Session Write-ups
Social Media – A New Evolution of Business
Wednesday 3rd February 2010, ULI Europe Paris Conference
Networking is a central part of the ULI Paris Conference experience, but the way we network and connect with others is changing – rapidly. Six years ago Facebook didn’t exist. Today we are surrounded by a multitude of social media and networking sites and the message is: get connected. ULI Europe took the opportunity in Paris to hold a session on social media and demonstrate its value to the real estate industry. The response was fantastic.
Moderated by Charles Doyle, Chief Marketing Officer, Jones Lang LaSalle, the session panellists included: Craig Killick, Managing Director, The Escape; Brant Long, Global Head of Branding, Jones Lang LaSalle; Marthijn Pool, Architect/Concept Developer, space&matter; and Iain O’Neil, Assistant Editor (Online), Property Week. This variety of speaker allowed the audience to gain insight into the use of social media by all sectors across the real estate industry, as well as information on strategies for employing social media.
Results from the ULI Europe social media survey suggested that many members don’t view social media as a vital business tool. With only 39 responses, interest in social media among ULI members appears to be low and while 69% of respondents use social media in their personal lives, no one believed it would deliver real value to businesses. The session panellists - and the session audience - had a different opinion.
The session panellists advocate that social media is transforming the commercial real estate industry and changing the way we do business. Social media opens up an entirely new platform for marketing and selling commercial property, allowing companies to make known their expertise to a much wider audience. The word often used to describe the effectiveness of this new marketing tool is glocalisation: essentially social media turns the global into the local encouraging worldwide interaction without leaving the office. It is this interaction which is the driving force of social media success; as people are increasingly using social media to discuss, promote and demote brands, real estate operators need to be part of the conversation. Through dialogue with consumers, real estate leaders will understand further people’s interests and opinions, allowing them to create a brand that connects with their audience.
In this fast paced, modern world, social media satisfies our need for instant gratification. It provides immediate, up to date information, keeping us constantly connected and informed; an audience member described the phenomenon perfectly in the term he coined “McDonald News”.
But is it a passing fad? One sceptic in the audience questioned the hype around it, “can you really say that this will be popular in 5-10 years time”. “Does that matter?” was the response, “the fact is that social media is popular now. It is changing the way we do business today and you should be part of it”
What do you think? Sceptic or enthusiast, we invite you to join the conversation. To explore the concept of social media further, and to gain insight into strategies behind social media marketing, listen to the audio podcast with the session panellists; as one audience member stated: “This is the revolution”.
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Government to the Rescue – Dream or Nightmare?
Wednesday 3rd February 2010, ULI Europe Paris Conference
Asset Protection Scheme - APS
“What these schemes were trying to do was bring certainty to the market and provide clarity about losses for the banks”
“But the APS doesn’t work like a simple insurance contract – RBS have obligations to meet in return for the insurance offered by the government”
“How can you ensure the taxpayer is protected?” – “With regards to the APS, the government has also established the Asset Protection Agency (APA). The APA was set up in December 2009 to oversee the performance of the APS.”
“The APA has a number of rights of oversight as well as rights to take direct action if they disagree with what RBS is doing – how much they will use these rights remains to be seen”
“For RBS, the APA is an additional official body looking over your shoulder”
“It remains to be seen how visible and important the APA’s action will be, but it will play a critical role in determining the impact of the Asset Protection Scheme.”
“An estimated £75 billion of real estate assets are covered by the APS – this is significant”
National Asset Management Agency - NAMA “Ireland has adopted a scheme which has similar objectives that if the UK schemes, but is in a number of ways a lot simpler”
“Put simply, NAMA is a bad bank”
“Ireland identified real estate as the core of the problem and so NAMA was set up specifically for land and development loans”
“Five banks are taking part in NAMA: Anglo Irish, Allied Irish, Bank of Ireland, Irish nationwide Building Society and Education Building Society.”
“Valuation is the key theme in Ireland at the moment – there is a major exercise going on with accountants, property valuers and lawyers who are trying to assess what the long term economic value of each loan is.”
“Valuation will keep the market busy for some time and depending on where the mark is set, recapitalisation could be the next big theme!”
Dream or Nightmare
“I don’t think the market is anywhere near a consensus on this and I don’t think it will reach one for some time. Success will be judged in the operation of these schemes and ultimately how much they cost to the tax payer. BUT personally I am not sure this is the right question. You can argue over the technicalities but essentially the Government in the UK and Ireland had no choice but to do something to prevent their main banks from going down.”
Sweden – what can we learn from hindsight?
“Everything we did was based on worst case scenario”
“There was a 90% probability that we would nationalise the whole system”
“The aim was to get back the banks capacity to lend by dividing the assets into a good bank and a bad bank”
“There is a difference in character between a banker and a bad banker!”
What would you do differently? Are there mistakes to learn from?
“We were lucky – we did the management phase well.”
“But the real mistake was that we forgot to change the legislation. Once the previous crisis was over, we just carried on as normal. This time legislation needs changing”
“What would you do if a bank refused to take support?”
The Bankers perspective“There is a living, breathing banking market that exists today – it is just very different to the one we are used to”
“There are two banking markets referred to today:
1) The pre-crisis banking market – a historical market
2) The market which exists today – the reality of business today.”
“You get the feeling these government interventions are all the same, when in fact, they are quite different”
Comments/Interaction with the audience “NAMA’s high public profile means that its directors/managers are always in the public eye – for this reason it is difficult to get a good manager for NAMA. You need someone who is isolated from the political element that exists in Ireland”
“What choice does the Irish government have?”
“Instant gratification is a problem – everyone is real estate wants an answer tomorrow. The reality is that the impact from these schemes will take much longer. Look at the estimated length of the schemes: NAMA 10 yrs, APS 10 yrs, Germany 20 yrs.”
Q. “Is anything going to happen in Spain or are they sleeping?”
A. “It may seem as though there is less activity in Spain, but the government has been intervening for a while with its enforced Counter Cyclical Provisioning.”
“These provisions have acted as a healthy buffer for Spain”
“If Spain didn’t have this provision system it would make Greece look like a party”
“It’s amazing how the public hate the bankers”
“How do we create a real estate market that works”
Speakers
Morning keynote:
Dr. Ian Shepherdson, Chief Economist, High Frequency Economics
biography
Afternoon keynote:
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice-Chair, Intgov’tal Panel on Climate Change (IPPC)
bio
Over 50 industry experts will speak at the ULI's annual conference.
They include:
Prof. Andrew Baum, Professor of Land Management, University of Reading Business School
Michael Brodtman, Executive Director, CB Richard Ellis
Martin Brühl, Managing Partner Germany, Cushman & Wakefield
Greg Clark, Senior Fellow EMEA/India, The Urban Land Institute
John Forbes, EMEA Real Estate Industry Leader, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Gerard Groener, CEO, Corio N.V.
Dr. Victoria Harris, CEO, Article 25
Ian Hawksworth, Managing Director, Capital & Counties
Anne Kavanagh, Head of Real Estate, Lazard and Co Ltd
Sir Stuart Lipton, Deputy Chairman, Chelsfield Partners
Brant Long, Global Head of Branding, Jones Lang LaSalle
Marc Mogull, Managing Partner, Benson Elliot Capital Management LLP
Jeremy Newsum, Executive Trustee, Grosvenor Estate
Steven Owen, Former Deputy Chief Executive, Brixton Plc.
Mathieu Roland-Billecart, Assistant Director, Ernst & Young
Jonathan Short, Founding Partner & CIO, Internos Investors
Mr. Erik Sondèn, Chairman, ULI France
Pere Vinolas, CEO, Inmobiliaria COLONIAL
Jon Zehner, Senior Director, AREA Property Partners
^ Back to topBiographies
Dr. Ian C. Shepherdson
Chief Economist
High Frequency Economics
Dr. Shepherdson is a foremost global economist who has been described by the London Times as one of "the best economists in the City”. His publication, Daily Notes, is widely read by investors, policymakers and dealers in 20 countries. Dr. Shepherdson was named top U.S. forecaster of 2003 by the Wall Street Journal. He is frequently quoted in the international press and he is a regular guest on U.S. national public radio's Marketplace.
Prior to joining High Frequency Economics, Dr. Shepherdson was Chief Economist, for HSBC Securities, Inc. in New York, where his views on the U.S. economy and markets guided the company's senior decision-makers and clients around the world. He also spent six years with HSBC in London, latterly as Chief U.K. Economist. High Frequency Economics was established in 1988 to provide institutional investors with independent analysis of the global markets.
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Jean-Pascal van Ypersele
Vice-Chair
Intgov’tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Van Ypersele has a Ph. D. in physics from the Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), where he is professor of climatology and environmental sciences, and directs the Master programme in Science and Management of the Environment. He specialised in modeling climate and the climate effects of human activities. He chairs the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development.
Van Ypersele is the chair of IPCC – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. In 2009, he was elected a Member of the Belgian Royal Academy. He has participated to a number of United Nations conferences on climate issues, as scientific advisor. Among other prizes, he received in 2006 the Energy and environment award from the International Polar Foundation, and the "Francqui Chair" from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 2007-2008.
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Jon H. Zehner
Senior Director
AREA Property Partners
London, UK
Zehner is Senior Director of AREA Property Partners, with responsibilities that include deal origination, investor relations and strategic development. He joined AREA in July 2009 after almost 28 years at JPMorgan, which included four years as head of sub-Saharan Africa and 24 years in real estate investment banking of which he was global head for eight years.
Zehner is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, Chair of the Real Estate Advisory Board of the University of Cambridge, a founder and past member of the Executive Board of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA), and a past member of the Policy Committee of the British Property Federation.
He has an AB degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
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