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On November 2nd and 3rd, a global delegation of of urban thinkers and innovators will congregate in Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) 2015 Toronto Symposium. This year's event will focus on the theme of 'Emerging Trends and City Building,' with a two-day, interdisciplinary series of seminars and breakout sessions exploring the future of urban land use.
According to Richard Joy, Executive Director of ULI Toronto, the symposium's interdisciplinary perspective serves to foster an understanding of urban issues within symbiotic webs of connectivity. "Understanding cities can't be isolated from understanding the wider trends in the world around them," Joy explains, highlighting ULI's increasingly holistic approach towards urbanism, which analyzes cities within the larger context—and confluence—of socio-economic, cultural, technological, and architectural trends.
"ULI's broad mandate is to promote responsible urban land use," Joy tells us, "and understanding what constitutes responsible land use in the 21st century necessitates taking a broad approach." Striving towards a "diversified understanding of the synergies that drive the urban realm," ULI's Toronto Symposium will bring together experts from an exceptionally wide range of fields.
The symposium is divided between large seminars and panel discussions—attended by all participants—and more intimate, concurrently held breakout sessions. The plenary sessions will include presentations by world-renowned urban theorists Richard Florida (above) and Ellen Dunham Jones, as well as a panel discussion on disruptive technologies moderated by the City of Toronto's Chief Planner, Jennifer Keesmat (below).
Meanwhile, the four scheduled breakout sessions—featuring a total of twelve discussion groups—will delve into more specifically focused topics, encompassing a wide range of perspectives on the future of urban life. Each participant can choose which of the concurrent breakout sessions they wish to attend, with the topics discussed including transportation, urban design, infrastructure, cultural and demographic changes, public-private partnerships, and even driverless cars.
Finally, the closing plenary session will feature a presentation by noted author and academic Aseem Inam—also serving as the Director of TRULAB: Laboratory for Designing Urban Transformation—titled "Transforming Cities / Transforming Urbanism."
A full schedule of the events, including more detailed descriptions of the plenary and breakout sessions, is available on the ULI Toronto website. A email updated the cut off date as today for the last day to register for the event, with a link to the registration page available here.
