LAKEVILLE BEGINS A NEW CONVERSATION ABOUT WELCOMING THE WORLD

Expo 2031 Host City process moves into public engagement and planning

September 21, 2026 | Lakeville, Minnesota

Tonight, Lakeville takes an important step in the conversation about Expo 2031 Minnesota USA.

The Lakeville City Council approved a resolution acknowledging that the community is being considered as Host City for Expo 2031 and authorizing a public outreach plan.

For Expo 2031, the significance of this moment is not that every question has been answered.

It is that a larger public conversation can begin.

What would it mean for Lakeville to welcome visitors from across the United States and around the world?

What infrastructure would be required?

How should residents and businesses participate?

What opportunities could an international exposition create?

And perhaps most importantly:

What should remain after 2031?

These questions are why the Host City process matters.

Expo 2031 is envisioned as the first A1 International Horticultural Exposition in the United States — a six-month international gathering organized around the theme:

Human / Nature, Where Humanity & Horticulture Meet.

But its potential significance to Lakeville goes beyond those six months.

Expo 2031 is being designed around a permanent legacy destination, creating the opportunity for gardens, public gathering places, tourism, innovation and community uses to continue contributing to the region after the exposition ends.

That long-term perspective changes how we think about hosting.

The objective is not simply to accommodate a major event.

It is to ask how the investments, infrastructure, relationships and destinations created for 2031 can contribute to the community for decades afterward.

The road between now and 2031 includes significant work.

Public engagement.

Engineering.

Infrastructure.

Capitalization.

International participation.

Transportation.

Programming.

Design.

And continued coordination among public and private partners.

Tonight's approved resolution is one step along that road.

And it is an important one.

Because every international exposition ultimately begins in a community willing to imagine what welcoming the world could mean.

For Expo 2031, that conversation is now happening in Lakeville.

2031 is the destination.

The public conversation begins now.