Early Bird Deadline Looms for NAREE Conference

With "The World Comes to Houston" as the conference theme, more than 100 journalists and industry experts are expected to attend the May 24-27 event featuring visionary land planner, Richard Browne, formerly with the Rouse Co., and green building expert, Brian Binash. The NAREE conference will kick off five days of commercial real estate seminars and networking events, with the International Real Estate Federal World Congress set to pick up the focus May 27-29. The back-to-back conferences will be staged in the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston at 1221 Lamar Blvd. at Avenidas de las Americas.

NAREE's jam-packed agenda incorporates tours of the Energy City for an up-close look at its successful CBD revitalization to its suburbs, which include NASA's Johnson Space Center and the 27,000-acre Woodlands. Immediately following the board meeting from 1 to 3 p.m., opening day seminars will shine the spotlight on international, national and regional forecasts and trends for the residential sector along with an in-depth look at high-rise condo communities as architects, developers and marketers discuss the state of the industry in the US and abroad. That evening, NAREE will go out on the town with a two-hour walking tour of the "hip hotels" and globe-trotter restaurants that helped to serve as building blocks for a downtown turnaround.

The May 25 agenda starts with an 8 a.m. keynote address by Houston Mayor Bill White. The second day will run the gamut from a morning seminar on "green buildings" to a whirlwind tour of the Woodlands, looking at its formula for success and key properties in its bounds.

On May 26, the popular "Meet the Press" will again be the single point of contact for freelancers, columnists and public relations professionals for up to a dozen, five-minute, one-on-one meetings with the world's leading commercial, residential and financial real estate journalists. Later that day, a panel will discuss the challenges of defining property rights in space in the "Exploring the Final Frontier" session along with a tour of Johnson Space Center. Also that day, Texas A&M University plans to release its findings on "Ethnicity & Real Estate."

The NAREE conference will end May 27 with a general membership meeting led by NAREE president Michael G. Desiato, group managing director for Real Estate Media Inc., parent of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. The 650-member NAREE, founded in 1929, is the only professional association for real estate, property finance, home and design editors and writers.

Within a half-hour of NAREE's wrap-up, the International Real Estate Federation of Real Estate (FIABCI) will ramp up its 55th annual conference, marking just the second time in its history that it's being held in the US. The association, with two branches, is a federation of 120 professional organizations in 60 countries and an international business club with 3,500 real estate professionals from more than 70 countries. Leaders of the non-profit association will be on hand for a "meet and greet" at a May 24 evening reception during NAREE. The FIABCI 2004 Congress gets underway May 27 with real estate mogul Sam Zell of Chicago-based Equity Group as the headline speaker for the 9 a.m. opening session.