How to distrupt real estate

Thousands of agents will gather on the Gold Coast to find out the answers

AN EVENT which once drew Donald Trump as a keynote speaker is set to disrupt Australia’s real estate industry again this year.

Australasian Real Estate Conference founder John McGrath (pictured) has lined up 23 speakers for this year’s event, expected to draw 4000 real estate agents to the Gold Coast in May.

AREC 2017 speakers will include acclaimed former FBI negotiator Chris Voss, real estate superstar Bob Wolff, best-selling author Robert Cialdini and New York agency boss Leonard Steinberg who has more than 1500 agents across 26 offices.

Topics for discussion include negotiating as if your life depended on it, robots in real estate and the psychology of persuasion.

The popular industry conference has in the past drawn high-profile speakers such as Trump (via a satellite link), Alan Jones, John Symond and the wolf of Wall St, Jordan Belfort.

Mr McGrath said the AREC 2017 Gold Coast program was designed to address the world of disruption facing the real estate industry, with an underlying theme of Super Growth.

“Each year it is our commitment to provide AREC delegates an even better speaker lineup than the year before,” he said. “This was easy in the beginning but it gets harder after 20 years. This year’s program has an incredible balance of real estate experts, inspiring individuals and world-class experts in the field of real estate technology and social media, negotiation, elite performance and emerging consumer trends.

“My aim is that delegates will equip themselves with the attitude and tools to significantly grow their businesses off the back of AREC 2017.”

Total Real Estate Training general manager and Australasian Real Estate Conference 2017 Gold Coast organiser Nicola Byrne said Mr McGrath was one of the industry’s early disruptors.

“John became an early disruptor himself, staging the first AREC with a desire to access top-level thinking that would benefit and improve our industry as a whole,” she said.

“The conference has grown exponentially over 20 years and our focus continues to be on the calibre of our speakers.”

AREC 2017 will be held on May 28 and 29 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, 2684-2690 Gold Coast Hwy, Broadbeach.

Tickets are available online at arecconference.com.