To that end, Reed Midem on Wednesday announced the launch of MIPIM Proptech Summit, scheduled for Oct. 11 in New York City. Produced in partnership with Metaprop NYC, the conference and startup competition follows up an invitation-only event held last year that Rean said drew 300 registrants in the space of a week. (Click here for additional reporting on MIPIM Proptech.)

For an industry that represents one of the leading drivers of GDP in many countries worldwide, real estate has been among the lowest-spending in terms of tech investment. That's changing, said Zak Schwarzman, co-founder and partner at Metaprop NYC.

Not only has there been a proliferation of tech startups that serve CRE, he said; “we're also seeing it as a pull coming from the industry. We're seeing every technology colliding at full speed with the real estate industry.”

New York City, home to Schwarzman's organization, is also a hub for real estate tech firms, making it a natural location for MIPIM to stage its first-ever US event. It's also the nation's second largest market for venture capital funding as well as its largest real estate market, he pointed out.

Reans said Reed Midem would continue to develop content based on the union of tech and real estate. It's still early days for this marriage, he noted. “The operation of an office building today is largely the same as it was 50 years ago,” he said. “It's not so much how it's built as how it's used.”

CANNES, FRANCE—The overall mood among MIPIM exhibitors and attendees this year has been upbeat, albeit with a sense of clarity, Reed Midem's Filippo Rean told reporters Wednesday. “There's a very good energy this year, and it's a good energy because it's realistic,” said Rean, director of the real estate division Reed Midem, MPIM and MAPIC Markets. “Nobody's forgetting the challenges.” He summed up the overall tenor of this year's conference as “positive but realistic.”

Reflecting the changing dynamics that the industry is confronting, the theme for this year's MIPIM is “A New Deal for Real Estate,” reflected in a great deal of the conference's content as well as in the approach a number of exhibitors are taking. Rean said this theme stemmed from “an acceleration of geopolitical changes,” including the Brexit referendum in the UK and the election of Donald Trump across the Atlantic.

“Is a real estate tycoon running the United States good for real estate?” Rean asked. “Maybe yes, maybe not.” He later said, though, that the industry appears to be adjusting to a new normal of fast-paced change. “This has been a series of mini-shocks, which are more absorbable than a massive shock such as the 2008 financial crisis,” he explained.

Societal changes represent another aspect of real estate's new deal, including the intersection of commercial real estate and technology. Long among the slowest to adopt advances in tech, real estate has begun to embrace it. “They're asking us to open the doors, and open the eyes of their companies,” Rean said of MIPIM's core exhibitors.

To that end, Reed Midem on Wednesday announced the launch of MIPIM Proptech Summit, scheduled for Oct. 11 in New York City. Produced in partnership with Metaprop NYC, the conference and startup competition follows up an invitation-only event held last year that Rean said drew 300 registrants in the space of a week. (Click here for additional reporting on MIPIM Proptech.)

For an industry that represents one of the leading drivers of GDP in many countries worldwide, real estate has been among the lowest-spending in terms of tech investment. That's changing, said Zak Schwarzman, co-founder and partner at Metaprop NYC.

Not only has there been a proliferation of tech startups that serve CRE, he said; “we're also seeing it as a pull coming from the industry. We're seeing every technology colliding at full speed with the real estate industry.”

New York City, home to Schwarzman's organization, is also a hub for real estate tech firms, making it a natural location for MIPIM to stage its first-ever US event. It's also the nation's second largest market for venture capital funding as well as its largest real estate market, he pointed out.

Reans said Reed Midem would continue to develop content based on the union of tech and real estate. It's still early days for this marriage, he noted. “The operation of an office building today is largely the same as it was 50 years ago,” he said. “It's not so much how it's built as how it's used.”