While details are still being filled in, the '03 schedule to date calls for a Philadelphia event in February, a Washington, DC conference in March; Chicago in June; Dallas in September; and New Jersey and New York in October. There will also be a special Net Lease Conference in March. The city has yet to be announced.

Among the highlights of the '02 series was the keynote address delivered by Dr. Ray Perryman at the inaugural Dallas conference. The economics expert noted that Dallas was poised to grow despite current office vacancy issues.

"None of the politicians want to say Texas had a recession," Perryman told the crowd. It was "a bad year," he admitted, "by our standards." And that's the key to the perception of what's happening in Dallas because what is standard here has been the creation of 100,000 new jobs per year. Those days certainly are gone for now, but the hard times of 2002 still managed to rack up 40,000 new jobs for North Texas, he said. Perryman predicted it will get even better in six to nine months in Dallas and Austin.

The conferences were designed both as a vehicle for real estate information as well as for networking opportunities. According to Kelley, the 2003 series will follow that "successful approach."