TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE) announced the first part of its speaker list for the 2024 Alabama Commercial Real Estate Conference and Expo (ACREcom) on Wednesday.
The conference, which has been held in Birmingham for more than 25 years, will begin with an economic outlook by David Altig, Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Adviser with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Altig is a member of the advisory council of the Global Interdependence Center and its College of Central Bankers and a member of the National Business Economics Issues Council. He serves on the board of the Konstanz Seminar on Monetary Theory and Policy.
Wrapping up the morning session will be Co-Founder of CRE Analyst, Richard Byrd. CRE Analyst has become the go-to source for commercial real estate insights with more than 46,000 followers on LinkedIn. Byrd has more than 10 years of real estate experience working across a variety of asset classes including residential communities, self-storage, multifamily, and retail. He has led investments in property and portfolio acquisitions as well as ground-up developments. These investments span more than 30 projects and $350 million in total capital.
Following a 90-minute deal-making and networking break, the afternoon session will include three individual sessions. These sessions will include engaging insights from Dr. Mark Eppli, Lacy Beasley and Dr. Patrick Murphy.
Eppli is the Director of the Graaskamp Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, Eppli served as Interim James H. Keyes Dean of Business Administration from 2012 to 2015 and as a professor of finance and Bell Chair in Real Estate at Marquette University. He has been instrumental in building the Center for Real Estate and the real estate program at Marquette which has enhanced the reputation of the business school not only regionally but also nationally.
Beasley is the President of Retail Strategies, a full-service advisory firm that works with municipalities on retail and restaurant business recruitment through commercial real estate connections. Beasley serves on the Board of Trustees for ICSC the largest not-for-profit membership-based retail commercial real estate industry organization. She also serves on the ULI Alabama Leadership Team.
Murphy is Goodrich Chair, full professor, and head of the J. Frank Barefield Jr. Entrepreneurship Program in the Collat School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has designed and led many entrepreneurship and technology initiatives, raised millions of dollars for university programs, donated to and invested in multiple ventures, trained thousands of students, and coached hundreds of successful entrepreneurs worldwide. A multi-award-winning teacher and researcher, a range of major media outlets cite his work and he consults with firms and universities.
The final afternoon session will be announced soon.
ACRE will be hosting its premier conference at The Harbert Center to attract more engaging speakers and to host more real estate professionals at this year’s event. The conference will be an all-day event with registration opening at 7:30 a.m. and will last until 4:30 p.m.
New this year, the event will serve a full breakfast buffet, which will be available when registration opens until 8:45 a.m.
“We are excited to be at a new venue for the 2024 conference. The Harbert Center is conveniently located in downtown Birmingham and the layout is perfect for this type of event,” ACRE Associate Director Stuart Norton said. “We have a great agenda with talented speakers from various aspects of the commercial real estate industry and I look forward to hearing their insights while networking with CRE professionals from around the state.”
To reserve your spot today, click here. If you’re interested in an exhibit space or sponsorship opportunities, contact Caleb Beasley via email at cgbeasley1@ua.edu or call 205-348-4117.