Cube Cities @ Calgary Real Estate Forum

(L-R) J. Cuff, S. Kanungo, H. Kolias, J. Gondek

Last week we had the pleasure of participating on a panel about disruptive technology at the Calgary Real Estate Forum. James Cuff, our CTO at Cube Cities, was joined by Hugh Kolias, founder of YuHu Inc and Shawn Kanungo, Sr. Manager of Strategy at Deloitte. The panel was moderated by Jyoti Gondek, recently minted City of Calgary Councillor for Ward 3. Here's a summary of what was discussed.

(J. Cuff)

Question 1: Describe your big picture perspective of technology and its ability to be a disruptor.

The conversation here focused on the fact that technology will be disruptive if your organization does not take an active role in identifying where technology is driving your industry. Additionally, most often truly disruptive technology will come from outside the industry it disrupts. To remain valid in these situations organizations need to be open to this disruption and adopt disruptive practices quickly. 

Question 2: How does technology impact the real estate sector?

We started the conversation here with the background that most people now conduct a significant amount of their work connected via smartphones. The real estate sector has been slow to migrate to a mobile workforce. Additionally, as organizations change and become more distributed and fluid the requirements for space also changes. Organizations will be structured much differently in the next 5 years and real estate needs to adapt to that change  (flex space, coworking, etc.). We touched on the changes that democratization of data will bring to the RE industry but didn't dive deep into that given that it's a threat to a number of existing roles.  

Question 3: What impacts do you think technology will have on user experiences in real estate?

This question also took the conversation into how technology is enabling a mobile workforce, and the user experience around office space and working will be changed via that increasing mobility. We also quickly discussed what may occur with a significant number of self-driving vehicles, extending the commute reach and functional office hours of workers.Touched on the changes to retail space with the steady increase in online purchasing, will retail become pickup and only sample examination with no stock carried in store (Nordstroms in Seattle is already doing this). 

Question 4: What’s the most innovative example of technological disruption you have seen in action, and how does it impact real estate?

We did not get to answer this question directly as we ran out of time. The audience was fully engaged and were asking questions throughout the presentation.