Over 200 guests attended this year’s ULI Germany Leadership Award and Urban Leader Forum in Dortmund. The city was a fitting location for the event, as it is showing great progress in the transition from an industrial town to a leading science and technology hub.

Patron Lord Mayor Ullrich Sierau from the City of Dortmund welcomed event participants to discuss the influences of digitalisation, urban change, venture capital, urban drivers for growth, and technological innovations on urban planning and the real estate sector.

Tom Murphy, Former Mayor of Pittsburgh and Senior Resident Fellow at ULI, presented Pittsburgh as a best practice example of a sustainable transformation from an industrial town to a city that attracts new start-ups and is on the forefront of technological innovations.

Dr. Gereon Uerz, Future Foresight Leader at Arup, gave his insights into a huge variety of realistic urban and housing innovations, such as energy-producing algal facades, urban gardening for food self-sufficiency, vertical forests, and high-rise buildings made of wood. He made clear that the building industry has to adopt these changes quickly to become more sustainable.

Additional expert speakers included Ronald Huikeshoven, AM; Florian Reiff, Tishman Speyer; Lord Mayor Horst Schneider, City of Offenbach; Silke Seidel, DSW21 and Borussia Dortmund GmbH; Rold Buch, Vonovia SE; Michael O. Schmutzer, Design Offices; Alexander Ubach-Utermöhl, blackprintpartners; Dr Thomas Held, Analysen & Strategien; and Dr. Markus Wiedenmann, Art-Invest Real Estate.  Over the course of the day, these speakers discussed how innovation can contribute to urban development and how cities can adapt to the changes brought on by innovation. They agreed that cities must react quickly and bring together relevant players and thought-leaders to encourage and identify urban drivers for growth.

The evening before the forum, ULI Germany recognised key players and organisations that have made extraordinary contributions to land use in Germany at the Leadership Award event. Congratulations to the award recipients: Christian Ulbrich, JLL; Reiner Nagel, Bundesstift Bundesstiftung Baukulturhe; the Urban Media Project; and the Genossenschaft Kalkbreite.