Conference Explores OC Market's Momentum

Kelly estimates that about 400 registrants will attend this year's RealShare event. "We have skyrocketed right past last year's attendance already, and we always get a lot of attendance over the last few days before the event, so we should have a very good crowd this year," he says.

Kelly also points out that the program is attracting attendees that include those who are already involved in the Orange County market as well as "a good percentage of folks from outside the market who are either invested in Orange County or want to be invested there."The first session on the program at this year's Orange County event will provide a primer on the county in a presentation by Lucy Dunn, president and CEO of the Orange County Business Council. Dunn's presentation will be titled "Orange County 101: What you don't know and what you'd better know,"

Next will come a town hall meeting on the state of the Orange County market. It will feature panelists Bill Halford, president and CEO of Bixby Land Co., Michael Hayde, CEO of Western National Group; Colm Macken, president and CEO of Shea Properties; Paul Marshall, division president at Opus Development and John Parker, chairman of Parker Properties. Joseph Vargas, executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, will moderate the panel.

One of the highlights of every RealShare conference is the "Inside the real estate mind" interview, which provides an in-depth conversation with one of the market's top commercial real estate executives. This year's exec will be Bob Campbell, president of CT Realty Corp., who will be interviewed in an afternoon session by Michael Desiato, group publisher and editorial director of Real Estate Media.

A session this year that "should be pretty entertaining," Kelley says, is called "The great debate: Landlords vs. tenants." Panelists will wrestle with the question of who has the upper hand in today's Orange County commercial markets in what should prove to be one of the liveliest discussions of the day.

In addition to providing insights into the market in the full sessions, Kelly notes, "We will cover the gamut with our concurrent sessions." Topics listed for the concurrent sessions include how to get deals done in today's environment of low cap rates, a look at what to expect in the near term in the county's apartment and condominium markets, the state of the Orange County investment market, the impact of tenant-in-common buyers in the county, and redevelopment opportunities in the market.

The RealShare conference series is presented by Real Estate Media, publishers of GlobeSt.com, Real Estate Forum and Real Estate Southern California, as well as a number of industry newsletters. Besides providing broad and in-depth market information, the RealShare conferences serve as popular industry networking events.