2025 VCU Real Estate Trends Conference

The VCU Real Estate Trends Conference is hosted annually by the VCU Kornblau Real Estate Program and brings together industry leaders, students, faculty, staff and alumni for a morning of networking and learning. Industry attendees represent various real estate and related sectors such as law, finance, construction, development, brokerage and appraisal.

Date: October 9, 2025
Location: Henrico Sports & Events Center

• Agenda
• Sponsors
• Location & Parking
• Exhibitor Booths
• Event Maps
• Who's Coming

Nikki Greenberg

Real Estate Futurist; Founder of Women in PropTech; Former Head of Technology Strategy, QIC

 

Nikki Greenberg is the world's top real estate futurist and most sought-after industry trends keynote speaker Through her high energy keynotes she explores the convergence of real space and cyber space. She is determined to not only inspire her audiences on the possibilities of emerging technologies and innovative ways of thinking, but provide insights on ways to capitalize upon it. In short, Nikki directs companies on what to do today to deliver on the needs of tomorrow.

A true digital nomad with an international career that has spanned the US, Asia and Australia, she has held cross-functional leadership positions with a focus on innovation and design. Most recently she served as Head of Technology Strategy for QIC, an Australian investment manager, where she lead the transformation of its’ $17Bn AUM real estate portfolio and $4Bn development pipeline, towards a techenabled future. In New York she led the innovation efforts of the #1 private brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, for new luxury residential developments. In Australia, she designed and developed transformative mixed-use residential, retail and masterplan projects with Lendlease and Koichi Takada Architects.

Nikki has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades including winning the 2025 Speaker of the Year in the Future Trends and Technologies category; being recognized as a Top 9 Most Influential Women in PropTech (2024), Top Real Estate Influencer (2023), Top 5 Most Influential Women in Real Estate (2022), ULI Global Luminary (2022), Top 25 CRE Innovator (2021), and Finalist at MIPIM Global PropTech Awards (2019). She is a frequent featured keynote speaker for the real estate industry's leading conferences around the world where she shares her vision of the industry’s tech-enabled future. Proudly serving as both a three-term co-chair of ULI New York’s Real Estate Technology and Innovation Council, and Global Ambassador of Women in PropTech, (which she also founded), Nikki leads the industry's conversation on built world innovation.

Nikki is an alumni of UNSW in Sydney, Australia where she attained Masters of International Business, Masters of Architecture, and Bachelors of Architecture with Honors.

An Australian national, today Nikki resides in New York City. It is little wonder that Nikki's one of the most sought after speakers of this age.

Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D.

GraphsandLaughs, LLC

ELLIOT EISENBERG, Ph.D., is an internationally acclaimed economist and public speaker specializing in making the arcana and minutia of economics fun, relevant, and educational. He earned a B.A. in economics with first-class honors from McGill University in Montreal, as well as a Master's and Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University. Eisenberg, a former Senior Economist with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C., is the creator of the multifamily stock index (the first nationally recognized index to track the total return of public firms principally involved in the ownership and management of apartments), the author of more than eighty-five articles, and is a regular consultant to several large real estate professional associations, hedge funds, and investment advisory groups.

He has spoken to thousands of business groups and associations, often as a keynote speaker. Dr. Eisenberg has been invited to testify before lawmakers and is usually asked to comment on proposed legislation. His research and opinions have been featured in Bloomberg, Business Week, Bureau of National Affairs, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications. He is a regularly featured guest on cable news programs, talk shows, and public radio.

 

Renee Haltom

Vice President and Regional Executive

Renee Haltom is Richmond regional executive and vice president of Research communications at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Her work involves engaging business, banking, and community leaders on national, regional, and local economic conditions to inform the monetary policymaking process, as well as sharing information about the Federal Reserve System. Haltom is based at the Richmond office and has responsibility for public outreach and engagement in Virginia, as well as oversees the Richmond Fed's Regional Executive, Research Communications, and Economic Education functions and its Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.

Haltom joined the Richmond Fed in 2009 as an economic writer in the Research department — often with a focus on monetary policy, economic theory, and the Federal Reserve — and served as editor of Econ Focus magazine from 2015 to 2018. She started her Fed career in 2005 at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, providing education on monetary policy and the Federal Reserve to a variety of audiences.

Haltom has a bachelor's degree in economics from Michigan State University and a master's degree in economics from the University of San Francisco.