Steve Weikal, the Head of Industry Relations at the MIT Center for Real Estate, will present the morning keynote address at the 19th Annual Alabama Commercial Real Estate Conference & Expo (ACREcom) on February 8, 2019, at The Club in Birmingham. This year’s “Glass Breakers” theme focuses on transformation and how the old models have been shattered including the compositions of leadership. Weikal’s keynote is titled “Breaking the Mold: How Technology is Changing and Challenging Commercial Real Estate.” Topics covered will include the impact of the sharing economy on commercial real estate, the impact of autonomous mobility, AI and machine learning, and blockchain.
Weikal will also moderate “Glass Breakers: A Conversation with Today’s Industry Leaders.” Panelists include Barbara Crane, 2019 President of the CCIM Institute and Annemarie DiCola, 2019 Chair of the Counselors of Real Estate.
As Head of Industry Relations at the MIT Center for Real Estate, Weikal is responsible for managing relationships between the Center and its global network of industry partners and nearly 1,100 alumni of the MIT Master’s in Real Estate Development (MSRED) program. He is also a lecturer and researcher, focused on innovative new technology and business models that disrupt the traditional ways of developing, transacting, and managing real estate.
Weikal was the Founder of MIT Real Disruption, a successful series of conferences discussing the impact of emerging technology on the real estate industry that is now part of the international CREtech conference platform. He is a member of the CREtech Leadership Board, and sits on the advisory boards of three real estate technology startups. He has spoken extensively about real estate technology at conferences for AFIRE, IREM, SIOR, CCIM, CoreNet, ICSC, and BOMA, and has been quoted by numerous media outlets including BuzzFeed, TechInsider, the Boston Globe, Globe St. the Real Reporter, IPE Real Assets and Anuario Inmobiliario Latino America.
Prior to his position at the MIT Center for Real Estate, Weikal was Vice President of NOW Communities, a Concord, Massachusetts based developer of new residential neighborhoods that merge the best of traditional design with 21st-century energy technology. Before graduate school, Weikal was National Media Tour Producer for Martin Scorses’s The Blues, was Manager of Partner Acquisition at Curl, a VC funded tech startup launched to commercialize a new coding language developed at the MIT Lab for Computer Science (LCS), and was a Founding Partner of Sonoma Coast Vineyards, maker of award-winning Pinot Noir from the Extreme Sonoma Coast of California. He began his real estate career restoring and redeveloping historic theaters in Detroit’s Fox Center entertainment district.
Weikal holds a Master’s of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) and Master’s in City Planning (MCP) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from Suffolk University Law School. He is a licensed attorney, a licensed real estate broker, and a LEED Accredited Professional.
For more information about ACREcom, or to register, click here.
