Michael Beckerman

CREtech’s annual New York conference next month at Manhattan’s Javits Center is on pace to draw about 25 percent more attendees than last year. That would be a record for the conference, which dates to 2017 and remains the world’s largest forum devoted to innovation and sustainability in the built world. 

“And it will absolutely be a record year for attendance from the commercial real estate sector,” Michael Beckerman, the driving force behind CREtech, said over email.

Not bad for a conference that in its first years was small enough to meet in vacant office space. 

Beckerman spent more than a quarter-century in media relations for commercial real estate, including representing commercial real estate clients such as JLL and CoStar. He pivoted to his work at CREtech just as the commercial real estate industry developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for technologies that could make things easier, faster and cheaper. COVID-19 only whetted the appetite. 

CREtech’s confabs in New York and London — as well as its research and other events — bring together the thought leaders and the disruptors in a proptech space that is trying to service these industry needs. 

“The most important trend I am seeing at our conferences is not just the sheer number of real estate companies that are attending CREtech in New York and London, but the extraordinarily high caliber of speakers from the commercial real estate industry,” Beckerman said, noting that RXR Chairman and CEO Scott Rechler and Avalon Bay CEO Ben Schall delivered the keynotes in New York last year. 

And with the proptech industry and the wider commercial real estate world both on the rebound — and looking to become leaner and meaner — CREtech has plenty of material to work with. Think utilizing artificial intelligence, streamlining construction in an era of costlier materials, and, especially, decarbonizing buildings.

“My particular focus is now largely on building a thriving climate tech sector,” Beckerman said. “The climate crisis poses the single greatest risk — as well as the greatest wealth creation opportunity — in history [for] the commercial real estate industry.”