The sixth annual NAR Innovation, Opportunity, Investment (iOi) Summit brought together real estate professionals, investors, technologists, and entrepreneurs to find inspiration, ideas, and energy to drive the future of real estate. Over 500 attendees connected with innovators and speakers who are leading the way in artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), blockchain, IoT, and so much more. In a dynamic, changing technology landscape, business environment and world, attendees came to listen, learn, connect and understand how to leverage technology solutions to maximize business in the real estate domain now and into the future.
This Year’s Pitch Battle Winner
One highlight of the iOi Summit is the annual tech startup iOi Pitch Battle, presented by Second Century Ventures, which rewards innovative tech startups working to meet real estate challenges by helping accelerate growth in the industry. This year, 12 companies competed, presenting proptech solutions in a four-minute live pitch to a panel of judges and attendees as well as a livestream audience of thousands.
This year’s Pitch Battle winner is Tether RE, a proptech company offering tools that focus on real estate professionals’ safety and productivity.
Tether RE includes safety monitoring for agents and brokers, emergency alerts, fall and crash alerts, and client verification—all designed to reduce or eliminate risk and potential threats to agent and broker safety. The company’s productivity tools feature detailed navigation, automatic mileage and expense tracking, as well as personalized agent branding.
Tether RE is a startup that provides a suite of tools to enhance the safety and productivity of real estate professionals.
5 Proptech Solutions to Watch
In a wired world changing at lightning speed, agents and brokers should monitor proptech trends—not only to manage change but also to navigate its impact on business. Some proptech trends to watch in the near term include:
- AI-powered solutions
- AI- and data-driven decision-making for property valuations, deal sourcing, and portfolio management
- Immersive technologies, such as augmented reality changing a space almost instantaneously
- IoT and smart home automation
- Data security
iOi Evolution: Looking Ahead to the Future
New for 2025, iOi will be making tech innovation in real estate less of an event and more a way of doing business. iOi is extending its reach by shifting to ongoing tech experiences that continue to educate and inspire real estate professionals virtually and at NAR events throughout the year.
Top iOi Summit features will be integrated into marquee NAR events throughout the year and Proptech With the National Association of REALTORS® Meetups will keep real estate professionals connected. Other noteworthy elements designed to keep the focus on technology and real estate innovation and never lose momentum include:
- The iOi Emerging Tech Blog, always at the intersection of proptech and real estate in highlighting topics and technologies real estate professional should understand and use.
- iOi innovation and tech sessions will be integrated into the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings and the NAR NXT conferences starting in 2025.
- The Innovator of the Year Awards will recognize people who create positive change in real estate technology. Honorees will be spotlighted at the REALTORS® Legislative Meeting.
- The iOi Pitch Battle annual event will be featured at NAR NXT starting in 2025.
- Recurring newsletter, keeping you informed about new proptech and the latest iOi offerings.
Stay connected and informed about iOi offerings and what’s new in proptech by signing up for updates.
Be Ready for Innovation
iOi’s commitment to educating real estate professionals and fostering engagement with proptech leaders and emerging technologies remains the same. Also, iOi will continue to create proptech event experiences that include hands-on technology that users can talk about, touch and test—as well as connecting proptech solutions that address some of the most complex real estate challenges.
iOi—functioning as a proptech platform—is focused on collaborating with real estate professionals to create opportunity by delivering content streams and events that are future-focused and help real estate professionals understand what’s coming, what they need to know about it and how to use it to their business advantage.
