2016 NYC RETech Week Overview

The recently concluded New York City Real Estate Tech Week 2016 was bigger and better than ever, with greater attendance and more events and companies taking part in the world’s largest and most prestigious PropTech conference series.

The conclusion of Real Estate Tech Week 2016 leaves no doubt that New York City has become the center of global PropTech. Attended by PropTech leaders from New York City, across the US and the world, the critical thinking and personal interactions this Tech Week produced will far outlast its events, while profoundly impacting real estate innovation everywhere.

— Aaron Block, Co-Founder & Managing Director, MetaProp NYC

We partnered with Reed Midem, the leading global real estate conference organizer, to produce this year’s NYC Real Estate Tech Week flagship event -- the MIPIM PropTech Summit -- the initial North America conference in the renowned MIPIM series of events, which includes MIPIM UK, MIPIM Asia Summit, MIPIM Japan, MAPIC, and the MIPIM flagship event in Cannes, a 4-day exhibition, conference and networking event with more than 21,000 international attendees. It was also the first of the MIPIM series to focus exclusively on the future of the real estate market, with a heavy emphasis on the impact of technology.

The MIPIM PropTech Summit also hosted the North American leg of the MIPIM Global Startup Competition 2017, which takes place next March in Cannes, France. The competition recognizes the most dynamic international startups offering real estate and urban management solutions and provides those competing with an opportunity to meet and pitch business to relevant investors, developers, financial companies, media analysts and other key influencers.

Ravti in the Building category, Envelope in the City category and StackSource in the Transaction category, were selected as the winners in the NYC MIPIM Global Startup Competition 2017 and will move on to the competition in Cannes. Also competing in the Building category were hOM  andHappy Co.; in the City category, Commonplace Digital and State of Place, and in the Transaction category,  Access+RE and Bowery.

Congratulations to the 2017 Startup Competition Finalists - Ravti, Envelope, and StackSource! Best of luck in Cannes at MIPIM 2017!

The enormous interest in MIPIM’s Global Startup Competition and the quality of our winners moving on to Cannes in March was extraordinary. Our first foray into North America was a success that promises an audience of thousands for future MIPIM PropTech Summits in New York City, as well as the participation of the creme de la creme of real estate innovation companies.

— Filippo Rean, Director of Reed MIDEM’s Real Estate Division

Keynote Speakers at the MIPIM PropTech Summit were: Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development for NYC; Brad Hargreaves, Co-Founder, General Assembly - Founder & CEO, Common, and Paul Massey, President, New York Investment Sales, Cushman & Wakefield, and NYC mayoral candidate. Bill Rudin, CEO, Rudin Management Company, made the day’s introductory remarks.

We (NYC) should be a place of bold exploration and innovation

— Paul Massey

Among the other speakers and moderators at the the Summit were:

• Zachary Aarons and Clelia Peters, Co-Founders of MetaProp NYC
• Arie Barendrecht, Co-Founder & CEO, Wired Score
• Karin Brandt, Founder & CEO, coUrbanize
• Michael Britti, Senior Vice President M&A, RealPage
• Brandon Dobell, Group Head, Global Services, William Blair & Company
• David Eisenberg, Founder and CEO of Floored
• Ned Gannon, CEO, eBrevia
• Geoff Lewis, Vice President of Product, Honest Buildings
• Ragnar Lifthrasir, Founder & President, International Blockchain Real Estate Association
• Duke Long, PropTech blogger and CRE broker
• Caren Maio, Co-Founder & CEO, Nestio
• Michael Mandel, Co-Founder & CEO, CompStak
• Mark Paris, Venture Partner, Urban.Us
• Nick Romito, Founder and CEO of VTS;
• Sara Rozenfarb, Head of Global Business Development, Reed Midem
• Julie Samuels, Executive Director, Tech:NYC
• Gunther Schmidt, Founder & Managing Partner, Medici Living
• Raja Seetharaman, Co-Founder, PropStack
• Maria Seredina, Senior Manager, Corporate Development, Zillow
• Sara Shank, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Management at Beacon
• Adam Stanley, Global CIO at Cushman & Wakefield
• Karina Totah, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Housing Authority
• Bradley Tusk, Founder and CEO of Tusk Strategies and Tusk Ventures
• Jameson Weber, Vice President of Product Strategy, Hightower
• Dr. Jeff Wilson, CEO, Kasita
• Ellen Zielinski, Director, Clean Technologies, NYC Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services

Don’t sell software as software to real estate people

— Zachary Aarons

NYC Real Estate Tech Week 2016 included some 1000+ professionals, the largest gathering of real estate technology leaders to date. The two-week series of events was supported by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), NYC & Company and multiple hosting organizations, including Colliers International, Crain’s New York Business, CRE/Tech,  EisnerAmper, Real Estate Board of New York, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Structure Tone International,Warburg Realty, Zillow Group, New York City Real Estate Tech Meetup and others.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM NYC REAL ESTATE TECH WEEK 2016

NYCRETS MEETUP

The New York Real Estate Startups Meetup held a networking and demo on Sept. 27, hosted and sponsored by COWORKRS at their brand new event space: The Mezzanine at 55 Broadway.  More than 70 real estate professionals, entrepreneurs, engineers and investors attended. The event included demos by early stage RE Tech startups, as well as a keynote by Joe Charat, co-founder and GM of Naked Apartments (recently acquired by Zillow). Presenters included Ryan Freed, co-founder ofHoM; Julia Ramsey, co-founder of joinery; German Valencia, co-founder of FloorHacker, and James Ingallinera, co-founder of Founder House. Other highlights included a yoga breathing exercise led by the hOM team.

EISNERAMPER REAL ESTATE PRIVATE EQUITY SUMMIT

investment and capital sourcing. Foreign capital activity and specialty asset opportunities were also a topic of discussion as panelists and keynote speakers alike shared their perspectives. Sam Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments, and Paul Massey, the 2017 NYC Mayoral Candidate and President of NY Investment Sales at Cushman & Wakefield were the keynote speakers. EisnerAmper’s Lisa Knee led a “State of the Union” panel featuring Samantha Davidson, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs; Hugh Macdonnell, Managing Director & Head of Client Capital Management at Clarion Partners; Christopher Schlank, Founder & Co-Managing Partner of Savanna; David Schwarz, Managing Director at Colony Capital; James Nelson, Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, and Brandon Weber, Founder & CEO of Hightower. Partner Ken Weissenberg of EisnerAmper discussed the marketplace in a special, “Titans of the Industry,” session with Leslie Himmel, Founder of Himmel + Meringoff Properties; Jonathan Kaufman Iger, Chief Executive Officer of Sage Realty Corporation, and Phil Watkins, Principal at Megalith.

SITECOMPLI’S REALFOCUS 2016

SiteCompli’s RealFocus: Today's Topics in Real Estate Compliance, drew more than 150 owners, property managers and industry experts to the Eventi Hotel on Thursday, Sept 29, at SiteCompli’s inaugural tech conference. Attendees heard about industry-changing regulations and learned practical skills and best practices to save time and money. Highlights of the day included sessions from NYC Departments of Finance and  Buildings, rollout of the industry’s first online Compliance Certification Program, presentations from industry thought leaders, and of course, demonstration of some amazing technology. For more information see  http://realfocus.sitecompli.com

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SPECIAL EVENT: "REAL ESTATE TECH UNBUNDLED":

Zachary Aarons, Co-Founder of  MetaProp NYC, moderated “The Founders” panel at the fall Columbia Entrepreneurship Mini-Conference: “Real Estate Tech Unbundled,” on September 29 in the Convene Conference Center, 239 Park Avenue. The panel featured Amol Sarva Ph.D., Founder & CEO of Knotel; Stu Ellman, Columbia Business School professor & co-founder of RRE Ventures; Jonathan Wasserstrum, Co-founder and CEO of TheSquareFoot, and Susannah Vila, Founder of Flip, the anchor RETech startup of MetaProp NYC’s 2016 accelerator class. Introduced by Columbia’s RED Program Director, Patrice Derrington, and moderated by Columbia University Trustee Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green Realty Corp, the second panel, “The Practitioners,” featured Robert Entin EVP & CIO, Vornado Realty Trust; Denis Hickey, CEO LendLease the Americas, and Jamie von Klemperer, President KPF.

10 HUDSON YARDS VISIT AND COCKTAILS

including staff fromthe NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group partners and representatives from San Francisco, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seattle, Sydney, Johannesburg, Houston and Philadelphia. After the visit, attendees gathered at the Hudson Yards Marketing Center for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Ten-X sponsored the event to highlight the intersection of PropTech and sustainability.

RETECH LEADERS BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLE

Hosted by Ryan Slack, of GreenPearl, Ross Goldenberg, of SiteCompli and Aaron Block, of MetaProp NYC, on Oct. 5 at The Altman Building, the quarterly meeting was NYC RETech Week’s only invite-only event. CEOs from the 2016 MetaProp NYC accelerator class attended and had an open discussion about the issues facing PropTech startups and the real estate industry as a whole.

CRE // TECH INTERSECT

The fourth annual CRE // Tech Intersect symposium was a success, bringing together more than 400 attendees and 40+ technology firms on the 63rd floor of One World Trade Center. The event was hosted by the Durst Organization. DMGI served as the event’s lead sponsor. CRE // Tech's mission is to promote awareness of emerging and innovative CRE oriented technology firms.