Monday, October 24, 2011

Monday, October 24, 2011

Six years ago this evening, I was sunburned and exhilarated, but not exactly relaxed. Donald, Chris, and I had pulled off a great golf tournament that day, an energetic “pre-event” to the 2005 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles. As the executive director for the ULI district council hosting 6,000+ real estate professionals from around the world, I felt the responsibility of throwing a week of memorable gatherings. My committees really delivered.

A couple of LA deputy mayors gave ULI leadership special access to the Bradley Room atop City Hall for the kick-off party that night, and the rest of the week at the Los Angeles Convention Center was a blur of special programs, receptions, and mobile tours – all for which the sponsorship committee and I raised over a million dollars. That week’s highlight, though, had to be the chance to perform with Akemi at Walt Disney Concert Hall for the ULI Trustees Dinner.

ULI has returned to LA for this year’s Fall Meeting, and this time I got to be a guest at tonight’s leadership party hosted by Rick Caruso at his Americana project. Long-time ULI pals were coming up to me tonight to say how they still remember Akemi’s performance as their favorite part of the 2005 Fall Meeting.

This isn’t the best photo, but it contains some of my best friends in the world: Donald, Sandra, Ron, and Doug. They also happen to be among the best real estate minds in the world, literally, with decades of experience among them developing projects from Shanghai to Moscow, Mexico City to Lagos. It was wonderful to have the ULI roads lead to Glendale tonight.

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