Howard Berger: Bringing Industry Leaders Together for Innovation at RealComm

By Luke Lightning

May 11, 2022

On this episode of the Future Construct Podcast (37 min interview), we are excited to feature Howard Berger (@bergerhl), Managing Partner, SVP Programs at RealComm (@RealComm). He is responsible for all programming for the RealComm, IBcon, CoreTech conferences, and the CIO Forums globally. Howard has a combined 30 years of experience in both the technology as well as real estate industries.

Realcomm Conference Group, LLC is a worldwide research and event company at the intersection of technology, innovation, and real estate operations. With their annual conferences, webinars, workshops, CIO Forums, and other strategic services, Realcomm provides networking and collaboration opportunities, while educating industry professionals about the latest business solutions and technologies to improve commercial real estate development, leasing, management, and operations.

Realcomm was founded with the goal of bringing industry leaders together to discuss, demonstrate, and debate the latest innovations to impact our industry.

Click to listen to our interview with Howard on Apple, Spotify, or Google, or watch on our Facebook or YouTube channels.

Highlights of Howard’s interview with host Amy Peck (@AmyPeckXR) include:

• RealComm was one of the first organizations to hold a hybrid conference in response to the pandemic

• Howard’s journey from IT to real estate, to digital transformation in commercial
  real estate

• The necessity to have someone in an organization with a vision, ultimately
  driving change

• The gross underutilization of most major office spaces in buildings, whether it’s a classic, urban, or even a suburban office

• Howard's vision to have a device that doesn’t just translate words but translates what the speaker is really thinking, what’s in their heart

Howard completed his post-graduation business degree at Ohio State University he was engaged as a System Analyst for a Philadelphia-based IT consulting firm specializing in mainframe configuration and support to Fortune 500 and governmental agencies. He moved to Southern California and started an investment real estate practice in 1980 and in 1988 joined a subsidiary of TRW to assist in the development of PC-based Real Estate Information Systems for the title insurance industry. It was during this stint at TRW that he met Jim Young and subsequently joined The Jamesan Group as a technology consultant in 1995 becoming a partner in Realcomm Conference Services LLC in 2000.

For the past 20 years, Howard has been designing programs focused on process automation and technology integration for the commercial and corporate real estate industries. Howard co-created the Realcomm, IBcon, and CoreTech conferences and for the past 15 years has been promoting and leading the CIO Forum series for commercial real estate CIOs and senior IT executives via vertically focused local educational and networking events in both the major North American markets and International markets - Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.

Click to listen to our interview with Howard on Apple, Spotify, or Google, or watch on our Facebook or YouTube channels.

Show Notes

00:37  Amy Peck introduces Howard Berger, Managing Partner, SVP Programs at RealComm.

01:31  Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to this industry and how you became involved with RealComm?

18:32  One of the things that I think is remarkable in this industry is that you have those who are out there kind of forging a path but then you have others that are clinging to these arcane systems because it’s what they know. And it's going to be very difficult for them to compel their workforce to embrace the new technology. So, the companies that are getting it right – what is the secret?

22:14  The way space is going to be utilized is changing because people are home and not necessarily going back to work. How do you think this will impact the use of space and how will technology kind of help us redefine workspaces? What do you see as some of the technologies that are emerging to support this kind of fractious workforce?

34:44  If you can project yourself 20, 25 years in the future, and you could have a service or a gadget, or just something that makes your personal life better, what would it be and what would it do?

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