Work&Place is a media partner with CRETECH, and the initial purpose of this blog was to draw to your attention the CRETECH London 8-9 May event and highlight what it has to offer (which is a lot).  However, since looking at CRETECH London’s agenda, I have been reflecting upon a more general question: How can workplace practitioners keep up with all the technical developments in our industry? 
I suspect many people are so busy with the ‘day job’ that this education has to be gained as and when possible, in small sessions.   So, here are some thoughts on making that possible:
Sacrifice and focus
Control your scope of interest to what matters to the work you do, and current knowledge gaps.  Otherwise, curious folk that we are, it is too tempting to spend time on ‘interesting but non essential’ stuff.
For example, in respect of tech subjects, I focus on 5 topics:

Artificial Intelligence – How Generative AI will change the real estate industry and what I can do to benefit from it.
Data Management – A better appreciation of this subject area pursuant of assured decision making – mainly data governance, analytics and data visualization.
Collaboration – Evolution of tech enabled developments (from AV to AR data sharing) and what this means for ways of working.
Employee Enablement – Tech that enhances our capability to understand employee needs, realities and how to plan/forecast the need for scarce resources.
Building Operations – SMART tech that will make operations more efficient, effective, safe, and sustainable and who is investing in these capabilities.

Generative AI (or ‘how to avoid the AI rabbit holes’)
I needed a grounding in Generative AI as it applies to the real estate industry.  My solution has been to sign up to the Generative AI in Real Estate course here, run by Antony Slumbers.   A big benefit of this short course and ongoing connection with #trilliondollarhashtag posts is that the information is curated so avoiding the real potential of wasting time on AI subjects that, whilst fascinating, aren’t relevant.
Data Governance
In a World of data driven decision making, you need an understanding of the principles of good data governance and management.  If you haven’t acquired this knowledge, do take some time to reflect on whether you can live without it.  A certified course specific to real estate industry is offered by OSCRE.
Conference Agendas
Event planners must predict some 12 months ahead what we need to know.  As a result, I recommend scanning conference agendas even if you can’t attend as they give a good insight as to what you might need to be thinking and know more about.  For the best updated listing of workplace related events go to Workplace Insight.
After some events it may be possible to obtain access to the slide decks, notes or even video of presentations.  A good example is Workplace Trends Research conferences.
Webinars…