Curious about the Chicago Product Council initiative?
We sat down with returning Chicago Product Council Members to discuss all things CPC. Check out their insight on the opportunity, and consider applying today!

Bill Dvorak
Vice President, Development, Pritzker Realty Group, LLC

Q: What motivated you to initially get involved in CPC, and how did the program compare to your expectations?

A: The Council’s allow the participants to go beyond traditional networking by engaging the group in discussions on relevant topics.  As a member you benefit from hearing different perspectives and ideas on the issues we all face.  I was surprised at how much I learned from the various group meetings and the deeper connections I was able to develop with my fellow council members.

Q: Tell us about one of your favorite experiences from this past year’s program.
A: In one of our group meetings we broke out into smaller sessions and discussed issues related to affordable housing and neighborhood gentrification.  Since each participant in the 10-person panel came from a different sector of real estate, it was an enlightening conversation where a variety of different perspectives were provided.  Not everyone agreed, so the dialogue on differing viewpoints was also very interesting.

Read Bill’s Complete Interview

Tyler Hague
Vice President, Colliers International

Q: What motivated you to initially get involved in the Chicago Product Councils, and how did the program compare to your expectations?
A: When I first applied, I viewed the product councils as a perfect way to get introduced and subsequently more involved and integrated into the ULI Chicago network.  The product councils allowed me a fast track opportunity to get exposure to everything ULI encompasses and the program has vastly exceeded my expectations.  The quality of people, programming, and content is second to none and it opened my eyes to what ULI had to offer.  Ever since I have tried to get as involved in ULI as possible and I just renewed for my fourth year on the council.

Q: This program is open to every ULI Chicago member in any industry category – how have you experienced and seen this as a benefit?
A: One of the best things about the councils is they are extremely diverse in regard to career disciplines.  In my council we have architects, lenders, attorneys, brokers, investors, asset managers, engineers, urban planners and this diversity is very helpful in allowing members to become more well rounded real estate practitioners. 

Read Tyler’s Complete Interview

Meghan Webster
Senior Associate, Gensler

Q: Tell us about one of your favorite experiences from this past year’s program.
A: As one of the Vice Chairs this year, I was involved in putting the program content together, and we’d invited Anijo Punnen Mathew from the Institute of Design at IIT to talk about the impact of market disruptors on the future of development. His presentation was really fantastic, but what was even more exciting were the reactions and engagement in the room that he elicited. People were compelled to dream into his ideas and think aspirationally about how technologies like driverless cars and digital platforms will transform the way we live, work, and play.  It’s exciting to think about how conversations like these collectively contribute to our industry’s continuous evolution.

Q: What inspired you to get more involved with CPC, moving on to serve as a Blue Flight Vice-Chair?
A: This is a role that is very rewarding in the sense that I get to do what I really enjoy: working with others to think up topics that are current and impactful and bringing together smart people to talk about them. In addition, we all have really busy lives and constant demands, and I feel a responsibility in assembling a program line-up for each of these meetings where people leave the meeting feeling that their time has been well-spent and that they learned something. I hope people have felt that way this year.

Read Meghan’s Complete Interview

Applications for the 2018 Chicago Product Councils are now being accepted. Learn more about the Chicago Product Council initiative and Apply Today!