It is truly remarkable to look back on such an impactful gathering in Tucson. On behalf of the entire board and NRTA team, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to every attendee and member for their active involvement and ongoing trust in our mission to provide top-tier education and foster crucial industry dialogue.
Artificial intelligence continues to reshape our field and many others. Through it all, our members remain at the forefront: leading the way in evaluating truly practical tools, maintaining robust security standards, and steering meaningful discussions around AI’s ethical considerations and limitations.
Sunday Recap
We launched NRTA 2026 on Sunday morning with a volunteer initiative benefiting the local Boys & Girls Club in Tucson. Thanks to Gordon Brothers’ sponsorship of the morning, and to the Symphony Group for sponsoring our tshirts! Our group assisted with key tasks like deep cleaning toys, clearing out summer flower beds, and assembling a new outdoor meeting structure.
In the evening, we opened the Discovery Hall and welcomed the rest of our attendees at a reception sponsored by Savills. Attendees spent the evening reconnecting with colleagues from across the country, started conversations with the wide range of service providers available in the Discovery Hall, and began making their plans for the sessions they would attend on Monday.
Monday Recap
Monday morning started bright and early with our 5k Fun Run & Walk. Participants commented on the beautiful scenery of the Marriott Starr Pass resort, and enjoyed starting their day in the fresh air.
After our breakfast sponsored by Occupancy Cost Audit Group (OAG), we had the absolute pleasure of hearing from James Robilotta, our 2026 Keynote speaker. James gave us a few laughs, and most importantly, spoke the real truth about what it means to be an effective leader, especially in today’s day and age.
We had a quick break sponsored by Commercial Insurance Associates (CIA); then it was off to our first sessions of the day! Attendees had several options, including the latest updates in Real Estate Law, how to build ownership of your team via our Professional Development track, advanced CAM audit insights, and more.
At lunch, we all came back together to hear an insightful talk from Professional Development Expert, Cassie Kane of Kane Learning. Cassie and her team have been a true highlight of our conference in recent years with their extremely practical assessments and applications for our attendees to use to help their team communicate effectively and thrive in the workplace. Cassie focused on the changes her team is seeing in the world of AI and HR, and how those changes actually impact employees.
After lunch, we had two more rounds of sessions including options like:
- the wonderful world of spreadsheets with Norman Axelman, learning how to get the most out of their reporting, and how to actually apply AI to save you time, instead of creating a bigger headache,
- a real world application of CAM Desktop Auditing in a hands-on workshop,
- a prompt writing workshop for AI in Lease Administration,
- and more!
The Discovery Hall opened at 4:00 so our attendees would have plenty of time to speak with every single one of the service providers present, including:
- Accruent
- Arcadia
- Atlantic Retail
- Commercial Asset Preservation LLC – CAP was also our sponsor for our networking lounge available to our attendees throughout the conference. Thank you, CAP!
- Commercial Insurance Associates (CIA)
- CoStar Real Estate Manager
- Cresa
- Excess Space, a Newmark Company
- Gordon Brothers
- Insightsoftware
- Kolena
- Mohr Partners, Inc.
- MRI Real Estate Software
- NTrust
- Occupancy Cost Audit Group
- RE BackOffice, Inc.
- REAL
- RentFlow
- RetailStat
- Rocket Club AI
- Surfaice AI
- Tango
- Yardi
Additional sponsors from this year’s conference included:
As the Discovery Hall buzzed, we started our evening reception in the same space to maximize the opportunity for conversation. Thank you to CoStar Real Estate Manager for sponsoring our evening!
Tuesday Recap
On Tuesday after a delicious breakfast, we jumped right into our second day of learning in our first sessions. Attendees chose from several options, including mapping practical use cases for AI in lease administration, a demonstration of a live lease negotiation, and a breakout session on deal critical lease clauses.
Our attendees took a morning break, sponsored by DR Lease Consulting, to connect with their team on what they had learned so far and to strategize for the rest of the day.
In our second session, a few of the options included practicing writing a demand letter, how GLP-1s are impacting all areas of our industry, and maximizing value in retail leases.
At our Tuesday lunch sponsored by REAL, we had the absolute honor to hear from Kevin Hewitt, Senior Director of New Business Initiatives at ICSC. Kevin shared valuable research insights with our attendees on how AI is changing physical shopping now and moving forward. The ICSC’s research, in partnership with McKinsey, has found that what is most impactful is how we collectively as a society choose to respond to these new technologies. Thank you to Kevin and the ICSC for joining us and sharing this important information with our attendees!
Tuesday afternoon saw our last two sessions of this year’s conference, with a wide range of topics ranging from brainstorming solutions to challenging audit hypotheticals, to utilities, energy procurement, & carbon reporting essentials to defending audit rights in modern lease negotiations, and more!
After our last session of the day, our new Young Professionals Committee held our very first Young Professionals Meet & Greet, where attendees could connect with others new to the industry and meet with those that will be participating in the return of our Mentorship Program. Thank you to Kristen Lewis, our Young Professionals Committee Chair, and Pernell Agdeppa, our Mentorship Program Chair, for encouraging this opportunity for meaningful connection and information sharing.
On Tuesday evening, we went off site to the Hub Creamery in downtown Tucson to enjoy a delicious dinner, sponsored by Lease Administration Solutions (LAS). The views were spectacular, the conversations were unparalleled, and the ice cream was unforgettable!!
Wednesday Recap
Wednesday morning, at breakfast sponsored by RE BackOffice Inc., we began to say our goodbyes from this year’s conference. There were two excellent education opportunities after breakfast for those that had time before departing:
- The first was Course 1 from our very own CCLA program
- The second was an Industry Insights & Experts Q&A with Caleb Smith, Rick Burke, Kate Childress, and Kathy Powers-Middlecoop.
And that is a wrap on NRTA’s 2026 Conference, Real People, Real Leadership! We can’t believe it is already over, and we are still stunned by the amazing connections and learning opportunities from those four days! We want to say a very sincere thank you to all our volunteers that help make this conference a success. And we can’t wait to see you all next September in Ponte Vedra Beach!
