MIPIM is more than just regions & capital

MIPIM is the large global real estate event taking place in mid-march every year in Cannes, France. Two weeks ago, MIPIM 2010 brought together 17,300 attendees from 81 countries and 1,720 exhibiting companies. 

Development plans & marketing regions

The main topics among attendees are to present development efforts, market regions (my favourite region marketing effort (the middle photo above) was Invest in Mauritius), raise capital and network (an  example, there were at least 1500 (?) Swedes in Cannes last week).

More general coverage, take a look at PropertyWeeks MIPIM page or CREOpoints (1 and 2). Or why not take a look at the Twitter feed #MIPIM.

The few, the great

Unfortunately (?), not to many attendees go to MIPIM to see the newest developments in the field of smart IT solutions to make their companies more efficient. However, the upside of having so many C-levels around is to good to not take advantage of. Even Though it is hard work to find the right top 50 prospects among 20 000 people.

Some of the IT companies taking the opportunity last week was CoStar, Argus, Real Capital Analytics, HBS Research, Qube Global, CREOpoint, Reidin, Investment Property Search, Global Arena, MRI and Datscha (full disclosure, I'm the Product Manager at Datscha).

Some of us even gathered for a glass of Champagne. 

Delighted to see the energy and visions.
Keep up the great work.

Objektvision hires a new CEO with plans for expansion

Objektvision, one of the largest listing services for sale or lease of commercial real estate in Sweden, has hired a new CEO, Ulf Magnusson (press release in Swedish). 

Ulf will also be the CEO of Bovision (the first Swedish residential listing service). Former CEO Marianne Olseryd Engqvist will stay in the company as Product Manager.

Background

Ulf has a solid Internet background with 14 years of experience from mainly Eniro (Swedish yellow pages) and Passagen (Swedish b2c portal).

On LinkedIn Ulf describe himself as:

I've  been working in different management positions with Internet services since 1996 - with search services such as Internet yellow pages, International B2B-services, residential directories, real estate services as well as portals, start pages and community services. The main task has always been to, in a profitable way, balance the needs of users and advertisers.

My thoughts

First of all. Ulf, welcome to the industry.
Delighted to see companies pushing their online presence.

I'm looking forward to see how Objektvision will "expand and create new brands" (as mentioned in the press release). For example, how to take on the newly released Hemnet Kommersiella (coverage here).  

Will geo-fencing be the next step in real estate marketing?

A follow up post on earlier written (see post 1 and 2) about the potential using GPS/mobile functionality in the real estate market   

Marketing through geo-fencing

Chris Thorman, Social Media Manager of Software Advice (incl. property management), has written a great post on the topic geo-fencing in marketing residential real estate.

He gives an example of a couple, who earlier had signed up for the service and define their criteria, got a SMS when they walk close to a listing.

"How was the couple instantly notified of the opportunity, perfectly merging buyer requirements, location and timing? The answer involves a combination of “geo-fencing,” mobile phones and GPS technology.

If you’re a tech savvy real estate agent or property manager, this powerful combination of technology represents a great opportunity to gain new clientele. Many real estate buyers do not have the time to review new listings online, travel to viewings or patrol their desired neighborhoods for opportunities. But the vast majority of real estate buyers do have mobile phones they carry with them nearly all the time."

In the above example an SMS is used, but I'm convinced you could create the same functionality using push functionality in your mobile application.

My thoughts

For sure an interesting idea. I would love to see functionality like this on residential listing services like Hemnet, Booli, Bovision or Boliga in Sweden. But, it has to be opt in (in other words, you signed up for it) and very detailed when it comes to setting references.

Realcomm is calling for speakers

Interested in going to Las Vegas?
Apply to be on the speakers list at Realcomm! 

Calling for speakers

"Realcomm is looking for industry experts to speak at Realcomm Las Vegas 2010. If you are an experienced speaker on the topic of technology for the commercial and corporate real estate industry then we want to hear from you. Let us know if you have a story to tell about how to use automation to squeeze more productivity and efficiency out of a real estate organization. Our topics include, but aren't limited to: IT issues (applications, management, infrastructure, etc.), Building Automation, Energy Management / Sustainability. If you have a good solution to share that has demonstrated an ROI - come share it at Realcomm! For questions or more information, contact Howard Berger, Program Director, at 818.548.1818 or hberger@realcomm.com."

Find out more at the Realcomm site.

About the conference

Realcomm is the largest conference in the world focusing on the intersection of IT & Real Estate. This year will be the 12th gathering. Every year over 1000 people are attending the show.

I've had the privilege to take part of the show in 2004, 2005, 2006 and at Realcomm Europe 2009. Unfortunately, I'll not be able to go over this year. Have to go next year. It's always a pleasure to meet up with other believers.

Augmented-reality mapping will increase transparency in real estate

Maybe it's my background as orienteer that makes it difficult for me to look the other way when I see a map, but this new augmented reality mapping is just amazing. Imagine what I will for the transparency of the real estate industry.

The video is from a TED presentation where Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new technology from Microsoft.

 (If you're in a hurry fast forward to 3m20sec.) 

Background

The technology used in the demo is from Seadragon and the visualization technology Photosynth that gives amazingly smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities. Blaise Aguera y Arcas' is the architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth, and today an architect at Microsoft Live Labs (Microsoft acquired by Seadrgon in 2006). See the original Seadragon & Photosynth TED presentation from 2007.

My thoughts

This is how you will use a map to find out more about commercial properties in 5 years. Period.