NAA 2016

Behind the Scenes with Yardi

By Geneva Ives on Jun 21, 2016 in News

The Yardi team traveled from all corners to attend the annual National Apartment Association (NAA) Education Conference and Exposition in San Francisco last week. More than 9,200 apartment industry professionals joined us for one of the biggest shows of the year. We participated in educational sessions, scoped out new trends, and had a blast meeting with clients and colleagues in the multifamily space.

7 Things We Learned at the 2016 NAA Education Conference and Expo

1. Googlers Have It Good

On Wednesday, our friends at Google took us (and some lucky clients) on a tour of the Googleplex in Mountain View. Between the campus bikes, nap pods, and friendly sculptures, their corporate culture is every bit as fantastic as we expected.

2. Michael Strahan Wants to Be the Male Oprah

He said so himself! NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan was the keynote speaker on Thursday. He discussed motivation, overcoming obstacles, and maximizing your career. He also talked real estate. “I love real estate. It’s a passion of mine. I am a big fan of real estate fixer-uppers. I’m good at demo. If you can’t hit a quarterback, hit a wall,” he joked.

Strahan shared that it’s particularly important to him to acknowledge and thank everyone he works with – whether it’s a producer, make-up artist, or the custodial staff – noting that “everyone makes the ship run.” We couldn’t agree more.

3. ENERGY STAR Ratings Aren’t Just for Appliances

It turns out that buildings can have ENERGY STAR ratings, too. On a panel moderated by Yardi’s Gene Cattani, Michael Zatz, manager for ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), desc

ribed how the EPA recently launched an aggressive multifamily energy scoring system. ENERGY STAR now has more than 30,000 multifamily properties using the scoring system, which is based on a scale of 1-100. The higher one’s score, the more energy efficient the property is. Find out more about this innovative program here.

4. You Can’t Fight City Hall – But You Can Party There

The NAA took over San Francisco City Hall for the Thursday night party, and boy was it fun! Not only was this architecturally stunning building closed for a private event but also it was stuffed to the gills with food, beverages, revelers, and performers. We met Signorina Spaghetti, noshed on some dim sum, and danced in the streets out front.

5. Renters Love the Internet

On Friday, Google’s Ben Killmer shared some interesting stats specific to the apartment industry in a talk with Karen Kossow from Fore Properties and Yardi’s Esther Bonardi. Among them, he revealed that recent Google consumer surveys show that renters view an average of 20 properties online during their apartment search, but they only visit three in person. The trio shared strategies, including using search marketing to attract prospects and website optimization techniques – like nudge marketing – to increase conversions.

6. Chip and JoJo Got Their Start in Multifamily

Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s Fixer Upper were Friday’s hotly anticipated keynote speakers. “We live in a college town. As a Baylor grad, I started buying and selling rental properties. And that’s sort of what we did for a living really, pretty early on. But we were so broke that we couldn’t afford the pay the dues to the National Apartment Association,” Chip clowned.

This charming duo had the audience laughing as they shared relatable stories about property nightmares and working through them together. Talk about #relationshipgoals.

7. Bigger Is Always Better

The Yardi booth sure was easy to spot on the conference floor. Big booth, big team, big smiles… what could be better? We’d like to give a huge thanks to all the clients and coworkers who helped make this year’s show a success!

We hope you’ll join us next year in Atlanta for the 2017 NAA Education Conference and Expo. Find more photos from this year’s event on our Facebook page.