The upcoming Connected Virtual Tech Event, presented by Connected Real Estate Magazine and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), will offer something for everyone in the commercial real estate, telecommunications and technology industries. One of those offerings will be the REBNY PropTech Challenge—a two-day (November 16 and 17) competition that this year will focus on helping CRE owners and managers get their tenants back into their buildings safely and securely following the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is the PropTech Challenge?
The PropTech Challenge was born out of the inaugural REBNY Tech Hackathon that was part of New York Real Estate Tech Week in 2017. The three-day competition brought together some of the brightest minds in real estate and technology in an effort to inspire cutting edge solutions that could solve the real world challenges that today’s leading real estate companies face.
Today, the PropTech Challenge has built off of the Hackathon’s success and every year aims to remove the geographical boundaries and time constraints that were often imposed through the on-site competitions. The PropTech Challenge now leverages the deep pool of technology talent in New York City—and beyond.
How the PropTech Challenge works
This year’s PropTech Challenge will be divided into four categories—Building Operations & Wellness; Commercial Leasing & Brokerage; Residential Leasing & Brokerage; and Design Construction and Development. Entrants will be asked to create or update a functioning software that solves a problem for real estate owners, managers and developers in one of the aforementioned categories.
Each category features a unique set of four questions, a Problem Set, that competitors must answer as they present technology tools that will help make projects safer and more efficient from conception to completion, make real estate transactions a more seamless experience, provide resident and tenants a health and safe building environment and more.
All four categories will have a separate two-hour block over the course of the two days of Connected Virtual Tech Event. Each block will have the following segments:
• Introduction
• Panel Discussion
• Product Demonstrations
• Closing Remarks/Video Montage
• Roundtable Discussion
A seven-person panel comprising REBNY Technology subcommittee members will review all submissions to determine each challenge categories’ finalists. Each entry will be judged by the following criteria: innovation/creativity/originality; potential value to the industry/solving an existing problem; quality of the idea; practical implementation; quality of submission materials and team.
PropTech Challenge Details
PropTech Challenge submissions are due Friday, October 23, 2020, 5:00 P.M EST. For more information about the PropTech Challenge rules or submission requirements, visit the contest website.
The PropTech Challenge was conceptualized by Sandy Jacolow, Duke Long and Ryan J.S. Baxter. This year’s PropTech Challenge team comprises Chris Beach, David J. Mock and Alicia Jacolow.
