SIOR northeast regional conference was held in New York

New York, NY This year’s Northeast Regional Conference (NRC) was held in Manhattan at the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park on Thursday November 8th and Friday November 9th. The two-day conference was be held at the Bank of America’s Headquarters. Guest speakers included past national SIOR president Geoff Kasselman on technology. Rob Nahigian, New England Chapter SIOR spoke on logistics and supply site selection modeling: “From Shanghai to Your Shelf.” Attendance was approximately 150 and was considered a success.

The schedule include:

• Thursday afternoon, there was a tour(s) of significance of the Brooklyn industrial area.

• Thursday night was a cocktail reception on the 85th floor of one of the sponsors.

• Friday there were four programs and then a final cocktail reception

Covered topics include “Active Shooter” scenarios and security, technology trends, office construction trends, industrial construction trends

Thursday night commenced with a reception on the 85th floor of the new One World Trade Center. Servcorp, an executive and office suite provider that competes with WeWorks, hosted the reception. The views were at least 10 miles on the clear evening. A history of Servcorp and its services, a British-based company, was presented by Marcus Moufarrige. After, the 100 plus attendees went to Morton’s Steakhouse at the Club Quarters Hotel for a private dinner and comradery.

Friday morning, the first program commenced with two FBI agents, Barbara Daly and Jude Tarasca, discussing safety in office buildings, terrorism and active shooters. There were videos played to show the audience how someone might spot a potential shooter but how easy it can be for a shooter to slip through the entrance of an office building. They discussed how disgruntled employees who are recently terminated are often the culprits and how months can expire prior to an actual shooting occurs. Many of these shooters have planned how and when revenge will occur. Two other panelists specializing in insurance discussed risk management and property management solutions.

Nahigian discussed the effects of the Panama Third Canal and how the accommodation of large cargo ships has shifted deliveries from the west to the east coast. There was a review of intermodal advantages and disadvantages. Finally, how a distribution company makes a site selection decision using mathematical regression formulas or the Kepner-Tregoe approach. 

After the lunch break there was a program by Geoff Kasselman on block chain technology and its impact on real estate transactions, ownership, title issues. 

The final event on Cyber Security was presented by Vinny D’Agostino and Jay Kramer. They brought insightful and terse awareness on how easy it is for an outsider to hack a company’s computer email and file folders. They also presented solutions as they stated almost everyone will be hacked and it’s a question of, not if, but when.

The day concluded with a Bank of America cocktail reception.