The event brought together real estate leaders to discuss key trends, challenges, and opportunities in the industry

The 16th Realty+ Conclave & Excellence Awards 2024 South once again was an exciting day filled with insightful discussions and debates, followed by a spectacular awards evening, celebrating excellence in the field of realty, building & construction.

The Conclave Partners were Aris Unitern, VOX, Champion Infratech. The Co-Partners were Global Network for Zero, Nemetschek Group, and Nisus Finance. The Event Associates included Elegant Builder & Developers & archVi. Realatte was the Digital Partner, while Xpedeon was the ERP Excellence Partner. Absolute CX By Insomniacs was the Proptech Partner, and Ceyone teamed up as the Marketing Partner.

The Exclusive Conversation among Adarsh Ranka, Partner, Indian member firm, EY Global as moderator and speakers are Ashwinder R Singh, VC & CEO, BCD Group | Co-Chair CII Real Estate (NR) and Dr. R. Kumar Founder, Chairman, Navin's deliberated on Bengaluru Realty - Present & Future Trends The speakers emphasised on overall growth of the real estate market in Bengaluru and the role of developers in putting forward the city where it is today in terms of development.

The next session on Bengaluru's Residential Market Potential was chaired by Rahul Raj Gogna, Senior Director & Head Capital Markets Bangalore, JLL India and the speakers joining him are Adarsh Narahari, Managing Director, Primus Senior Living, Farook Mahmood FRICS, TRC. Chairman & Managing Director, Silverline Group, Pavan Kumar, CEO and Founder, White Lotus Group, Sunil Pareek, Executive Director, Assetz Property Group and Subhakar Rao Surapaneni, Chairman, Champion Infratech. The speakers highlighted the growth of residential real estate in Bengaluru, its demand side and how the market is evolving all these years, its challenges and opportunities.

The session on Bengaluru's Commercial Developments Catalysts & Challenges was led by Arpit Mehrotra, Managing Director, Office Services, Colliers India and the panellists were Juggy Marwaha, CEO Prestige Group, Office, Mahesh Khaitan, Director, Sattva Group, Praveen Vasudeva, Director Global Real Estate, Asia Pacific & Japan, IBM, Tapan Mozumdar, SVP of Operations, GNFZ, Vinitha Kannambroth, IFM Operations Head - South Region, Embassy Services Pvt Ltd and Shaifali Singh, Vice President, DivyaSree as speakers. Focusing in the commercial sector in Bengaluru, the speakers shared their work experiences and examples claiming it to be one of the most booming sectors in the city.

The panel discussion on Emerging Real Estate Finance & Funding Scenario was moderated by Rahul Raj Gogna, Sr. Director and Head-Capital Markets, Bangalore, JLL India and panel members included Anuj Kapoor, Founder & Partner, Upwisery, Lakshmipathi Chockalingam, Senior Managing Partner, ASK Property Fund, Navin Dhanuka, Founder & CEO, Altern RE Investment Advisors Private Limited and Sudarshan Lodha, Co-founder & CEO, Strata are the other speakers. The speakers emphasised on the role of banks, NBFCs and AIFs along with REITs in real estate, the challenges and the current funding scenario.

The next session Real Estate Sales & Marketing Paradigm Shifts had Samir Arora, Immediate Past President - NAR-India, Chairman - CREA, CEO & Founder, Huts Global as moderator and speakers were Dhruba Ghosh, EVP & Head Marketing, Provident Housing Ltd. & Purva Land, Kranti V. Alladi, CSMO, Concorde.in, Rajagopal G, Director & Group CEO, Serene Communities by Columbia Pacific, Rohan Shah, Co-Founder, Realatte, Smitha Bollamma, Director Sales and Marketing, Vajram Group and Shruti Kaushik Agrawal, Assistant Vice President, Marketing- TATA Realty & Infrastructure Ltd. The speakers spoke about different marketing strategies put forward at their own level. They also spoke about major shifts that have occurred in Bengaluru in terms of sales and marketing, especially in the digital space.

The discussion on technology - Tech Evolutions Reshaping the Real Estate Industry moderated by Indranil Basu, Managing Director, Colliers and speakers Abhishek Kiran Gupta, CEO & Co- Founder, CRE Matrix, Govind Rai, Co-Founder & CEO, Insomniacs Digital Pvt. Ltd, Vamsi Bandari, Head of Solutions Architecture, Xpedeon, Vishesh Kaul, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Prestige Group, focused on the use of technology in the real estate, the launch of Rental Index by CRE Matrix and the speakers shared their own experiences in terms of technology adoption.

The Presentation on Digital Marketing by Govind Rai, Co-Founder & CEO, Insomniacs Digital Pvt. Ltd was another highlight of the conclave that highlighted the Dos and Don'ts of digital marketing.

The conclave concluded with the Realty+ Real Talk between Nirmalya Chatterjee, Country VP and Managing Director, Nemetschek Group, (Indian Subcontinent) and Sapna Srivastava Editor Realty+. As they discussed the challenges the sector faces in terms of incorporating tech tools and what can be done at the industry level.

The Inspiring Award Evening

The starry evening began with a candid conversation among Somy Thomas, Managing Director - Valuations and Co-Head - Capital Markets, Cushman & Wakefield India, Murali Malayappan, Chairman & MD, Shriram Properties Ltd and Madhusudhan G, Chairman & Managing Director, Sumadhura Group as they spoke about Buyers's Sentiments & Investor's Confidence.

Taking the evening to even higher note was the inspiring and motivating Keynote address by M R Jaishankar, Founder-CMD, Brigade Group, who began his speech with a congratulatory not for Realty+ on completing 20 years in the industry as the 'Voice of Indian Real Estate'. He said, "Currently it's the golden age for real estate. The country is doing well in all assets for the first time, all sectors are performing very well. The country's GDP the way it is growing, by 2030 the real estate demand will go beyond expectations. We are all the beneficiaries of this and let us be happy about it. So, let's us focus on customer centricity and giving back to the society."

Keeping up the momentum of the evening was the Women Icon Awards for the women achieves of the industry.

Women Icon of the Year - Nirupa Shankar, Joint Managing Director and Pavitra Shankar, Managing Director

Sunaina Kohli, Senior Vice President Sales & Women Leader of the Year Marketing, The Phoenix Mills Limited

Manjusrii Manilal, Head-Sales, Marketing & Customer Service, HM Group

Women Achievers in Architecture - Dr. Ponni M. Concessao, Founder & Principal Architect, Ponni, Oscar & Rahul Architects

Women Achievers in CSR - Snehal Mantri, Founder, Mantri Developers

Women Achievers in Brand Marketing & Management - Shruti Kaushik Agrawal, Assistant Vice President, Head Marketing, TATA Realty & Infrastructure Limited

Megha Murthy, General Manager Marketing & Channel Sales, Svamitva Group

Women Achievers in Customer Relations - Piyali Kundu, Head Customer Connect, Brigade Group

Women Achievers in Residential Realty - Smitha Bollamma, Director of Sales and Marketing, Vajram Group

Women Achievers in the HR - Maria Rajesh, Group Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Embassy Group

Women Achievers in Finance - Sonika Rawat, Senior Vice President - Investment Banking, Upwisery Growth Partners LLP

Women Achievers in Engineering - Veena B.S, DGM Design & Development, Brigade Group

Women Achievers in MEP Technology - Mamatha G, Associate Director, Space Matrix Design Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

The truly inspirational segment was followed by the "Iconic Leaders of Indian Realty" felicitations for some prominent real estate leaders.

Top leaders Felicitated were:

Ashwinder R. Singh, Vice Chairman & CEO of BCD Group.

BM Jayeshankar, Chairman and Managing Director of Adarsh Group.

Madhusudhan G, Chairman & Managing Director of Sumadhura Group.

Murali Malayappan, Chairman & MD of Shriram Properties Ltd.

Pradeep Lala, MD & CEO of Embassy Services Pvt. Ltd.

Ramita Arora, Managing Director of Bengaluru and Head of Flex at Cushman & Wakefield India.

Reeza Sebastian Karimpanal, Executive President of Residential Business at Embassy Group.

The finale of the evening was the presentation of prestigious 16th Realty+ Excellence Awards 2024- SOUTH recognizing the best in the sector. The awards celebrated the outstanding achievements and contributions of real estate professionals of South India.

This article was published in Exchange4media on December 3, 2024.