Traverse City, Michigan
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Great Lakes Beach Association invite you to participate as a presenter at the National Beach Summit in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan on October 27-30, 2026.
A workshop for Microbial Source Tracking (MST) will be on October 27. Presentations will be on October 28, 29, and 30.
So much has changed since the last in person National Beach Summit took place 10 years ago in New Orleans. The 2026 event will feature field trips, MST workshop, 2 1/2 days of plenary content, student poster contest, and more! A virtual option will be available for the plenary content.
The Summit will bring together researchers, beach managers and owners, and local, state, federal, provincial, and tribal governments to explore how new technology is transforming beach monitoring and the way results are shared with the public. We will also look at long term strategies to improve beaches such as stormwater management, remediation designs, citizen science, and communication coordination.
Summit Topic Areas
Please review the following topics to consider the category where your presentation would best fit. Authors may suggest additional topics that are not on the list, but they must fit a general topic area related to beaches:
- Policy, Water Quality Standards, and New Alternative Methods
- Laboratory Technologies/Rapid Detection Methods
- Harmful Algal Blooms
- Microbial Mitigation Strategies and Case Studies
- Microbial Source Tracking and Risk-Based Decision Making
- Beach Safety, Dangerous Currents, and Beach Notification Systems
- Trash Mitigation and Microplastics
- Community Science
- Indigenous-led monitoring and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Public Engagement and Communications
- Predictive Modelling
- Coastal Resilience
- Data stories: Lessons learned from years of monitoring
Presenters of selected abstracts should expect to be contacted in June 2026. Selected presenters will receive a discounted rate to attend the full conference.