Wouter Truffino

 Holland ConTech & PropTech runs 120 events annually and has 202 members, helping to make the small nation one of the most active proptech ecosystems outside the U.S. In 2019, Holland ConTech & PropTech was voted the “Best Association” at MetaProp’s Global PropTech Awards. 

 The peripatetic Truffino is known for his boundless energy and infectious personality. It is hard to find a day when he is not at one of his proptech events or one run by others, banging the drum for the greater use of technology in real estate.

 A serial entrepreneur as founder of Smart Building Certification, Global PropTech and Holland ConTech & PropTech, Truffino is a well-known speaker on the subject of unleashing the innovative power, mindset and culture of proptech.

“The biggest issue is getting real estate involved,” Truffino told Commercial Observer. “There are so many solutions out there, but one of the biggest issues is they really need to start working together. Collaboration is important when we talk about the value that technology is bringing to real estate. Having a good solution is not enough. We need to get real estate people to understand what we are doing with that technology, how we can make office life better, but also lower energy consumption.”

Quoting Michael Phillips, principal and president of Jamestown, Truffino said, “the high-value asset class of buildings is doing something with ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] but, in the middle, that asset class has a big problem.

“Well, that’s 99 percent of real estate in the middle,” Truffino said. “So what are we going to do with that real estate that is in the middle? How are we going to make that more attractive and create more value for those real estate assets? I think that’s where proptech comes in, to make that possible.” —PR