Chicago & Midwest + Greater Chicagoland + Office | June 3, 2022

The SIOR Chicago chapter's May luncheon event featured a discussion about proptech

SIOR Chicago Luncheon Focuses on Proptech

The Chicago Chapter of The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) recently hosted its spring luncheon at Gibson’s Restaurant in Oak Brook, IL. Ryan Moen, SIOR, principal and co-founder of Versa Real Estate Services, moderated a discussion featuring Duke Long, entrepreneur in residence at NAR REACH, a Chicago-based venture capital and private equity firm providing a scale-up program for technology startups of all types, including proptech.

REACH, affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, provides companies access to an insight panel of more than 50,000 practitioners who help participating startups refine their products. Long provided some insight into the investment capital being directed to proptech, totaling nearly $32 billion in 2021 alone.

A former commercial real estate broker himself, Long stressed the importance of commercial real estate brokers incorporating more sophisticated technologies into their client interactions and service.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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