The Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) Singapore is hosting a special daylong tour of the city-state’s cultural and historic sites on the Monday prior to the 2017 ULI Asia Pacific Summit, which takes place June 6–8 at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore. The tour will include the Fullerton Heritage Trail, which traces a path from the hotel through the city with stops at the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall, the Asian Civilization Museum, the Arts House (also known as the Old Parliament House), and other landmarks that give an overview of the nation’s history. The tour will also include visits to the Singapore Botanic Gardens and CDL Green Gallery, the Orchard Road shopping district, and ION Orchard, a 660,000-square-foot (61,300 sq m) shopping mall with more than 400 retail outlets and attached luxury residences.

The tour is intended to encourage WLI members to come to the summit early, immerse themselves in Singapore’s unique culture, and get to know one another through a fun and enriching experience.    Networking with other WLI members and learning from leading female land use professionals in the city-state also are important aspects of the tour. Leaders in design, development, and the public sectors have been invited to participate in a lunch program about creative placemaking and building better cities. The tour will conclude with another educational program on the future of retail at the ION art gallery.

“We hope that the tour will help break the ice,” said Pauline Oh, senior vice president, ULI Asia Pacific. “The camaraderie of the tour will provide a more welcoming and integrated experience with the larger ULI members at the summit.”

WLI Singapore is a relatively new, but very active, WLI chapter. For the past two years, the group has organized events that bring together female leaders in land use to share ideas and best practices and develop the leadership capacity of women in a field traditionally dominated by men in Singapore. The chapter was launched in 2015 with a presentation by Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, the 2016 Nichols Prize laureate and the chief executive officer of Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB).

Register for the WLI Singapore pre-summit tour when you register for the ULI Asia Pacific Summit. Go to: http://apacsummit.uli.org/register/