EXCLUSIVE: Conference Examines 'What's Next?' for Southern California Real Estate

Zell's keynote will be one of the highlights of a conference that has been designed to reflect the changes affecting the industry in Southern California and the rest of the country, according to Richard Kelley, conference director. The event is part of the RealShare Conference Series produced by New York City-based Real Estate Media, publisher of GlobeSt.com, Real Estate Southern California magazine and Real Estate Forum.

"I doubt if there's anyone in our business whose outlook people genuinely want to hear more than Sam Zell's," Kelley tells GlobeSt.com. "Conditions are good in the industry, but there are a lot of potential shoes to drop, and I think people will be extremely interested to hear what he has to say about what's the next step."

The conference, with registration opening at 7 a.m., is expected to draw 1,200 attendees from the commercial real estate industry and allied fields, including investors, developers, brokers, financiers and professionals who provide services to those groups. In addition to Zell's presentation and the two new panels, Kelley says, other highlights will include an economic update by chairman Stan Ross of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dick Ziman of Arden Realty and a session on recruiting and retaining top talent for commercial real estate firms.

"We've added some of the new panels because we're always trying to make sure that the event evolves with the times," Kelley tells GlobeSt.com. "We have a mixed use panel this year, for example, because mixed use is the way that so many projects are going today. The same is true for the structured finance panel, which we felt warranted its own discussion above and beyond the traditional capital markets focus."

The conference will get under way just before 8 a.m. with opening remarks by Jonathan Schein, president and CEO of Real Estate Media and Marty Stolzoff, founder of the Real Estate Conference Group. The day's first panel will feature leading brokers offering their perspectives on the industry, followed by Zell's keynote remarks.

Zell, who also will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ziman, will be introduced by Michael Desiato, group managing director and editor-in-chief of Real Estate Media. The day's next session will be a finance update titled "Will Money Continue to Chase Deals?," which will be a separate discussion from the panel on structured finance.

Other panel sessions throughout the day will address development issues, the overall outlook for investments and the tenant-in-common market. The moderators and panelists will represent every segment of the industry, including multifamily, office, industrial, retail and hotel properties.

The concluding session of the day will be the panel on attracting and retaining talent, titled "Human Capital." RealShare has added the panel in light of "the boom in our industry, which has companies searching for the best ways to find experienced people and the best ways to retain them," Kelley says.