CHARLESTON — For the first time in more than a decade, Charleston’s downtown will be the hub for municipal leaders from across West Virginia as the city hosts the 2026 West Virginia Municipal League summer conference at the Embassy Suites.
Mayor pushed to bring conference back to the capital
Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin, who has served as the municipal league’s president this year, made a concerted effort to return the summer gathering to Charleston. The statewide nonprofit that coordinates the meetings was founded in 1968; the city has hosted the league’s winter gatherings in recent years, but not the summer conference in roughly a decade and a half.
“We have not had the summer conference in the city of Charleston for a very, very long period of time,” Goodwin said on “580 Live.”
Goodwin told local media she was inspired to bid for the summer event to broaden the city’s role in hosting municipal leadership from across the Mountain State. The conference brings practical sessions rather than big headlines, she said, and those sessions are aimed at strengthening municipal operations across towns and cities.
Attendance and schedule
Organizers expect roughly 450 people to arrive in Charleston for the conference. Delegates represent 230 municipalities — cities, towns and villages — from across West Virginia. The multi-day event began with a Monday arrival, moves into a Tuesday morning start with a golf event and afternoon meetings, and runs through Friday at the Embassy Suites.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Municipalities represented | 230 |
| Expected attendees | 450 |
| Location | Embassy Suites, Charleston |
| Conference span | Tuesday through Friday |
Topics aimed at practical municipal needs
Sessions at this year’s conference are focused on operational and administrative matters: procurement processes, policy and procedure development, best practices in municipal governance and grant-writing techniques. Goodwin emphasized that many municipalities in West Virginia do not have staff dedicated to grant writing, making practical instruction on that subject particularly useful.
- Procurement processes and municipal purchasing
- Developing policies and procedures
- Grant-writing skills and resources
Those topics, while not designed for bold headlines, are the kinds of conversations that can ripple through municipal budgets and services for years. For smaller towns and villages, guidance on grant applications and procurement can mean the difference between securing state and federal dollars or missing out on funding for roads, parks and public safety equipment.
National representation and local connections
The conference will also feature national presence. Kevin Kramer, the national president of the National League of Cities, will attend — a visit Goodwin said is a first for the city during her time in office. That kind of outside engagement gives local leaders access to broader networks and federal-level perspectives on municipal issues.
For Charleston, hosting the event is both practical and symbolic. Practically, it brings hundreds of visitors into downtown hotels, restaurants and meeting spaces. Symbolically, it casts the capital as a convening place for municipal problem-solving across West Virginia, reaffirming the city’s role in statewide local-government affairs.
Over the coming days, delegates will spread out to sessions and small-group meetings, comparing approaches and returning to their home communities with new contacts and, organizers hope, new tools. For Charleston residents who pass by the Embassy Suites this week, the conference will be visible in lanyards, name badges and conversations — municipal government, after all, works in plain view.
