ī-ˈdē-əa
formulated thought or opinion | Merriam websters dictionary
Sharing ideas. Gained through four decades asking ‘why?’ To help audiences think differently or create a community call-to-action. Get my ideas three ways:
Speak. Keynote or in-house training? Inspired stories and real solutions. Spark a conversation about how to ‘develop different’.
Podcast. My Small quest has provided the opportunity to share lessons and ideas with like minds across a range of engaging podcasts.
Write. Provocative articles, white papers and now Building Small. In-depth ideas and the research behind them. Available below.
“ Jim was great and set an optimistic tone for the day. Great message and excellent public speaker. His cadence and content were well executed… it could have even been longer! Having Jim open the summit was the best.”
—HOUSING THE BAY | April 2025, ULI San Francisco
2026 Small Talks
FEBRUARY
Saving Spaces or Creating Places? Keynote – Colorado Preservation Inc Annual Conference, Denver, CO
MARCH
Doing Development Different
Keynote | ULI Carolinas Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC
JUNE
Getting the Development You Want
Keynote | Indiana Economic Development Summit Carmel, IN
OCTOBER
Housing for All
Keynote | Pikes Peak Housing Network Colorado Springs, CO
NOVEMBER
The Missing Middle No One Talks About
Flash Talk | Yimbytown
Raleigh, NC
2025 Notable Keynotes
Housing the Bay ULI SF San Francisco
Statewide Housing Summit South Dakota Housing Authority, Pierre, SD
Build Maine State Urbanism Conference, Skowhegan, ME
University Lectures + Case Study Studios
MIT Center for Real Estate
NC State University
SMU Cox School of Business
Tulane University
UC Berkeley – MRED+D
University of Miami – MRED+U
KEYNOTES
Build Maine Annual Forum
June 2025 | Build Maineʻs annual development and policy conference brings together a wide range of actors involved in creating more walkable and livable communities. | VIEW
Saving Places, Historic Colorado
February 2026 | Jim discusses the intersection of Historic Preservation, Adaptive Reuse and Building Small. | VIEW
TEDx Sonoma talk on making Small Big!
March 2022 | Jim reminds us of what is truly important and the joy we get from the small things in life | VIEW
PODCASTS
Building Better Cities
May 2026 | Why local developers matter more than ever. | LISTEN
December 2025 | Community and Coaching for Entrepreneurial Developers | LISTEN
Transforming Cities
June 2023 | Authentic’s Chris Arnold did an engaging job of getting me to talk about Building Small and more importantly my WHY behind my WHAT. | LISTEN
The Messy City
August 2024 | Kevin Klinkenberg’s messy city ethos of embracing change, uncertainty and local initiative for our cities and towns aligns perfectly with Small. In this three way conversation with Upzoned’s Abby Newsham we talk about all things Small. | LISTEN
The Impact of Small
January 2022 | My fast paced interview with coworking thought leader Jamie Russo | VIEW
August 2022 |My conversation with Nick Redding about the intersection of Small and preservation | LISTEN
“Jim recently gave an outstanding keynote, inspiring our audience with practical strategies for creating vibrant, human-scale neighborhoods. His clarity, depth of experience, and down-to-earth approach left a lasting impression on everyone in attendance. I highly recommend him as a speaker and a thought leader.“
—BUILDING A BETTER SAN LUIS OBISPO | october 2025
SPEAKING & TEACHING
KEYNOTES AND PANELS
My presentations combine a conversational and accessible style with a clear framework and specific examples. Using either the UrbanGreen platform for sustainable and resilient real estate education, or CRAFT Development for small scale incremental development tools and techniques. I strive to ensure my audience leaves informed and excited about making positive change in the built environment.
STUDIO LECTURES AND TEACHING
My real world experience as a developer, combined with years of consulting makes for provocative and inspired studio course lectures, crits and case study exercises. Using my HBS style Case Study, graduate students ʻliveʻ the life of a small developer and have to address the challenges of managing risks associated with Small.
“…one of my top book recommendations for anyone who has approached me with interest in development. I’m beyond thrilled for the success of this book. “
—Sam Day | Samuel Day Architects
WRITING
Articles, white papers and now Building Small, provide the written form for sharing or exploring ideas in more depth.
Building Small
2021 | The seminal book that defines the what, why and how of small scale, incremental development. | MORE ABOUT BUILDING SMALL
Seeing Small
2018 | Contribution to Main Street America’s annual report, sharing lessons learned from over 14 cities. | READ
RESILIENCE ALONG THE RURAL TO URBAN TRANSECT
2015 | White paper for ULI exploring how resilience changes by community size and location | READ
Evolution of the Planned Community
2011 | Thought paper that looks at how Planned Communities are likely to change in the next decade. | READ
Reinventing Real Estate
2010 | A look at the opportunity for more responsible real estate investing coming out of the 2008 downturn | READ
Developing Sustainable Planned Communities
2007 | Contributions to book that served as an early roadmap for incorporating sustainability into the community development process | PURCHASE
Greenfield Development Without Sprawl
2004 | White paper that tackled the question ‘can planned communities be built without adding to sprawl? | READ
AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN RESORT COMMUNITIES
1995| A look at creating more affordable housing in expensive resort communities as a way to ensure long term viability of the local economy | READ
“My Strengths Finder™ profile says I am fascinated by ideas and enjoy digging through complexity to connect seemingly disparate things in elegantly simple ways. This is reflected in my writings and presentations as I try to show different approaches to solving thorny issues in an enlightening and educational manner.”
ULI Advisory Services Panel Chair 2011
Moscow, Russia