts and travel stipends are available for TWSBA individual members or staff of TWSBA member organizations. Partial and full registration discounts are awarded on a case-by-case, need-based basis. Travel stipends are also available. If you need support to attend, please complete the financial support application before registering.

Keynote Speakers

The locked schedule is still a few weeks out, we have a draft below, but we can share who is anchoring the three days:

Thursday morning: Jake Beattie, CEO, + Northwest Maritime team in conversation with key partners

What happens when a program stops operating as an island? Northwest Maritime spent years mapping the schools, employers, tribes, agencies, and nonprofits already in their region and then building pathways across them. That work became the Blue Schools Initiative, a place-based, community-led approach to outreach and education that integrates maritime pathways and collaboration across communities. Jake will bring partners from that ecosystem to talk about how it got traced and what it takes to hold together. Every region could have its own version of that map. Come ready to think about where your organization would fit and who you would start building with.

Friday dinner: Danielle Frank, Hupa and Yurok, California Indigenous Youth Collective

Danielle was born at the beginning of a 20-year fight to undam the Klamath, led by her own tribal communities. In 2025, at 21, she helped organize the first source-to-sea descent of the free-flowing river through Paddle Tribal Waters, a program that trained Indigenous youth from across the basin to kayak their own water. She has since co-founded the California Indigenous Youth Collective, built around staying with the same young people and the same river long enough for both to change.

Saturday morning: Leadership from United Indians of All Tribes Foundation

We close a few hundred feet from the Northwest Native Canoe Center, going up right now in Lake Union Park and opening soon. United Indians asked the city for a Native presence on this lake in 1970, the same year the fight for Fort Lawton won them the land that became Daybreak Star. The canoe center took another 55 years. Leadership will talk about how it got done and what happens next.

2026 Conference Schedule*

*There may be schedule changes

More Questions About Our 2026 Conference?

conference@twsba.org

PAST CONFERENCES
2010-2025