05 Mar CHPA Conference: Companies Need to Be Ready to Transition and Transform

Last February 27, California Corporate Housing attended the conference hosted by the Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA) as it tackled the challenges in the housing business sector and the innovations and trends that industry players can expect to happen and should respond to. The event was held at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach and Resort Spa in Huntington Beach, California.

The keynote speakers were Ben Casanocha, author of the book, The Startup of You; Shelley Alcorn, principal of Alcorn Association Management Consulting, and Kate Good, owner of Kategood.com and SVP, partner of Multifamily Development.

Casanocha spoke about the need to change paradigms and view its employees as allies, instead of permanent members of the workforce. Global mobility specialists are used to this development because they recruit, place, and manage the careers of assignees who are on temporary assignment in the United States until they return to their respective homeland.

Alcorn, meanwhile, discussed how technology can be a useful tool that can be embraced in shaping the housing accommodations of tomorrow. Smart homes, self-driving cars, human resource development solutions, and artificial intelligence are just a few of the machines that global mobility specialists will inevitably have to take into account and leverage on as they make their assignees’ work and home lives both productive and pleasant.

Finally, Good explained the evolution that sales and marketing ventures are undergoing, and how housing providers should develop skills for these if they are to expand their market. Digital media is the main form of communication these days.  Relevant branding, proper messaging as well as effective lead generation methods will need to be tapped in order to bring in more hires and more sales.

The other topics covered in the other discussions focused on the concerns of housing providers such as taxes, global trends in design and property development, the improvement of operational standards, and how to grow one’s business.

More than a hundred participants were able to discuss and share their own ideas in depth in the panel discussions, meetups, and networking activities that form part of the conference.