AUSTIN—All ears perk up when the name Sam Zell is mentioned. And so they will again October 27 and 28, when CCIM THRIVE convenes here. Zell will be keynoting the event in what is sure to be a fast-paced, informative and provocative session. The conversation will be moderated by ALM's Real Estate Media Group vice president and group publisher Michael G. Desiato (GlobeSt.com is part of the ALM Real Estate Media Group).

But Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments, is just the tip of the iceberg, and there is a roster of commercial real estate heavyweights who will be sharing their insights and experience as the annual conference unfolds. These include:

• Transwestern executive managing partner Steve Pumper and Prudential Real Estate Investors principal James Street, who will be providing their insights on the institutional capital markets;
• Granite Properties president and CEO Michael Dardick and Hunt Realty Investments president Patricia Gibson, reading the investment market's vital signs; and 
• NAI Global president Jay Olshonsky and CompStak CEO Michael Mandel discussing nothing less than the future of commercial real estate.

In future weeks, GlobeSt.com will be reporting on some of the views of many of the speakers in an exclusive series of pre-event features. We did so with Zell himself, asking him what he saw as the major drivers of the market. Here's what he told us:

“The single biggest change in the last 15 years has been the deferral of marriage. The shift in capital allocation alone from that demographic change is seismic. Instead of rushing to buy houses in the suburbs after college, Millennials are focused on 24/7 cities and entertainment. They don't want commitments. They saw their parents or friends' parents with houses underwater during the last recession.”

Zell also expressed his concern over the state of lending in this odd recovery: “The confidence level among lenders is unjustified. The stock market reflects an almost perfect world scenario, but Main Street is not feeling the euphoria. Take tech, for example, which is the single biggest tenant in this recovery. Tech is thriving on the availability of capital by selling equity to cover operating losses to chase an idea. Sound familiar? But, ongoing burn rates are not an asset class.”