Apartment Experts Assess Market Potential

Colleen McShane, group conference manager for the RealShare series of events, tells GlobeSt.com that more than 800 registrants are expected to attend. The conference will tackle a host of questions facing the apartment market and the economy, ranging from when the economy will start to turn to where interest rates are headed, how financing will change, what areas of the nation are poised to recover and virtually every other facet of the apartment market that is of interest to owners, investors and others involved in the market.

More than 60 industry leaders will participate as speakers and panelists at the event, which will include three networking breaks, breakfast, lunch and cocktails. The speakers and panelists will feature some of the top industry experts from every discipline involved in the apartment market, including owners, investment advisers, brokers, capital sources and others.

The event will kick off with a keynote address by Doug Culkin, president of the National Apartment Association, who will provide a national apartment market update. Culkin's remarks will lead in to the first panel of the day: Nowhere But Up: What Does the Apartment Market Look Like Post-Recession?

Next up will be a panel titled Buy-Sell-Hold: What to Do in Today's Investment Market, after which the first networking break is slated. Following the break, the next panel will focus on the topic, With Dislocation Comes Opportunity: Surviving Today's Capital Crisis. That will be followed by the second networking break, after which attendees will have their choice of three different sessions--one on the outlook and opportunities in distressed properties; a second on opportunities in affordable, senior and student housing; and a third on property management tips to drive NOI.

Following a networking lunch, a panel of industry leaders will present "The View from the Top. Then, after the third networking break of the day, another expert panel will present: "The Word from the Street: Top Sales Brokers on How to Survive, and even Thrive, in Today's Market." Next up will be the last panel of the day, "Value-Add: The Realities of Today's Development Market."

Following the last panel will be a cocktail reception and an opportunity for additional networking. Apartments 2009 conference is an annual event that is produced by ALM, publisher of Real Estate Forum, Real Estate Southern California, Real Estate New York, Real Estate New Jersey, Real Estate Florida and GlobeSt.com. The RealShare Conference Series produces commercial real estate conferences and networking events throughout the country.