ULI Fall Meeting 2025: Perspective, Innovation, Emerging Trends & Disciplined Engagement.

November 10, 2025

Perspective Matters

This was my 11th year attending the ULI Fall Meeting, and I enjoyed many of the conversations including artists, designers, investors, bankers, real estate developers, economic development leaders, architects, professors, and students. The range of perspectives is interesting and valuable.

Creative Symbolism at Google’s Bay View Office

I also toured my third Google office, Bay View. A highlight was seeing the sculptures commissioned from Burning Man artists, one in particular, a camel, was described as a symbolic connector of lands and information. It was a nice touch that tied creativity and history into the workplace environment.

Uncertain Acceleration

Several Emerging Trends sessions stood out this year. The recurring metaphor used to describe the current real estate environment was “the fog.” The sentiment is that decision-makers are uncertain, move too fast and you risk collision; move too slow and you risk being left behind. Tariffs, migration patterns, labor markets, government shutdowns, and interest rate dynamics are all contributing to the lack of strategic clarity.

Another common theme was how much more focus was put on AI. As one speaker said, the adoption rate of AI is now outpacing the adoption of the internet, smartphones, and all  major technologies. However, investment is flowing particularly toward AI solutions that have proven use cases, strong service support, underwriting context, and integration flexibility, not speculative or untested applications.

The Sales Discipline

Finally, I attended a session with Neneh Biffinger that focused on common mistakes in real estate sales. The most significant breakdown continues to be follow-up, either not following up at all, responding too slowly or giving up too early. Effective follow-up should be timely and multi-channel (phone and email), with messaging that includes past conversations, personalized, and provides clear next steps.