Summer is a great time to look back and look forward.

Looking back, 2014/15 was a year of great growth for ULI Toronto. Membership grew by a stunning 50% and event attendance rose by almost 60%. These numbers are important. It shows that you are getting more deeply involved in ULI and that we are connecting with the land and development community – for that, we thank you.

Looking back also reveals another story. It’s a value story that speaks to the leadership of a global multi-sector organization focused on advancing the responsible use of land. It’s a brand story that more and more of our region’s land use and real estate leaders want to be a part of.

ULI is unique in a marketplace of dynamic city and region-building organizations. Our professional diversity, spanning public and private sectors across an international network, has made ULI the home to the region’s most established land use professionals and companies. And it is attracting a new generation of urban development leaders. People are coming together to advance a vision of a more prosperous, more mobile, healthier and greener future.

We signaled a deepening commitment to work with the public sector to advance our global mission. We recruited some of the region’s most senior public servants into our leadership network. And we strengthened our relationships with the political leadership in the region.

We hosted an impressive array of events and programs, including such cornerstone events as our PwC Emerging Trends in Real Estate, our Fireside Chat with Mayor John Tory, and our regionally focused Pearson Airport approaching a capacity event featuring an international panel of experts. We launched a new annual gala, Meet the Chiefs (regional city planners), and introduced a spectrum of special member only events including a young leaders series hosted by our annual sponsor companies. Our second Tour de Toronto waterfront bike event attracted over 150 riders, and our geographical programming reach extended out to Hamilton.

Looking forward, we are going to take ULI to the next level. We need to more boldly embrace the land use issues that are shaping our region. We cannot not sit on the sidelines of the major land use issues of our time.

This means venturing into new territory in the coming year confident that by leveraging the breadth of our professional membership and tapping the experience of our international network, we can improve the caliber of public debate. This means better understanding the Toronto Region in the context of global experience. It means showcasing Toronto as a global leader. And it means working with region builders to better define the vision that collectively we need to work toward – a more conscious and purposeful approach to city building.

We know that ULI is at its best when it is leading civic discussion and challenging all sides of an issue to elevate their game. Our greatest value is to help city builders contextualize each building block of our region within the context of building a future-focused global city.

I welcome you all to join us this year, whether you are interested in becoming more engaged in the dialogue, or are coming back to us after a brief break. We want our entire community to be a part of something that we feel is going to help change the face of Toronto, and the future of our region.

Enjoy the summer,

Sincerely,

Rob