Marking Earth Day, the EarthX conference has returned to Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. The conference had been canceled for the past two years because of the pandemic.
"I'm even more excited we can actually be together again in person for the first time since 2019," said Mayor Eric Johnson.
The conference was launched in the Dallas Arts District in 2011. The event has grown to draw more than 700 exhibitors covering 500,000 square feet at the convention center. Organizers say 137,000 people will attend from 43 countries.
"This is Dallas, and in Dallas we don't really do humble all that well," Johnson said. "We don't settle. We don't get satisfied. We don't get complacent. We're a city that is constantly growing, competing and asserting itself on the national stage."
Founder Trammell Crow says exhibitors give people a chance to learn about public policy and how private businesses can "create sustainable solutions."
"Republican, Democrat, Harvard, Yale, we've all come together," Crow said. "We could not do this in Washington D.C. We could not do this in San Francisco."
The conference continues through Sunday at the convention center. Friday night, Johnson says the Dallas skyline will light in green to mark Earth Day then he urges residents and businesses to turn off non-essential lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. for migratory birds.
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