Following the recent completion of City Development Plans and the continuing review of the National Planning Framework: Ireland 2040, this year’s ULI Ireland Annual Conference focused on moving from Strategy to Delivery.

The ULI Ireland Annual Conference 2023 took place on the 19th of November and brought together over 150 multidisciplinary industry leaders to discuss the most critical topics impacting the sustainable development of Ireland’s cities.

Our keynote speaker, Ben Rogers of the London School of Economics, highlighted the enduring and growing role of cities around the globe, the benefits of living in cities, and the ‘soft’ influential power of cities. From ancient origins, cities continue to reinvent and reenergise however, they face some long-term challenges, including climate change, mobility, housing, and social inequality. City capacity and knowledge and skills resources are important issues for cities, including more effective collating and use of data for decision making. 

The first-panel session on ‘Future Proofing Cities’ included city management representatives from Dublin, Cork, and Limerick and drew on lessons learned from Copenhagen, where connectivity and public-private collaboration is a key feature of city development. Comparisons of resources available across cities highlighted a desire for more devolved authority and included a discussion on the merits of a directly elected executive mayor with the accompanying powers across all key city functions and agencies. 

Amongst many interesting points, session two on ‘Designing Cities and 15 Minute Cities’ discussed the need to move towards a more visual, 3D planning methodology to engage and communicate with all stakeholders more effectively and to replace the existing planning system, which is somewhat antiquated and not working efficiently. The session looked at the opportunity and benefits of having a distinctive Irish flavour to a city, what it looks and feels like, and what makes them different from other cities. 

The final session was given over to ULI Young Leaders to articulate what they wanted from their cities. They spoke of the need for greater collaboration, removal of blockages, better use of data, and more rapid delivery of city plans and key objectives. 

The annual conference is just one event in the annual ULI calendar, which includes specialist topics, breakfast meetings, site visits, and lunch & learn sessions, amongst other activities. As a multidisciplinary member organization, ULI is uniquely positioned to meet industry leaders across all disciplines connected with development.