Educational Sessions

ACTIONABLE, PROBLEM-SOLVING EDUCATION

Photo by Anthony Sinagoga ©PCVB

TRACK 1: Toward 2010
TRACK 2: Leading Edge Issues
TRACK 3: Emerging Workplace Strategies
TRACK 4: Creating Location Strategies
TRACK 5: Optimizing Resources and Leveraging Technology
TRACK 6: Driving Sustainability
TRACK 7: Managing Partners
TRACK 8: Exploring Industry Sectors
TRACK 9: Advancing Skills

Around the globe, Nortel's employees and partners leverage a Web-accessible central database and workflow technology to support the Business made Simple initiative. One of the major business processes that has been simplified and improved is workplace planning and provisioning.

Increase your efficiency and effectiveness through:
• using workflow technology to understand and enable business processes
• creating and linking performance metrics to strategy
• creating strategic implementation teams and communicating to stay the course

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Intel Corporation successfully designed, launched and implemented a family of integrated planning processes and tools that enable the enterprise to position the right physical, technological and human capital infrastructure in the right location, at the right time and at the right cost.

Make better location predictions and streamline location processes through:
• creating a shared platform (RE, HR, IT and Finance) for strategic infrastructure planning
• appropriate growth metrics and modeling tools
• relationship management and decision support forums.

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The American Bar Association and the International Bar Association have teamed with CoreNet Global to help you avoid critical mistakes common to U.S. businesses leasing and occupying real estate in China and India. You can't afford to miss this fun, interactive and lively panel discussion with experts who will give some timely advice for getting the most out of your offshore lease.

Avoid expensive leasing mistakes in China and India:
• understand major differences between leases in the U.S., China and India
• identify critical issues (e.g. barriers to entry and exit of people, property and funds)
• recognize cultural differences in custom and practice and their affect on negotiations and contracts.

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A panel of CRE professionals from Computer Sciences Corporation, Sony, and Capital One will discuss the differences in the reporting structures in their organizations, how corporate culture affects who they report to, and what the opportunities are for realignment. The impact of these different organizational structures on partnering with service providers will be explored. Deloitte Consulting will provide an overview of industry leading practices and the benefits of various corporate real estate organization alignment strategies.

Gain insight into:
• The benefits of corporate real estate reporting to legal, HR, and financial
• Examples of best practices in corporate real estate reporting structures
• Strategies for effective partnering with service providers

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American Financial Realty Trust with their partner, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Gale Global Facilities Company, the FM provider for AT&T, will share their disaster preparedness planning initiatives from the perspective of their experience with hurricane Katrina and the London transit bombings.

Mitigate economic loss and respond effectively through:
• adequate preparedness
• effective and centralized communication
• quickly locating your employees and assessing damage.

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What a workplace communicates - it's "image" - is increasingly seen as a legitimate way of using real estate for competitive advantage. The U.S. General Services Administration and Fidelity Investments have each implemented workplace image initiatives and have developed metrics and tools to explain how image relates to broader organizational performance, as well as customer and employee perceptions.

Create a competitive advantage for your organization by:
• Understanding how workplace image affects customer trust, comfort, and perceptions of an organization's products and services
• Implementing a process to measure the impact of image on brand value and workplace performance
• Using workplace design to communicate the organization's goals and functional objectives

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Herman Miller, IA Interior Architects, Remington Partners, and Jones Lang LaSalle highlight new manufacturing sector-based tools being utilized by corporate real estate to measure workplace performance, not just worker satisfaction.

Increase performance, quality and speed-to-market by:
• supporting a high-performance workplace with web-based processes
• reinventing workplaces for today's knowledge worker
• adapting productivity measurement tools from the manufacturing environment to knowledge work.

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The real estate group at Capital One, in partnership with HR and IT, has successfully created a portfolio of workplaces that not only inspire creativity, but also reduce costs.

Create a more productive workplace by:
• designing to support different work styles
• eliminating barriers like management resistance budget constraints and infrastructure readiness
• aligning work with the cultural values of the company

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Global business drivers are creating fundamental change in corporate location strategies. To adapt, community economic development approaches must change too.

Attract more business to your community by leveraging:
• the impact of off-shoring and the rise of China and India
• your community's competitive advantages and what the future holds for U.S. communities
• the changing site selection process.

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The knowledge and experience of partners enables both large multi-national companies and growing mid-size companies to exploit the same opportunities in the global marketplace. Many companies seek the competitive advantage inherent in the capable, affordable Asian workforce, particularly in China. How can you take advantage of these location opportunities while mitigating the risks?

Gain competitive insights about:
• using risk-based decision support tools to analyze candidate locations
• securing economic incentives outside the United States
• business issues such as intellectual property protection, taxation and currency repatriation
• achieving appropriate flexibility in overseas location selection

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The Ontario Economic Development Agency used the city’s strategic location to create partnership opportunities between medium-sized businesses in the United States and China. The program has created lucrative export contracts and economic growth for the city.

Gain a competitive advantage by changing your economic development strategy:
• leverage local infrastructure into international opportunities
• prepare and pre-screen to "match" importers with exporters
• enable international trade for domestic companies.

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Technology brings work to workers, and the emergence of "third places" - community-based work centers not affiliated with a particular company - enables companies to access talent anywhere, with minimal real estate investment.

Increase your talent pool and create a more competitive company by:
• creating distributed work environments that attract and retain talent
• leveraging third place work locations
• integrating corporate location strategy with existing economic development programs.

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A merger or acquisition is the ultimate convergence - two or more companies coming together to become one. For some companies, including Bank of America, 3M and McKesson, acquiring or merging with other companies is a constant ebb and flow of complex business processes and change management activities. These companies and their strategic partners use tool sets that enable them to anticipate and manage merger and acquisitions activity while positioning corporate real estate as strategic resource.

Create value and mitigate risk during mergers and acquisitions by:
• adopting a tool set that enables a consistent approach to all phases of a merger or acquisition
• leveraging available sources to fill in missing or inconsistently maintained information
• clarifying data definitions, processes and measurements

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Lack of knowledge about lease operating cost provisions leads tenants to overpay. Representatives from both sides of the issue discuss critical negotiation and audit techniques to help corporate real estate professionals save time and money.

Save time and money by:
• understanding the landlord's perspective
• being aware of critical lease clauses when negotiating
• calculating operating costs to ensure accurate payment set-up and reduced audit time.

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Auto Club Group (AAA) has effectively centralized its real estate functions via an integrated web-based platform that transforms lease, transaction, and facilities data into strategic information. They went from a fragmented, paper-based record system to a fully automated system in one step, avoiding costly short-term solutions. A comprehensive change management program and effective communication eased the transition.

Achieve process efficiencies in your organization by:
• Integrating business process refinement with modular information system implementation to shorten time-to-results
• Integrating financial information into your enterprise-wide real estate information system
• Leveraging real-time key performance indicators (KPIs) for continuous improvement

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The Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE) is an organization committed to streamlining and accelerating business processes across the entire real estate continuum. In this dynamic session, OSCRE members present and demonstrate emerging standards from the Commercial Information Exchange (CIE) and Facilities Management (FM) workgroups.

Improve operating efficiency and speed-to-market by:
• learning OSCRE workflow, data, process and technology terminology
• using an industry model for open standard data exchanges
• building a business case for implementing emerging industry standards in your organization.

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The rising cost of energy over the last few years has introduced an alarming level of volatility into corporate operating budgets. Two enterprises with large dispersed portfolios - Circuit City and Toyota - have shifted their view of energy from an uncontrollable drain on earnings to a strategic initiative that supports productivity, efficiency and corporate social responsibility goals. In addition, reduction of energy consumption is significantly reducing Toyota's environmental footprint - a 47% reduction in emissions and a 31% reduction in BTUs per vehicle sold.

Reduce cost of operations and budget volatility by:
• adopting a mutli-faceted programmatic viewpoint on energy management strategy
• exploiting converging technologies to manage supply and reduce demand
• using simple but effective tactics like "site-by-site" treasure hunts to focus on wayward consumption
• leveraging industry-accepted measurement processes for establishing baselines, validating results and setting targets for continuous improvement
• Ensuring improvements are maintained through continuous remote event management

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The success of corporate supplier diversity programs is based on, and measured by, solid business drivers. However, the integration of CRE practices into corporate supplier diversity programs is still in its infancy.

Discover how CRE executives at Wachovia and The Coca-Cola Company is leading their organizations to accelerate the success of corporate supplier diversity goals - while they are improving their departments best practices while raising their departments' internal profiles. In addition, learn how organizations that certify minority and woman-owned companies - like WBENC - take the guesswork out of evaluating the credentials of diverse suppliers, provide access to certified vendors, and assist in educating the corporate community regarding the value of supplier diversity programs.

Topics to be discussed:
• developing a credible business case for supplier diversity
• respecting your organization's culture and vendor community
• creating a structured approach to supplier diversity initiatives to ensure success.

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The Borough of Belmar, New Jersey is undergoing a transformation. To enhance the quality of life for its citizens, the city aims to become truly sustainable - environmentally, socially, and economically. Projects are underway now to manage new energy solutions, minimize traffic, reduce pollution, and make the city an enjoyable place to live, work, and play.

Learn how a sustainable city is being achieved by:
• Creating energy zones that are self-sufficient and off the power grid
• Changing local municipal ordinances to eliminate disincentives for sustainable solutions
• Re-inventing the way we see ourselves and our communities

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A materials revolution is underway, and you can't achieve real sustainability without it. IA Interior Architects and Cabot Corporation provide a non-technical overview of commercially viable nanotech materials in use right now.

Increase your competitive edge by:
• learning about the emerging field of nanotech materials - "smart" materials created through molecular manipulation
• discovering how nanotech materials have lowered costs and improved performance in actual installations
• improving work environments with electronic fabrics, mold-proof ceilings, and flooring that is impervious to dirt.

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United Technologies seeks to achieve efficiencies and cost savings from global sourcing initiatives. They have independently created a viable approach to establishing and managing a global strategic network for a broad scope of services.

Generate high-value service delivery strategies for your company by:
• leveraging the entire supply chain of each member of the delivery network
• using integrated, global financial and performance reporting to support achievement of targeted results
• continuously analyzing portfolio performance against industry benchmarks.

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As outsourcing increases, the need to proactively design your supplier network also increases. Bank of America and Home Depot have created different relationship structures for their supplier networks based on their company's needs, preferences, and internal organizational design.

Maximize the efficiency of your supply network by:
• understanding which relationship structures work best for different types of businesses
• aligning with overall corporate objectives
• creating a flexible methodology for accommodating expansion/contraction for changes within the network.

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Regional clusters of life sciences organizations stimulate local economies and become centers of excellence for the industry. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has launched a Life Sciences Greenhouse initiative that strives to position the state as a leading international research center. Forest City Enterprises is developing a former Pfizer R&D campus in suburban Chicago into an innovative research park. Both efforts are energizing the development of regional life sciences competency in the United States.

Reinforce the vitality and competitiveness of the life sciences industry by:
• Leveraging the power and resources of the academic community
• Seeing unwanted, specialized assets as opportunities for economic development
• Creating collaborative environments that support excellence

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Ontario Realty Corporation, together with partner, SNC-Lavalin ProFac, presents an innovative asset management-planning framework to accommodate a diverse range of assets in a public sector portfolio. Public Works and Government Services, Canada (PWGSC) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will add federal perspectives.

Make better decisions and reduce risk by:
• using asset plans as tools for decision-making, risk mitigation, and performance measurement
• building scalability into the implementation of a new asset-planning framework
• using asset management process to review organizational strategic direction.

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Retail Community members at the CoreNet Global Summit, Las Vegas, identified and discussed numerous topics of interest to retail sector real estate professionals. In Philadelphia, join us for a continuing and expanded discussion of these topics that will identify specific challenges as well as potential solutions. At the conclusion of the session, anyone interested may remain to discuss future plans for the CoreNet Global Retail Community.

Improve your competitive edge by:
• learning how technology is providing solutions to the entire life cycle of retail real estate
• ensuring an effective and reliable supply chain
• integrating CRE and business unit responsibilities from a strategic viewpoint
• minimizing delays due to municipal approval process

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Evaluate your current career status and clearly define where you want to be. After all, only you can create your success story. This interactive program will help you recognize existing growth opportunities in your personal and professional development.

Enhance your career development by:
• performing a skills "gap" analysis
• learning approaches to goal setting
• promoting "You, Inc." (strategies for self-marketing).

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The Second City combines their proven communication coaching methods with fun and entertainment in this improvisation workshop. Includes an interactive series of improvisation exercises. Come prepared to watch, learn and participate!

Become more persuasive by:
• thinking quickly on your feet
• building your own natural communication style
• becoming a more engaging presenter.

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