I was at CoreNet in Los Angeles this past week. 3 days absolutely flew by. It was my first time and it both met my expectations while also being completely unexpected in ways.
The breakouts and sessions were great but expected. They cover the topics that most of us would have written down with a few minutes of thought. The valuable twist was the perspective they were given from. It’s always good to have it presented from a “boots on the ground” perspective. Sometimes we lose sight of the day-in-the-life of people who live with our work.
Booths throughout the convention center were also expected. The big players had big booths. Vendors of all sorts were in attendance with all kinds of different pitches and approaches. It was a good mix of information with more limited selling.
What was missing was innovation. There was nothing about the event that prompted attendees to think outside the box. A few booths were very interactive and setup to promote conversation but none of the conversation I came upon caused people to think beyond the next 12 months.
But this is the problem with CRE. Most of the message from actual CRE practitioners for our corporate clients still struggle just dealing with the daily fire drills that make up Real Estate and Facilities. How can they think down the road when they can’t get ahead of 3 months from now? Why implement an iWMS which might take a year when they have no time to get it right?
Something to think on in the balance between innovation and delivery.