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The National Association of Realtors is pulling the plug on its annual technology conference.
Last week, the 1.5-million-member trade group announced its Innovation, Opportunity & Investment (iOi) Summit, which began in 2018 as the brainchild of then-NAR CEO Bob Goldberg when he was first promoted to the role, would “evolve” into a year-round “collective” for real estate technology innovation.
“This evolution is about creating a continuous flow of information, resources, and connections, ensuring our members and the broader industry have access to the latest innovations and opportunities year-round,” said Dan Weisman, NAR’s director of innovation strategy, in a blog post about the change.
“It’s about empowering the real estate ecosystem to not just adapt to change — but to drive it.”
According to NAR, the iOi Collective will provide members, investors and tech leaders with opportunities to engage and collaborate on an ongoing basis through real-time updates, quarterly webinars and a tech blog, all available at ioi.realtor. The iOi Collective will also host in-person proptech meetups, the first of which will be held at NAR headquarters in Chicago on Feb. 19.
The trade group will also move two of the iOi Summit’s signature events to its flagship conferences. NAR will hold the Innovator of the Year Awards at its midyear conference, the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C. Its tech startup contest, known as the Pitch Battle, will take the stage at NAR’s annual conference, NAR NXT, which will be be in Houston this November.
NAR’s midyear and annual conferences attract several thousand attendees every year. The iOi Summit had about 500 attendees last summer, according to NAR.
“We hope to build on the strong community we’ve cultivated over the past six years,” an NAR spokesperson told Inman.
Asked why NAR decided to end the iOi Summit, the spokesperson said, “Technology is evolving rapidly, and we feel that providing year-round education and engagement will better serve our members and the real estate industry.”
At Inman Connect New York last month, NAR CEO Nykia Wright told attendees that NAR’s budget today is “much more constrained” and NAR is being “more judicious, cautious, as it relates to how we will be spending money going forward” in the wake of a $418 million nationwide antitrust settlement.
But NAR’s spokesperson told Inman the iOi change had been in the works since late 2023 and did not have anything to do with wanting to limit spending at NAR after the settlement.
Asked how much NAR anticipated saving by eliminating the conference and moving aspects of it to other NAR conferences, the spokesperson said, “While we don’t have an exact dollar amount, this shift allows us to be more strategic with our resources while continuing to invest in real estate innovation.
“By integrating key elements of iOi into other NAR conferences, we can expand access, engage a broader audience, and provide even more value to our members — all while strengthening connections between the real estate and tech communities.”
