In the real estate world, terminology shapes mindset—and mindset shapes outcomes.
Going to University in London in the early 2000s meant Ministry of Sound was an important place and somewhere that holds some very fond memories for me. Earlier this week, I went back there for the SPACE+ BWT event. While the experience was very different to those early morning parties of 20 years ago it was, once again, a great visit all the same.
Here’s my 5 takeaways from it …
The need for a blended approach: [Tech + Change + Investment]
Listening to contributors in the keynote and tribe sessions about the complexities of driving innovation within their businesses makes you appreciate the magnitude of what we as an industry are trying to achieve. Major issues experienced range from:
– The volume of noise there still in in the proptech space
– The struggle to gain cross-function buy-in on initial and ongoing financial investment
– Arguably the greater struggle, of the lack of invested time by stakeholder to ensure sufficient change management
– The failure to gain the level of desired engagement to realise both an initial value proposition and deliver appropriate ROI for the longer term
– The reality is that, in isolation, tech will never be a silver bullet. Success lies in the recognition that technology is an enabler to strategy, not a strategy in and of itself
The right combination is appropriate tech collaborators, aligned to effectively plan and mobilise change management programming with valuable engagement secured through captivated audiences. Speaking in the ‘Hardwiring Innovation Into Business Strategy’ keynote session, Morwenna Hall of Related Argent summed this all up brilliantly I thought, particularly with the line that ‘Technology simply improves the hygiene factor of the way we operate’.
AI is hyped, but its impact can’t be understated.
Superb to listen to the passion and vision of both James Pellatt and Antony Slumbers with their take on the current perspective of the real estate landscape; particularly when viewed through the disruptive lens of generative AI. Seeing how real-life examples, such as laiout and Fifth Dimension are already starting to shape our industry and adapt operating methodologies is super exciting.
Antony Slumbers call to arms for the AI revolution is a simple one – everyone one of us just needs to get busy. With ChatGPT 4 now free and available, plus other great options such as Claude from Anthropic and Perplexity; everyone, no matter what role we inhabit should begin to play and prompt – beta testing ourselves on what we can inform, improve and how our time can be made more productive through our ‘army of AI interns’ we effectively each now have at our fingertips. I particularly liked Antony Slumbers dessert analogy when describing how the role of AI, and indeed ongoing advance of proptech within real estate strategy needs to be allowed to be messier and more unstructured to enjoy full effect, blended to be ‘less Battenburg and more Eton Mess’; what’s not to like!
Lived Experience is becoming increasingly important and real estate is still struggling with it.
The reality is that nothing in our industry is cookie cutter, since no two properties are the same. It was great to listen to the honest appraisals of where the likes of Jo-Ann Hawkings at Pembroke , Tarun Mathur of CANARYWHARF GROUP, Tim Hamlin of PICTON and Andrew Mercer at Legal & General are with their built world technology approaches, as they advance solutions within their respective organisations that seek to connect portfolios but allow for individual asset identity, business plans and sustainability pathways.
For me what is fixed is the need for places to deliver for the people they are intended to serve – our customers. These we can simply split into the individual end users and then the occupier organisations as two separates but innately connected groups, which we can then dial across different asset classes in terms of user profiling (except for residential, where there is just a single customer focus clearly).
For too long as an industry we have just broadcast at people at an individual and occupier level. For places to work, we need true engagement, which is an intentional process, underpinned by a fair exchange, that achieves sustained interest and enables a dynamic dialogue loyalty that can then drive business plan and asset performance at all levels.
ESG is the key that can unlock proptech performance.
Before everyone eye rolls, hear me out. Ever since the early days of Cureoscity we have seen ourselves as part of the ESG agenda given our vision to connect people and places and in that move the dial in the socialisation of strategic asset sustainability initiatives.
For end users, connected access and amenity makes our mobile applications sticky but that is just day one value. Similarly, our web based portal for Occupier FMs and building management teams is the key to unlock the needed dialogue towards better occupation, management and performance.
ESG objectives cannot be achieved by reliance on accreditations and consumption metric improvements of the built environment alone. To really deliver on obligations, we must unlock the power of exceptional owner leadership, harness and collaborate with Occupiers on their ESG trajectories and inspire individual end users to give discretionary effort and commit to behavioural change. Get that right and we give ourselves the best conditions and collaborative approach towards our shared decarbonisation goals.
As an Industry we need to really get behind what SPACE+ are doing
Credit to what Neall De Beer, Robert Marten, Tia H. and the whole SPACE+ team are doing. Their events bring together the right balance of individuals from across the real estate landscape in a non-salesy, captivating, and proactive discussion that is about improving how we, as a collective industry can together do better.
We are at a critical time, that needs proactive action and thought leadership with co-ordinated commitment to propel us forward. The SPACE+ approach is an excellent format that delivers the symposium for ideas and actions to flow. I’d love to see our industry really getting behind it further and giving it an even greater platform than what has already (very successfully) been achieved.
Name: Aletheia Real Estate Ltd
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(f) We have a legitimate interest.
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We keep email addresses for as long as we are communicating with you. We will then dispose your information by deleting your email address from any database it is stored within.
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at info@youraletheia.com if you wish to make a request.
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at info@youraletheia.com.
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk
Contact us today to discover how engagement can improve your place’s unique relevance and competitive place advantage by emailing us on info@youraletheia.com
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Aletheia Real Estate Ltd and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of Aletheia Real Estate Ltd. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, Aletheia Real Estate Ltd takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
Name: Aletheia Real Estate Ltd
Address: 71-75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ
E-mail: info@youraletheia.com
We currently collect and process the following information:
• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name and contact details)
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
• Request for further information
• Request for meeting
• Entering competition
We use the information that you have given us in order to provide you with a good service and get back in touch with you.
We may share this information within our team only.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:
(a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting info@youraletheia.com
(b) We have a contractual obligation.
(c) We have a legal obligation.
(d) We have a vital interest.
(e) We need it to perform a public task.
(f) We have a legitimate interest.
Your information is securely stored.
We keep email addresses for as long as we are communicating with you. We will then dispose your information by deleting your email address from any database it is stored within.
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at info@youraletheia.com if you wish to make a request.
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at info@youraletheia.com.
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk
Contact us today to discover how engagement can improve your place’s unique relevance and competitive place advantage by emailing us on info@youraletheia.com
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Aletheia Real Estate Ltd and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of Aletheia Real Estate Ltd. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, Aletheia Real Estate Ltd takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
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