NATCHEZ — Natchez Mayor Butch Brown leaves today for a four-day conference in San Francisco — the United States Conference of Mayors.

The annual conference is meant to serve as a business meeting for the Conference of Mayors, the official non-partisan organization for cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

Participants, Brown said, will attend several sessions during the conference meant to teach better practices for government leadership.

Specifically, Brown said he is looking forward to meeting with representatives from the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit foundation that focuses on improving global health and wellness.

“I’ll be working with, and presenting to, the Clinton Foundation about issues that deal with everything from infant mortality, breastfeeding and healthy eating and exercise programs,” Brown said. “It’s quite comprehensive.”

Brown said his goal in attending the conference is to bring back healthy initiatives to Natchez, and implement those ideas into area healthcare programs.

Through meeting with mayors from larger cities, Brown said he also hopes to gain better business practices that can be applied to Natchez.

“We’re a small city, but we meet with all the big boys,” Brown said. “Mayors from New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles — they’ll all be there, and they’ll bring a plethora of knowledge and innovation with them.”

This is not Brown’s first time to attend the conference.

Since his first term as mayor in 1992, Brown said he has attended several conferences.

“I think it’s very important, when you consider Natchez as a major name in America, to learn the best practices,” he said.