The success of ULI’s 2019 Spring Meeting—which drew 4,300 attendees, the highest ever for a Spring Meeting—is indicative of the Institute’s ongoing efforts to improve the member experience, ULI Global Chief Executive Officer Ed Walter said in remarks at the meeting’s closing session. He praised outgoing Global Chairman Thomas Toomey for his leadership in the creation and implementation of ULI’s Global Strategic Plan, which seeks to strengthen member engagement and impact.

Development of women leaders in the real estate business was the theme at the Women’s Leadership Initiative and Larson Leadership Initiative Luncheon during the 2019 ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville. Bethany Logan Ropa, managing director at UBS Investment Bank, interviewed Karen Hutton, president and CEO of Hutton, a diversified real estate development and construction firm based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

ULI Global Chief Executive Officer W. Edward Walter is the featured thought leader in the latest edition of “Leading Voices in Real Estate.” Walter reflects on his early years in real estate with Trammell Crow Residential; his service as chief financial officer and chief executive officer for Host Hotels and Resorts Inc.; why real estate continues to attract the best and brightest; and what he believes distinguishes ULI from other real estate organizations.

Speaking at the recent ULI Europe Conference, two mayors described the paths that elected officials in their cities took in rebuilding from the economic collapse of manufacturing, while embracing diversity as a means to turn around their cities’ fortunes.

ULI Global Chief Executive Officer W. Edward Walter provided highlights of the Institute’s Global Strategic Plan, which will help strengthen member engagement and impact, during remarks at the 2018 Fall Meeting’s closing general session.

Avenue Place/Avenue Terrace in Houston; Clybourn 1200 in Chicago; Keauhou Lane in Honolulu; Conway Center in Washington, D.C.; and Harbor Place Residences in Haverhill, Massachusetts, were announced as winners of the 2018 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award. The State of New York Mortgage Finance Agency and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority are joint winners of the 2018 Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award.

One of the most difficult challenges for those seeking to adopt emerging technologies in commercial real estate is justifying the cost of implementing such measures. A recent ULI event in Boston highlighted the benefits of the evolving standards on health and wellness by five industry practitioners.

Former Host Hotels and Resorts executive will lead implementation of the Global Strategic Plan. Walter brings to ULI more than 35 years of management experience in real estate across a variety of disciplines, including hotels, multifamily housing, and land development, with a strong emphasis on capital markets and investments.

In early August, a ULI Advisory Services panel spent a week touring area development projects in Erie, Pennslyvania, focusing on Erie’s downtown revitalization and working within the city’s economic and cultural environment.

Nearly 7,000 of the world’s foremost leaders in the real estate and land use industry will convene at the 2018 ULI Fall Meeting, set for October 8–11 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.