property portal watch conference nyc 2016 final agenda

Version 5 – ALMOST FINAL

Property Portal Watch ConferenceNew York 25th – 26th January 2016

Time Topic Speaker Overview

Monday 25th January 2016

08:30 – 09:00 Registration Coffee and Tea provided in foyer

09:00 – 09:15 Kick Off Simon Baker – Chairman, Property Portal Watch

Overview of the 2 days and housekeeping

Session 1 – The Changing Nature of Online Real Estate Marketing

09:15 – 09:35 Changing Nature of the Online Real Estate Market and Who to Watch and Learn From

(Presentation)

Simon Baker – Chairman, Property Portal Watch

The online real estate marketing world is rapidly changing. General classified sites are taking on the verticals (and winning), business models are changing, sites are trying to participate in the transaction stream, niche sites are emerging, plus much much more. This session looks at some of the changes that are happening in online real estate marketing and (from my perspective) identifies the top 10 property portals and what we can learn from them.

09:35 – 09:55 Leveraging Real Estate Software to Get Closer to the Advertiser

(Interview)

Nicolas Guillaud de Saint-Ferreol – CEO at Apiwork (France)

Nicolas Pettex-Muffat – General Manager at Daniel Feau Christies (France)

Getting closer to the advertiser is a goal for many portals. One way to do this is to implement a CRM system for agents in the market. While some companies build their own CRM systems, many are looking to white label a third party solution to get closer to their advertisers.

Apimo is one company that has implemented and rolled out a CRM system for agents around the world. This session looks at how portals are implementing Apimo’s technology.

25th and 26th January 2016 1



09:55 – 10:20 Inventing a Niche - BankruptcyListings.com

(Presentation)

Brad Geisen – CEO at Foreclosure.com (USA)

One third of all foreclosures in the United States fall into bankruptcy. Most are snatched up by institutional investors or sold via pool sales and very few make it through to the home buyer. It can also take years to go through the process.

BankruptcyListings.com works directly with the bankruptcy trustees through our parent company BK Global. The properties go through a 3-Step process. In Review, Coming Soon and For Sale. This unique pre-marketing technique is proving very valuable in selling these properties. Several of the top US banks have already signed up and we have roughly 100k properties in pipeline.

This session looks at how the team at Foreclosure.com has launched BankruptcyListings.com and is tackling this opportunity in the US market.

10:20 – 10:30 Sponsor Show Case

90-Second Introduction to the Sponsors

(Presentation)

Andrew Crefeld – CEO and Founder, Houselens (USA)

Kornel Kathi – Director, Portal.chat (Netherlands)

Geoffroy Reiser – CEO, ListGlobally (Switzerland)

10:30 – 11:10 Networking Break Coffee and Tea provided in foyer

11:10 – 11:40 Horizontals versus Verticals – Who Wins?

(Presentation)

Simon Baker – Chairman at Property Portal Watch

In all markets, the online classifieds segment is highly competitive. The advertiser has significantly more choice than they did in the past. There are dedicated vertical sites (for cars, jobs and homes) as well as general classifieds sites (horizontal) that service all markets. Is this a winner take all market or is there room for both horizontal and vertical players. Simon Baker, the Chairman of the Mitula Group and former CEO/MD of the REA Group in Australia, will discuss what the likely outcome is by looking at what is happing in the highly competitive online real estate segment.




11:40 – 12:00 Case Study on Property Portal Data Security

(Presentation)

Charlie Minesinger – Director of Solution Sales at Distil Networks (USA)

Your listing data is valuable. Scraping it NOT good for distribution of your listings to your competitors and fraudsters. Controlling your listing data is good business - protects your value, saves on costs and maximizes revenue. This session explores the specific of how one property portal found strong ROI with bot detection protecting their listings.

12:00 – 12:20 Where to Next for Online Real Estate Marketing

(Discussion Panel)

Simon Baker – Chairman at Property Portal Watch

Scott Holmes – Development and Strategy Manager at the REA Group (Australia)

Gonzalo del Pozo – CEO at the Mitula Group (Spain/Australia)

This panel reflects on the presentations about the changing nature of online real estate marketing and also thinks about what future changes can occur as the market evolves.

12:20 – 13:50 Lunch Free time for networking

Session 2 – Innovate Approaches to Consumer Marketing

13:50 – 14:00 Consumer Marketing Trends

(Presentation)


Consumer marketing is at the core of all online real estate sites. They have to attract traffic and more importantly keep them engaged with the site. Portals around the world are becoming more creative with their consumer market approaches. This session looks at the various approach portals are taking to consumer marketing.




14:00 – 14:20 How Consumers Search – Lessons Learned by Mitula

(Presentation)

Gonzalo del Pozo – CEO at the Mitula Group (Spain)

Mitula is uniquely placed see how consumers around the world search for real estate. They operate in 41 countries across 3 verticals (cars, jobs and homes), with a over 55 million visits each month. This session looks at some of the insights and finding the Mitula Group has gained.

14:20 – 14:45 Building Real Estate Market Indices for the Brazilian Market

(Presentation)

Antonio Carlos Ayres – Head of Market Intelligence at ZAP (Brazil)

Property portals around the world have ready access to a vast range of information on home sales and rental prices. From these, it is possible to create a series of market indices that can track the performance of a market.

ZAP in Brazil has partnered with FIPE (Institute of Economic Research Foundation) to create a series of FipeZAP indices covering sales and rentals. This session looks at how they approached this and the lesson learned in building these indices.

14:45 – 15:10 Using Social Media to Market Houses

(Presentation)

Lex Groenewegen – CEO at Placert (Netherlands)

Placert is a Dutch company focused on using social media to market properties. On average over 60,000 Dutch are being marketed on social media through their platform. This session will look at what works and doesn’t work in using social media as a marketing channel.

15:10 – 15:50 Networking Break Coffee and Tea provided in foyer

Session 3 – Emerging Markets – New Companies and New Approaches

15:50 – 16:00 What’s Happening in Emerging Markets

(Presentation)


Online real estate sites in emerging markets around the world are going through rapid development.




16:00 – 16:25 Attacking in an Emerging Market – Lessons from the Ukraine

(Presentation)

Ivo Perts - CEO at Mesto (Ukraine) Mesto is a relatively new entrant (2011) in the emerging market of the Ukraine. It is taking on several well established incumbents and making great progress. This session looks at the lessons learned by Mesto.

16:25 – 16:50 Making Inroads into the Highly Competitive Turkish Market

(Presentation)

Ahmet Kayhan – CEO at Zingat.com (Turkey)

Although a relatively recent entry to the Turkish market, Zingat.com has made strong progress in taking on the leaders in this emerging market. This presentation looks at the Turkish market and how they are taking on the leaders.

16:50 – 17:15 The Emerging Home Tradesman Market – How Homebell is Building a Europe Wide Business

(Interview)

Felix Swoboda - CEO at Homebell (Germany)

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Not only are there emerging geographic markets, there are also emerging market segment – one of which is the home tradesman market. Homebell was launched in 2015 and now operates in 11 countries throughout Europe. This presentation looks at what they do and how they are growing their business.

17:15 – 17:30 Day 1 Wrap Up Simon Baker – Chairman at Property Portal Watch

19:30 onwards Drinks Venue

Hudson Common at 356 W. 58th Street, New York

Sponsored by the Mitula Group



Tuesday 26th January 2016

08:45 – 09:00 Introduction Simon Baker – Executive Chairman, Property Portal Watch

Overview of the day

Session 4 – How the Internet is Revolutionizing Real Estate Agency

09:00 – 09:15 Changing Nature of Real Estate Sales – Opportunities and Challenges for Portals

Simon Baker – Executive Chairman at Property Portal Watch

Uber changed the taxi industry, AirBNB changed the short term accommodation industry and Expedia helped revolutionize the travel industry. It is now the turn of real estate agency to become more efficient and in the process, for the fees to drop dramatically. This session looks at the changes that are occurring around the world.

09:15 – 09:40 Online Agents – What They Offer and Will They Win?

(Interview)

Rob Ellice – CEO at EasyProperty (UK) Property portals have disrupted the traditional property advertising industry. Now it is the turn of the online agent to disrupt the much larger residential and commercial sales and lettings industry. This session looks at how EasyProperty in the UK is taking on the 21,000 traditional estate agents and shaking up the industry with a lower cost business model that is more profitable and saves the landlord and home seller thousands.

09:40 – 10:05 Property Portals and Transaction Platforms

(Presentation)

Stuart Atkinson – Co-Founder at Wonego (UK)

Stephan Gasteyger – Co-Founder at Wonego (UK)

The holy grail for a property portal is to capture part of the transaction revenue stream. The challenge for them will be two fold – how to put in place the right transaction platform and how to compete with their customers. This session looks at the first part of the problem, what they need to think about in implementing a transaction platform.



10:05 – 10:30 Ten-X (Auction.com) – Participating in the Real Estate Transaction Revenue Stream

(Presentation)

Rick Sharga – CMO at Ten-X (formerly Auction.com) (USA)

Billions of dollars in commissions flow through the real estate transaction revenue stream. Most portals tinker around the edges and capture some of the marketing dollars however one portal, Ten-X (formerly auction.com), is knee deep in the transaction revenue stream. Rick Sharga from Ten-X will discuss the business model, the growth of the business, new transaction platforms, how they work with the industry and why Google Capital invested USD 50 million in the company.

10:30 – 11:10 Networking Break Coffee and tea provided in foyer

Session 5 – How the Internet is Opening International Markets

11:10 – 11:20 Trends and Lessons from International Marketing of Real Estate

(Presentation)

Simon Baker – Executive Chairman at Property Portal Watch

Real estate agents have always sold property to overseas buyers however the internet is providing agents with new and innovative ways to market their properties to an even broader range of overseas buyers. This session looks at some of the lessons that are occurring in the global marketing of property.



11:20 – 11:50 Marketing Listings Internationally - The Industry's Perspective

(Panel Session)

Celeste Starchild – SVP at Move, Inc (USA) (Moderator)

Panelists:

Mary Capella - VP, Platforms and E-Business at ERA Franchise Systems

Rene Galvan – EVP of Houston Association of Realtors

Michele Giordano - EVP and CMO at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New Jersey Properties

Anthony Hitt - CEO at Engel & Völkers North America

This round table discussion with top industry executives explores how they approach the international marketing of listings, the lessons they have learned, and the value international clients can bring to their companies.

11:50 – 12:10 Marketing Properties to Asia and the World – Options and Approaches

(Interview)

George Varvitsiotis – CEO at Asia Interactive (Hong Kong)

Asia Interactive has been helping Asian agents and developers market their listings in greater China, Asia Pacific, and to the world via their media sites PropGO.com and PropGOLuxury.com and their powered by syndication channels including the NY Times, Financial Times and additional premium channels targeting affluent English and Chinese reading property consumers wherever they may be. This session discusses the various approaches agents can take and the challenges of marketing properties internationally.



12:10 – 12:30 How the Chinese Approach Online Property Search and How to Market to Them

(Interview)

Esther Yong – CEO at AC Property (Australia)

China continues to be a very attractive segment for many Western Countries as they search for overseas buyers for local property. However, there are vast differences in the ways the Chinese search for property online. This session discusses the differences between East and West in the property search process and discuss how best to market to and engage with the Chinese buyers.

12:30 – 13:50 Lunch Free Time for Networking

Session 6 – Attacking the New Homes Developer Market

13:50 – 14:00 The Importance of the New Homes Segment to Property Portals

(Presentation)


For many portals, the new homes segment delivers over 60% of their revenues. The reason is simple – this segment has the most to spend and in many markets, the established home segment has almost no capacity to pay for online advertising.

This session looks at what portals around the world are doing to attack and deliver to this segment.

14:00 – 14:25 New Developments and Why Portals Are Not Usually a Key Part of the Sales and Marketing Puzzle

(Presentation)

Jon Ellis – CEO at Investorist (Australia)

In many markets, new developments are far more important than established home sales. The new homes developers are far more professional and have a greater capacity to spend on marketing than estate agents and brokers. However, property portals may be missing the mark when it comes to marketing these new developments. This session looks at how Investorist is tackling the new homes market and providing developers with a new channel to market their developments.

14:25 – 14:50 How Online Hyper-Local Platforms are Changing the Marketing and Sale of New Homes in the Netherlands

(Presentation)

Boris Geheniau – Fundamental All Media (Netherlands)

This presentation looks at how the marketing and sale of new homes in the Dutch market has changed through the use of hyper-local listing sites, and the setting up of partnerships with the real estate developers, municipalities, agents and brokers.



14:50 – 15:20 Do You Know How Big the Developer Industry Really is in Your Country?

(Presentation)

Scott Holmes – Development and Strategy Manager at the REA Group (Australia)

Big Datr is an Australian based company, who have replicated a platform that they have successfully rolled out to other verticals such as finance and automotive, to the Australian Property Developer industry.

Their cloud-based platform provides real-time marketing insights such as projects that are being marketed, the media channel selection and share of voice.

To support a full market view, realestate.com.au provides data to Big Datr and is working with them to produce market insights reports for developer clients.

realestate.com.au uses this tool internally to discover new projects on the market and what mediums they are marketing their projects on.

15:20 – 16:00 Networking Break Coffee and tea provided in foyer

Session 7 – Best Approaches to Capital Raising

16:00 – 16:10 Capital Raising Around the World

(Presentation)

Simon Baker – Chairman, Property Portal Watch and Serial Investor

Portals and other online real estate companies are still raising money to fund growth both within their countries and throughout the regions. This session looks at who is raising significant funds and what they are using them for.

16:10 – 16:35 How the Next Group in Japan Dramatically Increased its Market Value

(Presentation)

Keizo Tsutsui – Managing Officer, Overseas Business Division (Japan)

Takashi Inoue - President and CEO at Next Group (Japan)

Homes.co.jp, a leader in the Japanese market and listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, is a highly innovative company.

Over the last 2 years, the company has dramatically increased its market capitalisation through 4 key initiatives. This presentation looks at what they did to increase value and which initiatives have the greatest impact.



16:35 – 16:55 What Investors Look for in Property Portals and Other Online Property Related Businesses

(Discussion Panel)

Malcolm Myers – CEO at European Internet Ventures (Switzerland)

Scott Sinclair – Managing Director at Cascabel Management (USA)

Almost all online real estate related businesses need to raise capital from time to time. Some do a great job at it while others take a long time to raise only part of the funds they were seeking. This session discusses what investors look for when investing in both early stage and more mature businesses.

16:55 – 17:15 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Capital Raising

(Presentation)

Simon Baker – Chairman, Property Portal Watch and Serial Investor

All businesses go through the same cycle of capital raising. Some do it more successfully than others. Simon Baker is a serial investor in a property portals and associated businesses around the world. He has worked on capital raising at all levels including listings 2 companies (Mitula and Real Estate Investar) on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2015. This session looks at 10 do’s and don’ts in raising capital.

17:15 – 17:30 Conference Wrap Up Simon Baker – Chairman at Property Portal Watch
