More than 7,000 of the world’s foremost leaders in the real estate and land use industries are expected to convene at the 2014 ULI Fall Meeting, set for October 21–23 at the Javits Center in New York City. Go to fall.uli.org for more information and to register.
Each day of the meeting will emphasize a separate topic. Tuesday, October 21, will focus on lessons from leaders in the real estate industry and beyond; on Wednesday, October 22, the emphasis will shift to the ULI Stan Ross Real Estate Trends Day; and Thursday, October 23, has been designated as “real estate deal day,” with opportunities for attendees to explore and initiate development projects.
Related: Register for the ULI Fall Meeting
Tuesday’s sessions will lead off with the Changing World speaker series, featuring thought leaders from a variety of fields. These include (see videos below):
- Jennifer Lawton, president of MakerBot. MakerBot is three-dimensional printer technology. If you are not familiar with 3-D printing, it’s a growing industry. Practitioners are already integrating the technology into building practices with large format 3-D printers, with a significant potential impact on real estate.
- Brad Katsuyama, president and chief executive officer of IEX. Katsuyama is the focus of Flash Boys, a nonfiction book by Michael Lewis about high-frequency trading in financial markets, and will explain how IEX is using technology to create a fair trading environment and fundamentally changing the stock market.
- Scott Heiferman of Meetup, the world’s largest network of local groups, will talk about the importance of creating and connecting communities and how people can change their personal world—or the whole world—by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference. More than 9,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.
- Vincent Stanley of Patagonia will share how the outdoor clothing and gear company has successfully built a brand that is immediately identified with a more active, healthier, and greener lifestyle. The tensions between marketing and sustainability, the public’s influence on the direction of the brand, and the trade-offs that Patagonia has addressed throughout its growth will be explored.
Keynote speakers will also include: Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, former editor of TIME magazine and former CEO of CNN, who will speak on Thursday; and Jamie Dimon, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, will be a keynote speaker on Tuesday. Dimon will talk with William J. Ferguson, cochairman and co-CEO of FPL Advisory Group, about leadership. Ferguson’s book, Leadership for the Long Term, is being published this fall by ULI.
There will also be a crowdsourced concurrent session, based on ideas submitted and voting done at ideas.uli.org. This year’s winner is Creating Healthy Places: The Evolution of Food Districts in Retail Real Estate and comes to us from two members of ULI Australia.
The 2014 ULI Fall Meeting Steering Committee, which is responsible for providing input on programming and highlighting New York’s considerable assets, is being co-chaired by Jeff Blau, chief executive officer of the Related Companies, and Rob Speyer, co–chief executive officer and president of Tishman Speyer.
“There is no more compelling or impactful real estate story than that of New York, and, after ten years, we are excited to again host the Fall Meeting,” Blau says. “One unique distinguishing factor of the ULI meeting is the tangible future investment and development activity that can be directly triggered by the diverse membership of ULI visiting the city.”
“The value of bringing leading developers and land use experts from around the world to New York City is extraordinary,” says Speyer. “We all can anticipate an incredible week of idea gathering and information sharing that can impact global issues in a meaningful way.”
Blau will also speak at the meeting as part of a panel on global capital markets, which will also feature Goh Kok Huat, CEO and president of GIC Real Estate, the government of Singapore’s investment corporation, among others.
The 2014 ULI Fall Meeting Host Committee, which is charged with showcasing the city’s urban development successes to attendees, is being cochaired by Cia Buckley Marakovits, chief investment officer for Dune Real Estate Partners, and Marty Burger, chief executive officer of Silverstein Properties.
“We are incredibly pleased to bring the Fall Meeting to New York. It’s a city at the epicenter of all the tremendous forces of change—demographic, economic, social, environmental, and technological in scope—that are reshaping what is built and where it’s built,” says Buckley Marakovits.
“Having the world’s foremost real estate experts convening in one of the world’s most exciting cities is a powerful combination that is making this a must-attend event,” Burger adds.
ULI New York, which serves ULI members in the New York metropolitan area, is the Institute’s largest district council, with nearly 2,200 members. “One of ULI’s greatest strengths is its impact at the local level,” says ULI New York chairman Robert C. Lieber, executive managing director of the Island Capital Group. “Having the Fall Meeting in New York presents a unique opportunity to highlight the substantive impact our members have made on the built environment individually, and through their involvement with the district council.”
Over the past 25 years, the Institute has tapped the expertise of its members for service on ULI advisory panels, making recommendations on redevelopment throughout the New York metro area. In 1991, a panel offered advice on improving access to the John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports; in 1996, ULI provided a redevelopment strategy for Governors Island. In 2004, ULI provided advice on rebuilding the neighborhoods adjacent to the World Trade Center site. And most recently, in 2013, the Institute convened a panel to advise on improving the resiliency of neighborhoods destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.
