If you’re riding the Canada Line or walking around the West End next week, you might see groups of earnest strangers taking note of the relationship of public spaces — city sidewalks, parks and waterfront — to the buildings that frame those spaces.

Or how many of those buildings are mixed-use, incorporating local and international businesses at ground level, that serve neighbourhood residents and tourists alike while providing office space and homes in the upper stories.

Or how the famous slender towers of Vancouver preserve the city’s viewscapes towards the mountains. In short, they’ll be studying what’s known in planning circles as “Vancouverism.” And they’ll be here from all over the world.

These observant experts are delegates to the Urban Land Institute Spring Meeting: 3,000 professionals who live, eat, and breathe the very things that Vancouverites obsess over — urban planning, affordable housing, quality of life issues, green building technology, real estate marketing, and the importance of creating meaningful living spaces and vibrant communities. Most of the attendees are U.S.-based, but we have delegates/experts coming from Australia, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, UAE and the UK.

Founded in 1936 and based in Washington, DC, the Urban Land Institute is a member-based non-profit research and education organization representing the entire spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines working in private enterprise and public service.

The ULI convene twice each year, and this Vancouver Spring Meeting marks the first time that the ULI has met outside of the United States. ULI is a place where leaders come to grow professionally and personally through sharing, mentoring, and problem solving. With pride, ULI members commit to the best in land use policy and practice.

Alan Boniface is a Vancouver architect at DIALOG and the Chair of the ULI BC District Council. He says: “This will be the largest real estate convention of its kind to ever be held in Vancouver. The city is of great interest to delegates. We’re seen as an incubator for new ideas and innovation.”

There are the obvious reasons why this conference is good for the city in terms of economic spinoffs for the hospitality industry. But Boniface points out: “Unlike many conventions, where attendees only impression of the city comes from a taxi to and from the airport to the host site, the ULI members will be fanning out throughout Vancouver to study neighbourhoods and see how the ideas of what’s known as ‘Vancouverism’ are being implemented.”

Tour topics include Gastown, a Fine Balance: Treading Between ‘Hip’, ‘History,’ and ‘Heroin.’ At the other end of the socio-economic scale, there’s Vancouver’s Finest: A Look at the Luxury Condominium Market. (Yes, the latter one sold out quickly).

The Olympic Village (Southeast Shore of False Creek), Simon Fraser University’s award-winning UniverCity project, and the West End — the neighbourhood perhaps most associated with the positive aspects of Vancouverism — will all be explored. Tours to Surrey, Whistler, and waypoints along the Canada Line are also scheduled.