by hans peter meyer
Brenda Southam is the Executive Officer of the Real Estate Institute of BC. REIBC is one of six partners that have organized the 2009 BC Land Summit. This is the second BC Land Summit that REIBC has been involved in, the first having taken place in 2004. CIT talked to Brenda on May 22, 2009 in Whistler on the final day of the 2009 BC Land Summit.
hpm: What are the highlights of the 2009 BC Land Summit so far for you?
Brenda: At this point it has to be the keynote presentation by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last night. He was fabulous.
It’s also wonderful to see how many people came out for this year’s BC Land Summit. We have over 840 people registered. We’re very happy to have so many at a time like this. And everything is running smoothly, from a conference organizational point of view. We’re very happy.
hpm: What stood out in Robert Kennedy’s talk? Especially it as it relates to the concerns of REIBC members.
Brenda: He talked about putting a new energy grid in place. Right now the existing grid isn’t able to efficiently move energy from sources to end-users. This will take a lot of land. Land use professionals are going to have be thinking about this as they go about their work in the future.
hpm: What are people saying to you on the floor about this year’s BC Land Summit?
Brenda: The feedback has all been very positive. Everyone’s really happy. I’m hearing that people like the speakers, the number of different sessions that are going on, the number of people who are hear from across the province, they’re happy with how things are organized. The delegates are very pleased with the whole conference itself.
hpm: The conference is ending today: What are you looking forward to as it comes to a close?
Brenda: I’m very interested in Tim Pringle’s presentation of the REIBC research on housing issues in BC’s northern communities. The research deals with a range of issues: land uses, housing, who’s going to be living in these communities, what kind of housing stock is currently in place, what needs to be built – this is important information from our perspective. And the research that Tim will be presenting on is an example of the original research that REIBC commissions. The BC Land Summit is a great opportunity to showcase the research and REIBC’s interest in supporting the land use professions. [Editor's note: Tim Pringle talked about this research in a February interview with CIT.]
hpm: How are people in the real estate industry talking about the BC Land Summit today?
Brenda: They’re finding it very beneficial. There are a lot of different perspectives being presented. So industry people are hearing things they might not ordinarily be exposed to. We’re very happy about this. REIBC has opened up its membership to include planners, for example, so it’s good to hear that this mix is working.
hpm: Why is it important to have this kind of event?
Brenda: We’ve got a wide range of land use professionals participating. It’s one of the only ways that they can all get together, get to know who they are, we can share the same information. This is becoming more and more important as there is so much information, so many new ideas out there. Having a place to share common information is important for the work they do as professionals, but also for the environment, and the larger world outside their professions.
This has been a great event, one that a lot of people are very happy with. We’ve got a great showcase, put together by the BC Society of Landscape Architects, that’s been of interest to a wide range of people. I’d like to thank the Sea-to-Sky people we hired as our event planners. It’s been a very good event.
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End note:
The 2009 BC Land Summit was a gathering of over 800 land use practitioners from across the province. The Summit took place over May 20-22 in Whistler, and was hosted by
• The British Columbia Association of the Appraisal Institute of Canada
The Real Estate Foundation of BC was a major funder of the event in 2004 and again in 2009.
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