Turn the clock back 15 years, social media was in its infancy, few of us had smartphones, no one had Google Maps or You Tube and I was in my second year at university.
I had just entered an essay competition that Property Week magazine were running and the subject was what would influence the property industry most in the next ten years. The term proptech hadn’t been invented back then, but even so I wrote how technology would influence and shape how properties would be built, maintained and importantly used by residents and workers.
I won the competition, saw my name in print when Property Week published my essay and received £1000 prize money plus an internship at Nelson Bakewell, sponsors of the competition. NB went on to offer me a graduate position after the internship.
Now, fifteen years later I find myself unexpectedly running my own property technology business and have this week welcomed Vicks Gifford to the team as our new marketing director. Vicks kicked off her marketing career at Nelson Bakewell and was responsible for promoting the essay competition. Since then she’s been head of marketing at Edward Symmons and, more recently was the marketing director for Lambert Smith Hampton. Like I said, it’s a small world, particularly within the property industry.
And if I was to write the essay again today, sustainability would be the central theme with the view that energy efficiency will be impacting property values within the next twenty years. In today’s world where technology means virtually anything is possible, there’s really very little excuse not be green.
KB – Founder
