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Omaha Magazine

"Shifting Gears" is Theme of April CREW Event

Nov 25, 2012 10:38AM ● By Linda Persigehl
Real estate professionals from all over the region will soon converge for “shop talk” at Omaha’s 24th Annual Commercial Real Estate Workshop (CREW), to be held at the CenturyLink Center Omaha on April 19, 2013. This year’s theme is “Shifting Gears – Are You Gaining Momentum?”

“The CREW Planning Committee decided at our September 2012 meeting that the commercial real estate market had made a definite turn to the positive,” says Jerry Slusky, a partner with Smith Gardner Slusky Law and member of the CREW committee. “Noting that, CREW 2013 is using a bicycle theme to indicate that it’s time to shift your own gears and be in a position to take advantage of the momentum being created in the market. Each of the subjects of this year’s CREW is ‘geared’ to address that question,” Slusky explains.

CREW’s keynote roundtable theme, “Crisis of Confidence: How We Fix a Flat Tire,” will include conversation with Nebraska’s top business leaders and how they view the current economy, their expectations for the short and long term, and how their views relate to job creation and real estate.

As the Omaha mayoral election in May will have an economic impact on our economy, the CREW committee has invited the mayoral primary candidates to speak to attendees about their thoughts, plans, and goals for Omaha for 2013 and beyond. “All five mayoral candidates have accepted CREW’s invitation to speak at CREW 2013,” says Slusky. “The CREW Committee is preparing four or five questions that will be answered by the two mayoral finalists (decided in the April primary). It should be a very interesting.”

Jason Fisher, president of The Lund Company and regular participant in CREW, commends the CREW committee’s efforts in presenting a great event. “The committee and Jerry do a great job of blending relevant national or global market trends with the primary focus on local and regional issues,” Fisher says. “Secondly, the panelists, presenters, and topics are usually representative of the real estate market in its entirety—developers, brokers, attorneys, engineers, lenders, etc…All are represented. In addition, the relationship and networking opportunity [of CREW] is unlike any other. You basically have 300+ industry-focused professionals in the same room for a full day. If you can’t have meaningful conversations about your trade at CREW, then you are probably in the wrong business.”

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