ULI Conference – Las Vegas
Last week, students from the Cornell Program in Real Estate traveled to Las Vegas for the Annual Urban Land Institute Conference. The conference, held at the Venetian Hotel, hosted approximately 7,500 industry professionals in fields as varied as homebuilding, environmental consulting, and commercial real estate development. Students from across the country joined industry leaders at the conference, gaining valuable insights into leading real estate trends. Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, delivered the keynote address. Other speakers included economist Michael Boskin; former Medtronics Chief Executive Bill George, now a professor of management practice at the Harvard Business School; and Queen Noor of Jordan.
Multiple sessions were held daily, allowing attendees to keep abreast of the latest trends in real estate. The sessions, which offered a broad range of topics from equity raising to urban infill to manufactured housing, typically brought together three to four experts in the area for a panel discussion. Virtually every segment of the real estate industry was represented, and students were able to customize their schedule so that they could attend meetings relevant to their interests. The conference was also an excellent opportunity for students to hear from and to interact with industry professionals.
“I think the conference was a great opportunity to interact with industry professionals and to learn about emerging trends in different real estate industries,” said Tim Yaeger ‘09.
For the second-year Program in Real Estate students, this year’s event represented an opportunity to expand on their more solidified interests in real estate. June Yook ’08 said, “last year, at the ULI Conference in Denver, I had not yet decided on a proposed concentration at Cornell and, because of that uncertainty, I did not know what sessions to attend or which professionals to approach for career advice. This year, I was much more selective in picking industry lectures, and I was more informed about networking opportunities. ”
One of the more popular sessions at the conference was a presentation on green development that discussed the competitive advantage of sustainability. Attendees were inundated with examples of successful green developments and the issues, options, costs, and decisions facing sustainable projects. Another well-liked session was Real Estate Finance, which was broken into three sessions: Real Estate Finance 101, 201, and the newly-added 301. The first two courses covered topics from the key components of the real estate deal to ownership and financing structures to real estate mortgage financing. The response to Real Estate Finance 301 was overwhelming, as developers at the conference flocked to hear a panel discussion on raising equity for their projects. Attendees heard how private equity sources and investment bankers work with developers to expand their business, and how to work with REITs, pension funds, and Wall Street investors to raise development equity.
Brad Olson, Senior Lecturer in the Program in Real Estate, believes, “the Fall ULI meeting gives students an opportunity to meet and hear from real estate industry leaders that is without equal. The forum, focus and discussions that ULI provides offers those in attendance the chance to gain insights into current and future trends and practices that are otherwise very difficult to obtain. The atmosphere is open and the willingness to share from personal experiences is what these meetings are all about--along with the many opportunities to meet new people and to renew life-long acquaintances and professional relationships. I have said before that the one change I would make in my professional career, given the chance to do it all again, would be to get involved with ULI at the earliest possible time!”
To learn more about ULI please visit www.uli.org