PropTech conferences sorted by the buyers you will meet there

Conferences for multifamily and property management

• NMHC Annual Meeting and NMHC OPTECH from the National Multifamily Housing Council draw owners, operators and their technology leaders. OPTECH is focused on operations and technology.
• Apartmentalize, from the National Apartment Association, is a large event for property management teams, from leasing staff to regional managers.
• AIM, the Apartment Innovation and Marketing conference, focuses on marketing and leasing technology for multifamily, which makes it useful for vendors selling to marketing and leasing leaders.

Conferences for commercial real estate and investors

• CREtech runs events focused on commercial real estate technology, with a well-known New York event that attracts owners, operators and investors.
• Blueprint in Las Vegas brings together PropTech founders, investors and real estate leaders, and it is popular with startups raising capital as well as selling.
• Realcomm focuses on commercial and corporate real estate technology and intelligent buildings, which suits smart building and operations vendors.
• ICSC Las Vegas is the large retail real estate event, and ULI meetings from the Urban Land Institute draw developers, investors and public sector leaders.

International PropTech conferences

MIPIM in Cannes is the major international property event, and Future PropTech runs events in London and other cities with a strong startup and investor crowd. These suit companies expanding abroad or raising from international investors.

How to choose which PropTech conferences to attend

Start with your buyer, not the event's size. Ask each organizer for the attendee breakdown by title and company type, then compare it with your target account list. A smaller event with fifty of your target accounts is worth more than a giant one with five. Attend once as a visitor before committing to a booth, and talk to vendors in your space about what worked for them.

Speaking, sponsoring or walking the floor

There are three ways to show up at PropTech conferences, and they cost very different amounts. Walking the floor with a ticket and a list of booked meetings is the cheapest and often the most productive for early-stage companies. Speaking on a panel builds credibility with the whole room, and organizers look for speakers with a clear point of view and customer results rather than a product pitch. Sponsoring a booth or a dinner buys visibility, but it only pays back when you fill the time with meetings you set up in advance. Many companies start with the first, earn the second and buy the third once they know an event works.

How to plan a conference week that books meetings

The best conference weeks are mostly decided a month before anyone packs. Pull the attendee or exhibitor list when it is published, match it against the accounts your sales team wants and send a short note to the people you most want to meet, with a specific reason to talk and a time slot. Book a small dinner for eight to ten prospects and customers on the second night, because a table of peers does more selling than any booth. Choose two sessions where your buyers will be sitting, and go with questions instead of a pitch.

During the event, log every conversation in your CRM the same day with what the person cares about and what comes next. Afterward, follow up within a week with something useful from the conversation, such as a guide, a benchmark or an introduction. Teams that work PropTech conferences this way can judge each event by meetings booked and pipeline created, which makes next year's choice of events far easier.

How to work a conference as a vendor

1. Before the event, book meetings with target accounts weeks ahead, run targeted ads to attendees in the event city and give people a reason to find you, such as a short talk, a dinner or a data point worth sharing.
2. During the event, spend more time in meetings and hallways than at the booth, take notes in your CRM on the day and qualify conversations by fit and timing.
3. After the event, follow up within forty-eight hours with something specific to the conversation, and track every meeting as an opportunity so you can measure the event in pipeline rather than badge scans.

Events sit inside a wider plan, which we cover in our PropTech go-to-market strategy guide. For the companies you will meet on the floor, see our map of PropTech companies. And if you want help turning a conference into pipeline, that is part of our work as a PropTech marketing agency.