IREI’s VIP Infrastructure conference (formerly i3) reached its 12th year in operation in June in Toronto. In VIP Infrastructure’s early days, many institutional investors — particularly in the United States — were new to infrastructure, and much of the discussion and presentations at the conference were generalized, theoretical and not too specific. Investors would describe their interest using terms such as “educational,” “getting their feet wet” and “information gathering,” and while some of those still apply, what was clearly different at the 2019 event was a focus on the specific and the concrete — everyone is on board with ESG principles, for example, but how are actions based on these principles monitored and reported at a construction site or a power plant, and what is their impact on company and asset performance? Another example of getting into the specifics at VIP Infrastructure is the belief that infrastructure is a defensive asset class. But what ca