No Vegas, No Problem
Doubters said you couldn’t have a good conference experience online. We saw that as a challenge. OPTECH 2020 proved them wrong.
We’d be lying if we said we wouldn’t have preferred to have been in Las Vegas this week for OPTECH 2020. But the pandemic is still raging, and it’s still unsafe to gather anywhere except online. So, because your businesses can’t press pause, neither did we.
NMHC OPTECH welcomed more than 1,800 apartment executives and technology partners to our virtual platform for a fast-paced four days of product exploration, networking and knowledge sharing. You all showed how incredibly resilient you are in the face of a year rife with challenges.
OPTECH exhibitors created a robust and engaging expo hall, our speakers supported—and excelled at—new discussion formats and our attendees were very active online in the chats and networking sessions. We adapted fan-fave events like our Opening Pitches, peer-to-peer roundtables and Ask the Experts series to a virtual format and introduced some new online programming elements like our 15-minute express sessions, on-demand session playbacks, speed networking, live product demos and our inaugural trivia contest.
Demo Day
This day was all about showcasing new products and services with a series of fast pitches and live demos and networking in the exhibit hall. Attendees can watch the Opening Pitches replays on-demand.
OPTECH Opening Pitches
More than 50 firms showed off their newest products in four-minute-or-less presentations. Replay the pitches below. There are five pitch categories to choose from:
We also welcomed 85 exhibitors to our virtual expo, where attendees could browse company offerings and participate in live product demonstrations throughout the week. While company representatives are no longer available for live video chats in the expo, attendees can still explore exhibitors’ pages to learn more about their offerings and resources for the apartment industry. Attendees can access the expo here.
OPTECH Exclusive: NMHC Unveils First-of-Its-Kind Industry Technology Report
OPTECH attendees were among the first to hear the results from the inaugural NMHC/ One11 Advisors Technology Report. NMHC and One11 Advisors surveyed the highest-level technology leaders from NMHC member companies to create a first of its kind benchmark survey and report on that state of apartment industry technology.
Resident Experience Redefined
This day covered topics like changing apartment demographics and demand, resident preferences, digital marketing and automation, self-service technologies and the new customer journey.
Mike Whaling of 30 Lines, Brent Williams of Multifamily Insiders and Greg Isaacson of Multi-Housing News hosted Tuesday’s end-of-day conversation regarding Day Two takeaways. During their remarks Brent and Greg dove into a few key themes they picked up on throughout the day. “We are past the moments of talking about whether we have granite countertops or what type of flooring we have,” Brent said when talking about the resident experience theme discussed during the Cool Communities Case Studies session. “Now, it's all about resident experience, how we're impacting the residents’ day-to-day life.” Greg zeroed-in on the conversations surrounding data during his takeaways highlighting the General Session, What the Heck Just Happened!? Market Analysists Tell Us Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going in 2021. Mike rounded out the conversation by calling out an overarching theme throughout the day, “One thing that I've noticed that kind of came up over and over again is there's just, there's so much right now that's out of our control, whether it's local politics or evictions and rent control,” he said.
Operations Strategy Redefined
This day focused on the nuts and bolts of operations, including technology infrastructure and investment, regulatory compliance, workplace management, data security and connectivity.
On Wednesday, NMHC’s Rick Haughey and multifamily freelance journalist Bendix Anderson and Zonda associate editor Mary Salmonsen dished on the big themes from Day Three, including resident screening and fraud prevention, process automation, seamless connectivity, and data, data and more data. “It’s not sexy, but it’s hugely important,” said Haughey, citing industry concerns over cybersecurity, data privacy and data management. However, the group’s most important takeaway was this: Your staff is exhausted. This point was touched on a number of times throughout the day, especially during the day’s power panel session. Introduced by Entrata’s Chase Harrington and hosted by NMHC’s Kenny Emson, the general session featured a can’t-miss conversation with Allied Orion Group’s Ricardo Rivas, RKW Residential’s Marcie Williams and Bozzuto Management’s Stephanie Williams.
Innovation ROI Recalculated
The last day of OPTECH covered topics such as tech investment trends, innovation challenges and the future of apartment design and operations.
In this rapid, round robin session, NMHC’s Sarah Yaussi runs through Day Four’s top takeaways with Yardi’s Tamala Coval, Shadow Ventures’ Kayla Merritt and NAR Reach/SCV’s Ashkan Zandieh. While each industry observer had their own spin on what stood out, some common themes emerged around a rebalancing of power between housing providers and residents, the expanding opportunities around connectivity beyond resident attraction and retention, clean is absolutely the new green and the industry’s new sweet spot is at intersection of high touch and high tech. The panel also flagged several sessions featuring the leading venture capital firms and also raved over the session Women in Multifamily Proptech, featuring Lincoln Property Company’s Khushbu Sikaria, Resman’s Elizabeth Francisco, Funnel’s Caren Maio, STRATIS IoT’s Felicite Moorman and Meet Elise’s Minna Song. So much good stuff, it was hard to choose what to watch!
Keynote Claire Haidar on the Future of Work
Claire Haidar and the team she leads at WNDYR, are actively working across three areas of work: humans, workspaces and technology. Introduced by Esther Bonardi of Yardi Systems, Claire joined attendees for the closing session of 2020 OPTECH to discuss her work building a platform that enables workflow automation between all the various technologies which people use on a daily basis in their working life. Joanna Zabriskie of BH Companies and Daryl Smith of KETTLER helped wrap up Claire’s remarks by conducting Q&A where they explored how Claire’s work could be applied to the multifamily industry.
OPTECH by Numbers
99 sessions, 200 Speakers and panelists, 4 dedicated networking hours, more than 50 prizes awarded in the expo, more than 1800 attendees, 55 innovative pitches, more than 565 companies in attendance, 20+ hours of continous programming, 85 virtual booths
Thank You!
NMHC thanks all sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and attendees for contributing to another successful OPTECH.
We hope to see you in person next year, November 8-10, 2021 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD!