Skip to content

Insights

Pre-event edition b2bv2v26 London 8 September 2026 The Skyline, Tower Suites by Blue Orchid, City of London
A speaker and three panellists on the low stage at The Skyline, Tower Suites, Tower Bridge through the window wall behind, a b2bv2v26 London Canvas session
About the edition

The room, on the record.

Edition II of the RealTimes Dialogue of Skyscrapers pairs the Burj Khalifa & The Shard, and it runs as b2bv2v26 London. On the evening of 8 September 2026, 101 senior real estate leaders gather at The Skyline, Tower Suites by Blue Orchid, across three canvases: Vision, the SkyScraper Dialogue and Value. Some of the argument is published before that evening. The rest, the arguments the room itself found most persuasive, is published after it.

RealTimes Editorial Desk Four pieces written ahead of the evening are published below. Further pre-event pieces follow as they are ready, and the recap coverage follows 8 September 2026.

About b2bv2v26 London

What is the Dialogue of Skyscrapers, Edition II?

b2bv2v, "Back to Business, Vision to Value", is the RealTimes premium evening for senior commercial real estate leaders. Edition I set the Burj Khalifa against Varso Tower of Warsaw. Edition II brings the conversation to the City of London, in the light of The Shard, with the room built around three canvases.

  • Vision: futurists and leading architects on where the built environment is heading.
  • SkyScraper Dialogue: the panel we are building, developers behind The Shard & the Burj Khalifa, and a third skyline, in conversation.
  • Value: the capital that makes towers happen, from LPs and banks to investors.

The full recap edition publishes after the evening of 8 September 2026. The pieces written ahead of the evening are listed in the rail below.

Ahead of the evening

What are we publishing before 8 September?

Some of the argument starts before the room does. This rail holds the pieces written in the run-up to the evening, the positions our curators and the RealTimes desk carry into the building. They publish as they are ready, one at a time. The three canvas rails below are a different thing: they hold the recap coverage, and none of it exists until after 8 September 2026.

Four pieces are published and linked below: the curator of Canvas I on how London should grow, and a three-part RealTimes series testing the platform an urbanist says he will stand on in 2028. A piece on the venue is still in preparation, and no link appears on it until it is ready.

Daylight panorama over the Tower of London toward The Shard, the City neighbourhood of The Skyline at Tower Suites, host room for b2bv2v26 London
Ahead of the evening In preparation

London's Next Growth Challenge: Plan Better, Build More, Adapt Faster

Before the room meets, the curator of Canvas I sets out what he believes London's growth debate keeps getting wrong. Height is settled borough by borough when it is a metropolitan question, he argues, and uncertainty in the planning system prices itself into a scheme years before anything is built. His answer runs through repeatable mid-rise housing, what he calls gentle density, through strengthening the local centres London already has rather than importing the 15-minute city wholesale, and through treating existing buildings as structures that can learn a second use.

Peter Murray OBE, urbanist, curator and convenor, who curates Canvas I: Vision Not published yet. Nothing on this page links to it until it is. Read the piece →
A seated audience of real estate, investment and banking professionals at b2bv2v26 London, the industry an urbanist says he would represent as Mayor
Ahead of the evening In preparation

A constituency that is not a place

Part one. An urbanist says he will stand for Mayor of London in 2028, and he made the declaration unprompted, in the opening seconds of a recorded conversation. A constituency in London politics is ordinarily a place. The one he has named is an industry, spread across every borough, and it does not vote as a bloc.

RealTimes Editorial Desk Not published yet. Nothing on this page links to it until it is. Read the piece →
The open-air rooftop terrace at Tower Suites with The Shard beyond the balustrade, the London skyline whose development charges are fixed years before anything is built
Ahead of the evening In preparation

The charge that cannot build a home

Part two. London already levies the instrument the platform calls for: a fixed charge, published years in advance, priced per square metre, payable by every builder regardless of size. The Mayor sets it personally. It raised a fraction of the money that matters, and by law it cannot be spent on affordable housing.

RealTimes Editorial Desk Not published yet. Nothing on this page links to it until it is. Read the piece →
The Tower of London, Tower Bridge and The Shard at dusk, the London skyline a mayor can and cannot reshape from City Hall
Ahead of the evening In preparation

What a mayor can actually change

Part three. Section 106 sits in an Act of Parliament and is administered by the boroughs, which puts most of it beyond City Hall. Provision by provision, this is what the office can and cannot do, and why the fixed charge that has run at City Hall since April 2012 never replaced the thing the platform wants replaced.

RealTimes Editorial Desk Not published yet. Nothing on this page links to it until it is. Read the piece →
The Tower of London, Tower Bridge and The Shard at dusk, the sightline from The Skyline at Tower Suites, host room for b2bv2v26 London on 8 September 2026
Ahead of the evening In preparation

The building the evening happens in

A piece on the venue itself, which is a more interesting asset than a room hire suggests. Tower Suites by Blue Orchid is owner-operated, unusual among London hotels, and it was delivered in 2018 on a site that previously held a London Metropolitan University building. It stands on Minories, a street in the middle of repositioning itself, which makes the address worth reading to a room that prices exactly that kind of change.

RealTimes Editorial Desk Not written yet. Publishing ahead of 8 September 2026. Read the piece →

Vision

What did the futurists and architects argue for?

The first canvas of the evening looks forward: futurists and leading architects on the ideas that will define the next generation of towers and the cities that hold them. The pieces below publish after the event.

The open-air rooftop terrace at Tower Suites with The Shard rising beyond the balustrade, where the b2bv2v26 London evening moves outdoors
Vision Coming after the event

The view from the top of the argument

The Vision canvas, on the record: what the architects and futurists on the Skyline stage believe the next decade of the skyline demands, and where the room agreed or pushed back.

Publishing after 8 September 2026

SkyScraper Dialogue

What did the Burj Khalifa & The Shard actually argue for?

The centrepiece of Edition II is the panel we are building: developers behind The Shard & the Burj Khalifa, and a third skyline, in direct conversation on two decades of vertical ambition, a desert port and a City tower, and what they reveal about where capital is willing to build next. Invitations are out; the roster is published as seats confirm. The piece below publishes after the event.

Senior real estate investors seated for a Canvas session at The Skyline, Tower Suites, the Tower of London and The Shard in the glazing, b2bv2v26 London
SkyScraper Dialogue Coming after the event

What the Burj Khalifa & The Shard actually argued for

Drawn from the SkyScraper Dialogue on stage and the conversations that followed it in the room: what two towers, a desert port and a City landmark, reveal about where capital builds next.

Publishing after 8 September 2026

Value

Where does the capital stand?

The closing canvas turns to the money: the LPs, banks and investors who decide which visions get built. What the capital side of the room found persuasive, and what it did not, publishes here after the event.

Guests in conversation over drinks in the rooftop lounge at The Skyline, Tower Suites, golden hour over the Tower of London and The Shard, b2bv2v26 London
Value Coming after the event

Who is willing to fund the next skyline

The Value canvas, on the record: LPs, banks and investors on the appetite, the discipline and the conditions under which capital commits to the towers of the next cycle.

Publishing after 8 September 2026
Tickets on sale

Every piece here is written towards one evening

The series runs ahead of a single night at The Skyline, where three canvases put these arguments to the people who have to act on them.

Buy your ticket

101 places at The Skyline London, Tuesday 8 September 2026. Standard £240, Elite Advisors £360, VIP Patron £1,999.

b2bv2v26 London · #b2bv2v26-London
Event Terms Privacy Notice Insights Data requests contact@RealTimes.co Why David Hockney

Visual language for this edition takes inspiration from the flat, saturated color and bold linework of David Hockney. RealTimes is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, David Hockney or his estate.

Chat with Dominika about B2BV2V London