What a way to begin the year!

Fresh from the holiday break, ULI Toronto launched a Twitter campaign #CityResolve to tap into the civic spirit of the Toronto Region. Residents of the region were asked to identify how they were going to make our city region a better place. The campaign went viral. Within hours our initiative was the number one trending topic on Twitter. Not bad for a day that the Maple Leafs fired their head coach…

The success of the #CityResolve not only revealed a wellspring of civic leadership across the region, it spoke to the power of the Urban Land Institute to inspire politicians, business leaders and citizens of our region to commit to the ULI mandate to build healthier, safer, prosperous, and sustainable communities.

These shared values were on display at our annual ULI/Rotman School of Management event (Jan 28) which explored the Pan Am Village, Toronto’s newest neighbourhood. It featured a star studded panel of Ken Tanenbaum (Kilmer Group), Bruce Kuwabara (KPMB), Peter Clewes (architectsAlliance), and Meg Davis (Waterfront Toronto) – moderated by ULI Toronto’s Chair, Rob Spanier (LWLP). The Canary District community gets its début at this summer’s games and will showcase Toronto’s best example of intelligent urban design and public policy goals producing healthy, affordable and green neighbourhoods. Among many lessons that this project teaches us is that when government (in this case Infrastructure Ontario and Waterfront Toronto) gets out front early with its development expectations, private developers can build better communities.

Looking back to the year past, 2014 proved a pivotal one for ULI Toronto. After nearly a decade of delivering excellence in events and programming, a strategic decision was made to increase our capacity to position us for greater impact as we serve the global mission to promote the responsible use of land. My joining ULI Toronto as its first full-time Executive Director this past summer was a piece of this strategy. Placing greater emphasis on our unique international network and broad multi-sector membership composition (spanning public and private sectors) of ULI is another. This is our strength.

Looking to the year ahead, 2015 will be a transformative one for ULI Toronto. Our budget will more than double and our membership will expand by a more than a third. We will play host to Toronto’s newly elected mayor, John Tory, at our annual Fireside Chat event on March 4. We will launch our first annual regional fundraising gala, Meet the Chiefs, featuring the chief planners from across the Greater Golden Horseshoe on April 7. Our second annual Tour de Toronto will expand to over 200 cyclists on Toronto’s Waterfront (May 24), and our second annual Urban Ideas Competition (April 22) will ignite new energy aimed at building Toronto’s next great 905 ‘huburb” (details announced soon!) On top of all this, 2015 will be a year that we will host at least three major regional and international focused events. We are going global!

In 2015 ULI Toronto will also focus on community impact. This will be a key priority for our soon to be announced Advisory Committee comprised of some of Toronto Regions most respected land use leaders. How can we best leverage our expanded resources and leadership to tangibly improve the quality of life in communities across the region? This is our mission.

ULI Toronto is clearly on a roll.

On behalf of our Management Committee I want to thank those who have been part of our recent success and welcome those who are joining us on the next phase of our exciting growth. ULI Toronto is where smart people come together to shape the future of our city region!