Last week, the BeyondHQ team attended Blueprint 2021 in Las Vegas. Madhu also appeared on stage as a panelist for the discussion titled Using Data to De-Risk CRE. This annual event brings together real estate innovators, technology leaders, service providers, venture capitalists, property owners, brokerage operators, and building developers.
Blueprint 2021, a fully vaccinated event, was an exciting live conference. The event focused on hearing and seeing many of the industry’s thought leaders who shared insights on real estate best practices – as we continue to navigate the ever-changing reality of working and living with COVID-19. Topics included the future of commercial real estate and how technology will enable innovation, change, and better decision-making. Our favorite part of the conference focused on having the opportunity to forge new relationships and reconnect with friends – the magic of life in-person
During the panel session, our CEO, Madhu Chamarty, along with Will Mitchell, CEO Rabbet, Michael Mandel, CEO Compstak, Judah Siegal, Senior VP, Investments; Brookfield Asset Management (moderator) and Hemant Shah, CEO Archipelago, discussed how real estate companies need the “right” data to gain actionable insights and create a sustainable competitive advantage. There is a pressing need to go beyond the buzzwords of big data and analytics to gain measurable value. Organizations need data-driven technology solutions to help them create efficiencies and minimize risk. Whether you are a landlord, a property developer, manager, investor, or a large occupier of real estate, this applies to you more than ever before. With the pandemic, we also need to consider the future of work and how companies can use real-time data to make strategic decisions around the return of work and travel.
Additionally, we see a tremendous opportunity for sharing data to develop inclusive insights. Historically, the commercial real estate industry operates in silos and is slow to embrace open sharing of information and data. That said, we are currently seeing transformative changes in how the industry interacts with technology as stakeholders realize a strategic advantage. For instance, walking through the convention and reading about other sessions, two technology companies stood out to me.
The first is Gryps, a connected intelligence platform for the construction industry. There is so much data that lives offline. Gryps is changing that by integrating data, making it quickly tracked and transparent. Rhove, a fractional real estate investment company, is another organization that I found interesting. Their mission is to democratize real estate — an individual can invest for as little as $1 per share, removing the barriers to ownership.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM BLUEPRINT 2021
1 – Data-driven decisions across the real estate ecosystem: From landlords and property managers to real estate investors and brokerage operators, those in the real estate industry realize the business opportunities when they can leverage data across the real estate ecosystem. For instance, how can they employ sensor data to improve the tenant experience? How can they understand the movement of people across the country to know where to invest next? How can data – especially for construction companies – help them make informed decisions to stay on budget and on time? From investors to property owners, and everyone in between, everyone was asking these questions.
2 – Rethinking the workplace – sustainability and flex space: The purpose of the office and how the workplace is viewed has changed significantly over the past few years. COVID-19 accelerated this, with many knowledge workers working remotely. Then, we have the younger generations, such as Gen-Z, whose workplace expectations are aligned with values like diversity, equity, and inclusion. In response, companies are starting to repurpose their office space so that employees can come in for an occasional meeting rather than being there all day Monday through Friday. The future of the office lies in flexibility. For example, office space has gone from a high capex low-frequency decision, where a company would make a significant investment into an office space for 10-plus years, to a lower capex high-frequency decision, with the incorporation of flex space and remote workers. Today, the portfolios managed by the real estate teams are more diverse, dynamic, and , so we need to rethink how (and how often) footprint-optimization decisions are made.
3 – Need for transparency and collaboration: Commercial real estate has not been known for its transparency and information sharing. In many ways, the industry is what financial services was just a decade ago, with individual organizations promoting their own approaches / datasets / relationships to differentiate themselves. Many-a-time, this wasn’t in favor of the best outcome of the customer. Then unbundling of the financial enterprise, and the associated democratization of access to expertise and data, led to a powerful wave of innovation and value creation in that industry, benefiting everyone. this shift. By embracing transparency, collaboration, and tech-powered decision-making, everyone can do better for their customers.
We left the conference with these and many more valuable insights, new ideas for partnerships, and renewed enthusiasm for what our work is doing to drive positive change in the industry.
For once, contrary to the city’s slogan, we chose not to keep what happened in Vegas, in Vegas.
Interested in how you can deliver on a hybrid work model by evaluating where, why, and how to source talent or open offices? Contact us for a demo.
