by Uncle Michael West, Tribal Elder, Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council

The biggest asset class in the world is also one of the slowest moving…And the pressure to deliver not only strong financial returns, but also to contribute to a better world, has never been more intense – fuelled by changing capital demand, tightening regulations & a whole new culture around decision-making at speed in a data-fuelled world. 

But what if real estate professionals could leverage ESG data to unlock new opportunities and drive competitive advantage? 

Joanna Marsh makes the case that strong financial returns aren’t enough and reveals why real estate leaders need to look at environmental, social and governance criteria to find hidden alpha.  

Roundtable 1: How can real estate owners and managers create social impact with tenants and community? 

Led by: Tamara Williams, Director, ESG & Transactions, Altis Property Partners  

Roundtable 2: Circular economy: Breaking our take-make-waste linear model  

Led by:  Lisa McLean, CEO, Circular Australia 

Roundtable 3: Reimagine the value of real estate in terms of Connection to Country – similarities and differences between non-Indigenous and First Nations Australian perspectives.  

Facilitated by: Nathan Daly, Property Investor, Daly Property Holdings Ltd, & Matthew Jolly, Cultural Education Manager, Red Dust Role Models 

Scope 3 measurement and reduction is fast becoming a focus for developers, real estate owners and managers.  Measurement and reduction of emissions umbrellas several other factors within ESG.  Approached correctly, this focus could also form an opportunity for innovative building solutions, smart technology, and meaningful stakeholder engagement.  In this session, Tamara will share her experience across several real estate sectors and stages of development – including her challenges and emerging opportunities. 

• Creating responsive environments, strategically engineered for specific outcomes, at specific times. 
• Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to align workplace solutions with business performance 
• Optimising the workspace to predict the needs of occupants. 

In this session we bring together delegates in a series of 4 x 30 minute facilitated round table discussions, with leading industry experts. Join a table that most interests you and discuss the latest technology and industry trends with likeminded individuals. This will be followed by a 2-minute wrap up by Table Facilitators, summarising the dialogue at each of their tables. 

Round Table 1: Emerging Trends & Cutting-Edge Ideas in Office Technology & Innovation

Led by: Simon Hayes, Secretary, Proptech Association Australia 

Round Table 2: How can the office respond more efficiently to the pulses of dynamic workflow?

Round Table 3: Workplace design, construction & project management – how do we implement emerging ideas and best practice?

Round Table 4: Movin’ Out: Searching for, finding, negotiating & leasing new space

In this session, we bring together delegates in a series of 5 facilitated round table discussions, with leading industry experts. Join a table that most interests you and discuss the latest technology and industry trends with likeminded individuals. A 20-minute facilitated discussion will run back-to-back from 2.50pm to 3.10pm. Coffee and networking will also start at 3.10pm for those who do not wish to participate in discussion groups.

Round Table 1: Warehouse Design, Construction & Fit-Out – Led by David Sanders, Director, FDC Building

Round Table 2: Warehouse Management – Led by Peter Stephan, Systems Engineering Lead, Cisco Meraki and Steven Krowitz, Inside Sales Manager – ANZ, Cisco Meraki

Round Table 3: Smart Industrial Buildings – Led by Paul Suhr, Federal Government & Public Sector Enterprise Specialist, Cisco Meraki and James Mckee, IoT & Edge Intelligence, Cisco Meraki

Round Table 4: Sustainability – Led by Simon Carter, Founding Chair, Sustainable Digitalisation Project

Round Table 5: Capital Markets Investor Insights – Led by Jesse Curtis, Head of Industrial & Fund Manager, Centuria Industrial REIT

The events of the past year have redefined how CRE business is conducted. Demand for office and retail space has been impacted by social distancing, shutdowns and remote work policies. Even as stores reopen and employees gradually return to the workplace, the way we interact with one another and the spaces we inhabit has fundamentally changed. Join James, EMEA Managing Director, Matterport, in this session. He will share how CRE professionals and property owners can succeed in an evolving CRE space by prioritizing innovation and investing in a transformative digital strategy to capture new competitive advantages in today’s challenging market.

In this session, we bring together delegates in a series of 5 x 30 minute facilitated round table discussions, with leading industry experts. Join a table that most interests you and discuss the latest technology and industry trends with likeminded individuals. Coffee and networking will also start for those who do not wish to participate in the discussion groups. 

Round Table 1: Bridging the Gap: Overcoming integration challenges between PropTech and large corporates – Led by: Luke Dixon, Head of Research, AMP Capital
Round Table 2: How technology can be used to increase the utilisation and efficiency of loading docks, and reduce congestion in cities and urban destinations – Led by: Chris Mason, Chief Operating Officer, MobileDOCK
Round Table 3: Making your commercial property more sustainable doesn’t have to cost the earth. In fact, it doesn’t have to cost at all – Led by: Trent Knox, Chief Executive Officer, EP&T Global
Round Table 4: VC & Investor Insights – Led by: Stephen Macdonald, Founder, The Proptech Connection 
Round Table 5: How can the Australian property industry keep up in an ever evolving world? – Led by: Shaun Sergay, Co-Founder & CEO, eGuarantee

With many developers now ‘Building to Rent’, a renewed focus on smart homes, higher expectations around property financing and management, along with continued disruption in real estate buying, selling and marketing, what opportunities will emerge for new tech and adoption?

• How innovative material science technologies are translating into construction materials
• Pre-conception software for building CLAs (carbon lifecycle assessment), and optimising carbon footprint at the building conception stage
• Bid management platforms for optimised building process
• Assessing pre-fab maturity and technologies over different RE assets (single family, multi family, CRE etc)
• Workflow management and dynamic monitoring in the construction phase

Worker sentiment and the impact of emotion—both positive and negative—in the workplace is a well-researched aspect of organizational culture. But it can also be one of the hardest facets of the employee experience for employers to manage. Here we consider the impact of the workplace design on employee emotions and experience.

Hybrid workplaces and digital transformation will ultimately transform the way we use buildings and do our jobs. Repositioning your business to take advantage of this workplace transformation is essential for occupiers and the CRE industry to be successful in the new normal.

There can be no doubt that all employers have a duty to provide conditions of employment that allow people to be, and stay, healthy. However, making the covid vaccine mandatory for its employees is a complex issue, which involves health and safety, employment, human rights and ethical considerations.

Are you new to coworking spaces? Employers all over the world are trading big offices for this new collaborative, remote approach. It benefits both you and your team in numerous ways, but it also introduces a new set of challenges for both the employer and the employees.

COVID has taken real estate and workplace from the backroom to the boardroom. The consensus appears to be that in the post COVID world, we will shift to the hybrid flexible workplace model with digital office support and improved collaboration strategies. The financial sector has rather mixed views on this strategy.

Elgas, a subsidiary of BOC Limited, attributes its success to the long-term customer relationships its local branch teams have developed around the country. When you introduce a centralised, cloud-based communications solution to drive overall efficiencies and support the needs of an increasingly hybrid working environment, how do you maintain this hyper-local employee and customer experience?

Hybrid workplaces and digital transformation will ultimately transform the way we use buildings and do our jobs. Repositioning your business to take advantage of this workplace transformation is essential for occupiers and the CRE industry to be successful in the new normal.

Worker sentiment and the impact of emotion—both positive and negative—in the workplace is a well-researched aspect of organizational culture. But it can also be one of the hardest facets of the employee experience for employers to manage. Here we consider the impact of the workplace design on employee emotions and experience.

We are seeing a growing trend of owners and occupiers in Commercial Real Estate jointly delivering technology solutions. From cybersecurity to data management, smart workplaces & sustainability targets, learn about how formerly competing stakeholders are now working together to achieve common goals.

COVID has taken real estate and workplace from the backroom to the boardroom. The consensus appears to be that in the post COVID world, we will shift to the hybrid flexible workplace model with digital office support and improved collaboration strategies. The financial sector has rather mixed views on this strategy.

Building and facilities processes can be represented by millions of data points. Historically, building design, construction, operations and maintenance information has been delivered in standard report formats requiring professionals to wade through enormous amounts of data to find critical information. Digital Twins allow data from BIM, BAS, CAFM, sensor networks and additional facility information feeds to be displayed on a 3D graphic representation of the real estate asset. In the digitised version of the physical structure, data can be viewed in an efficient and effective manner and AI and machine learning integrations help to uncover operation optimisation opportunities.