When I first got started in the commercial real estate tech sector in 2011, the industry felt kinda like a ghost town. When you met someone in the sector, it was like a surprise meeting... "Wow cool, you`re in this business too?!?!". There were literally only a handful of us. Mostly NYC-based. We knew it was early, that it was going to be hard and that things were going to take a long, long time.

Fast forward six years later and I am still in awe of how fast the sector has actually grown and gained real traction. Literally every single day I am discovering new, amazing startups! So many in fact that I can`t keep track of how many companies there now are in the CRE Tech sector. They are attacking inefficiencies in virtually every aspect of the commercial real estate industry, creating more effective ways of transacting, bringing new ideas to the marketing of space, creating transparency and real time analytics for professionals to access… and so much more.

What`s really amazing to me is to see the quality of the entrepreneurs and the sites they are launching continue to get more sophisticated and impressive. I am literally blown away by the caliber of the people leading the tech revolution in the commercial real estate sector. Young and old folks like me, people from within the industry and people from outside the industry… it really says a lot about where we are in the evolution of the sector by the types of smart, motivated, experienced professionals that are choosing to join the movement. And the money and VC community are clearly taking notice as significant investment dollars are pouring into the sector.

And yet, it`s still so early and there remains such incredible upside in the CRE tech sector! To me, we are still just in the 2nd inning.

All of this momentum and excitement is one of the reasons we created The #RETAS, our community-based awards program that recognizes the best in the commercial real estate tech sector. It`s the fourth year we have been doing it and the response keeps growing. It`s a real reflection of the growth and increased popularity of the sector overall. Because the winners of the #RETAS come from the community itself and not some arbitrary judges, it truly reflects who the best sites and entrepreneurs really are in the CRE tech space.

I hope you will let your voice be heard by participating and also sharing with your entire network. The more votes and people that are are engaged in this, the more we help really push this industry forward, together!

So let the contest begin and let`s see who the commercial real estate industry and tech sector think are the very best of CRE Tech in 2017…

To cast your vote, click here.

Don`t forget to come meet me in New York on December 7th for CRE // Tech! Tickets are on sale now!