Guess Who's Going to the Hollywood Sign?
Among the highlights of Monday at BOMA: the announcement of the winner of the BOMA PAC raffle, a coveted limo trip to the Hollywood sign. BOMA International’s political action committee enables the group’s advocacy team to raise money to re-elect political candidates for federal office who know and understand—and support—real estate’s issues.
One of the grand prize winners was Pat Goerner from Aquila Management Services (second from right with BOMA's Lisa Prats, left, and members of the BOMA GLA). Pat and a guest, along with another grand prize winner who was not present, will be taken to the Hollywood Sign at 10am tomorrow. And unlike most Angelenos, who watch from a distance, Pat will get so close she can touch the sign. BOMAPAC has raised $8,800 at this year's conference thus far, though fundraising continues through tomorrow night.
On the expo floor, we caught up with the team from Allegion, which has an exciting new locking mechanism that just hit the market. Allegion's Reyn Parsons (second from left with Yves Amboise, Patrick Caflisch, Benjamin Hopkins and Paul Seitz) says the new product, Schlage's NDE Engange Technology Lock, further pushes property owners away from the constraints of a keyed life. The "affordable solution" provides property managers with more access for more entry points outside of, and inside the building. He calls the product a "game changer" and expects more locks to go electric in the coming years. It just hit the market in Q1.
If you've witnessed attendees walking around with tea leaves wrapped among their badges, it can only mean one thing—they're repping the Aloha State. We snapped Pacific Property Group's Erin Dayanan and James Campbell Co's Corinne Hiromoto of BOMA Hawaii (Corinne's a past president).
At Yardi, the buzz is all about one of its newest offerings: The LOBOS energy solution, which gives intelligent HVAC control to landlords. Once a minute—yes, each minute—the software checks temperature in all zones of a commercial building, checks pressure and energy being used, and eventually running all those data points to send out new set points to the HVAC system. The software is already in more than 250 buildings, and customers include high-profile landlords Kilroy Realty and Irvine Co. Here's team Yardi: Laura Atallah, Brad Setser, Mackenzie Hess and Gebran Zod.
At DIRECTV, it's all about bringing home life to the office. Allen Haley (right, with Jennifer Hershberger, Tamara Schaper and Scott Williams) says tenants are tired of having better TV quality at home than at the office. As such, he's seeing a lot of landlords go with digital TV packages to replace the antiquated analog sets still seen in a lot of commercial buildings. Allen says high-definition TV in commercial buildings offers more than just access to the local news, as landlords are using DIRECTV for teleconferencing and training, in addition to some company's even hosting private channels on the provider's satellite.
