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Our post-event report to sponsors
September 18, 2006
Dear Sponsor:
It was about ninety days ago that two hundred attendees
convened at the first Gaining Ground Conference in Victoria.
There has been a significant amount of post-conference
activity—only a small part of which is described
in this letter. But principally, I want to take this
opportunity to thank you for your sponsorship and endorsement
of Gaining Ground.
This was the first conference of its kind in Victoria—described
by attendee (and conference veteran) Ed McMahon—Senior
Sustainability Fellow at the Urban Land Institute in
Washington, DC—as “a significant regional
conference with world-class speakers.”
The knowledge-sharing level at the conference was high;
the workshops and salons were a vital component in conference
learning; the sheer number of exceptional presenters
and expert resources would normally be found only at
a top-rank national or international conference; and
the access, the opportunity as a registrant to work
shoulder-to-shoulder with these remarkable people for
two-and-a-half days was one of the best and most compelling
features of Gaining Ground.
Attendees came from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico; and
sector interests included sustainable developers, policy
planners, provincial and local government, NGO’s,
scientists, financiers, corporate representatives, consultants,
and community advocates.
We were concerned that this event could be entirely
lost in the shadow of the World Urban Forum and World
Planners Congress, both held on following days in Vancouver.
Instead, Gaining Ground stood on its own merits and
accomplishments; and the responses of attendees, shared
verbally and in written evaluations, indicate that the
quality of the program, the remarkable level of interaction
and information exchange, and the total access throughout
the conference to all of the keynote speakers at Gaining
Ground made the event uniquely valuable.
What most pleased me was the optimism. It was a conference
filled with ‘can-do’ people who are deeply
committed to the cause and goals of sustainability.
If you think about it, this is unusual. At themed conferences
like this, people often convene to talk about issues,
obstacles, problems, impasses. But for two-and-a-half
days at Gaining Ground, speakers and attendees dealt
with the positive shifts in sustainability values and
development practice, and with opportunities to accomplish
even more.
Conference attendees expressed
a strong post-event demand for a second conference—planning
for which has begun already. It is hard to avoid the
feeling that a major convergence is underway regarding
sustainability values and new approaches to land use
and development practice. Gaining Ground did its part
to advance thinking and conversation on these topics,
and to set the stage for future events that will appreciably
build on the success of the initial conference.
Every facet of the conference program reflected the
solid structure and significant content of Gaining Ground.
Other parts of this website contain worthwhile information
from the conference, including a clickable
audio record of all keynote presentations and project
showcases. These are well worth a listen, and will give
you a front-row seat at all of the plenary sessions.
Media interest in the conference was impressive, and
we have posted here some excellent excerpts of the coverage
provided by Focus Magazine.
The conference laid the foundation for an integrative
approach to land use and development; accelerated professional
and public interest regionally in sustainable development
models; and gave every attendee ideas and tools to take
back to their own cities and communities.
As well, the conference yielded practical and immediate
outcomes. These are some that have been personally expressed
to me:
- The principals of Victoria’s largest construction
company came away from the conference with their heads
brimming with ideas for improved sustainable construction
practice within their own company;
- The province, because of the palpable impacts of
the conference, is now planning a sustainability workshop
at the upcoming UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities)
convention;
- UDI (Urban Development Institute) Victoria appropriated
the idea of ‘ethical leadership’ from
the conference and is currently planning to initiate
an industry-driven sustainability audit with municipalities
throughout the Capital Region;
- Motivated by the conference, one attendee is currently
organizing a community-wide sustainability initiative
for the Capital Region so as to broaden community
understanding of, and engagement with, sustainable
development values.
These are extraordinary and meaningful outcomes from
our conference, and they will pay real dividends into
the sustainability account.
Understandably, the conference leaves numerous questions
still to be answered. These include:
- Can the apparent enthusiasm for sustainability lead
us toward widely accepted public values; and can it
be consolidated to produce widespread sustainability
practice in development?
- How can we assist the development industry and
all of the related fields and support industries to
embed sustainability values in their practice and
procedures?
- How do we intensify the current convergence of
interest in sustainable development?
- How do we achieve the tipping point? Is there a
way to generate a highly visible ethical leadership
from business, policy, governance, and other relevant
sectors?
- How do we help government to move even faster to
identify and implement new policies that promote whole
systems approaches, integrative land use innovations,
and sustainable development practices?
- How do we sustain sustainability—what are
the education and training opportunities, and how
do we more firmly establish sustainability principles
as public thought?
Certainly, these questions will inform the shape and
content of the next conference.
With your support and the assistance of the host sponsor,
Center for Urban Innovation, Gaining Ground achieved
its break-even financial objectives; met its attendance
goals; conducted a thoroughly professional event; and,
if evaluations received to-date are any indication,
left its registrants satisfied and eager for another
event.
I thank you for investing in this unusually valuable
conference, particularly at a time when so many other
urban issues programs were going on. If you have any
questions, or wish further information about the first
conference, or would like to become fully acquainted
with the vision of and plans for the next conference,
please be in touch at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Gene Miller
Center For Urban Innovation
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