DUBAI – CTBUH Chapters, Regional Representatives, and Future Leaders Committees (FLCs) met during the CTBUH 2018 Middle East Conference for a focused discussion around the Council’s regional growth and global initiatives. With over 50 individuals in attendance, this was the largest breakout session at the overall CTBUH Leaders Meeting by far.

After opening remarks from meeting Co-Chairs CTBUH Global Initiatives Assistant Nicole McLellan and CTBUH Secretary Tim Neal, President & CEO, CallisonRTKL, McLellan started the meeting with updates on CTBUH’s regional initiatives during 2018. The Council achieved several new records this year – in addition to holding 101 regional events so far in 2018 (compared to 90 in all of 2017), the Council also saw the formation of four new Chapters in Philadelphia, Seattle, Hong Kong, and Scandinavia, which brought the total number of CTBUH Chapters to 10. McLellan ended her presentation with a big thanks to the Leaders in the room for their hard work and efforts throughout the year, and driving the incredible growth seen in 2018. 

Neal followed with an update around potential changes to CTBUH bylaws, including the possibility of CTBUH providing forming Chapters with a small amount of seed funding. The Leaders in the room were incredibly receptive and agreed that this change would be useful to help forming Chapters get off the ground, particularly through supporting local registration costs and legal fees. 

The final presentation was given by CTBUH Global FLC Chair Ilkay C. Standard, Founder, GenX Design & Technology. Standard reviewed progress of global FLC growth throughout 2018, highlighting that there are new CTBUH FLCs forming in Australia, Hong Kong, India, and the UAE. Another major change in 2018 was the creation of a CTBUH Global FLC – this body is comprised of the Chairs of each regional FLC, and is tasked with increasing global collaboration among regional FLCs, as well as providing a collaborative platform to drive events and other initiatives around the world.

The meeting ended with an open discussion around successes, challenges, and future goals, moderated by McLellan and Neal. An interesting idea was brought forth by CTBUH Serbia Representative Milan Jankovic, Director & Co-Founder, 3lite, who proposed that regions with limited CTBUH activity such as Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania could benefit from working together as regional committees to drive initiatives on a multi-country scale. 
CTBUH UK Chapter Board Member Viviana Muscettola, Associate Director, Zaha Hadid Architects noted the need for a higher-level of knowledge-sharing among all CTBUH Chapters and Leaders generally, asking how that could be achieved. This is a key goal of CTBUH, which is continuously striving to increase global communication and collaboration among Chapters, Leaders generally, and CTBUH Members.