In June 2022, the Parc Hotel Alvisse hosted the first real estate technologies fair for the grand duchy and greater region. Laurent Rouach, president of federation LuxPropTech and co-organiser of the conference along with Progetis, explains.
Why did you decide to co-create this one-day salon?
The best way to meet people is through a salon. And because there is no specialised magazine for innovation in the real estate sector, salons are the only way to see the evolution of tech. There are four big salons in europe: MIPIM in Cannes, London CRETech Show, Real Estate and New Tech (RENT), in Paris and Expo Real, in Munich. We thought it was a good idea to organise an event that could bring together all of the players in this industry around the theme innovation, which is linked to proptech. It’s not just startups, it’s the future of real estate! All real estate will move in this direction.
How much traction did RE-Smart get in the sector?
Our visit numbers exceeded expectations: we had 380 visitors. We were aiming for 300 so we were happy (35% were proptechs, 27% were promoters/developers/builders, and 16% were brokers). We had 38 exhibitors from the greater region and 34 international speakers. We conducted a satisfaction survey of visitors that showed 97% satisfied or very satisfied. We received a lot of praise because a lot of contacts were made.
What were the key discussion points of the salon conferences?
We selected companies and speakers which had something to say about the market. A large part of the conference was linked to specific themes, like how the residential market is progressing toward the net zero race, a big trend in terms of sustainability.
We also had a conference on how the big real estate firms are embracing innovation with Leonard (Vinci), Covivio and Revive, a Flemish developer that positions itself to adopt innovation. Revive is developing with us a startup accelerator for urban tech startups in Brussels. Each in its way masters innovation or developers innovation, by creating a hub or accelerators to bring them together like Revive, by investing in proptech or in proptech funds, or developing something internal, which is hard. We also had a conference on the big Luxembourg projects, with IKO Real estate, the Fonds de Logement and the SNHBM. We closed with how the real estate funds see proptechs in their business.
