Real Good Morning Yoga

Walk-Of-Fame Conference Sponsor, RealPage, hosted an early morning yoga session on Day 2. Led and instructed by Jennifer Hewett, attendees were able to get a jump start to their day by doing some physical activity while watching the sun rise.

New Employee Panel

The day’s sessions kicked off with a New Employee Panel session moderated by Marcus Hamilton, Leasing Manager at Cabana Beach in Gainesville, FL.

Telsherree Hurd | Regional Manager | Corporate Office, Austin, TX

Megan Lawrence | Leasing Manager | Arden Villas, Orlando, FL

Reily Fay | Marketing Assistant | Live on Hillsborough, Raleigh, NC

Sam Lee | Financial Analyst | Corporate Office, Raleigh, NC

Luke Bowling | Property Accountant | Corporate Office, Raleigh, NC

The group answered a series of questions regarding their time with the Preiss Company, specifically how it compares to previous jobs or experiences. They also shared details about their own career development within the organization and things that the company has done to help fulfill their own potential.

Each panelist also answered the question, “What inspires you to succeed every day?”

Marcus was able to end on a lighter note by asking the panel some lightning round type of questions such as their favorite city in the country or if they prefer to text or talk on the phone.

“Do you want to be inspired? Do you want to be challenged? Do you want to be motivated? Do you want the opportunity for further education and career experience? And most of all, do you want a work family? These are all things I have experienced with being a part of this company and any new employee has an open door to experience just that.”

Keynote Speaker | Jess Ekstrom – Headbands of Hope

The Keynote Speaker for Day 2 was Jess Ekstrom, founder of Headbands of Hope. Jess created Headbands of Hope during her junior year of college at NC State University, while living at a Preiss Company managed property, The College Inn.

For every headband purchased through their online shop, one is given to a child with cancer. Headbands of Hope is carried in thousands of stores across the world and the brand has donated headbands to every children’s hospital in America and 15 countries.

Jess shared the story of how her experience working a summer internship at a wish-granting organization inspired her to start Headbands of Hope.

She explained how she had three key spiritual aspects that she contributes to her success:

1) Hope

2) Head

3) Heart

With these three things, she explained that you could not only be successful, but could put your passions in the right places and turn a job into a dream. She discussed her journey through all her rejections, failures, and denials while she was building her business, but how that rounded her into a better business woman and better person. Working with the clients she does, she expressed how she’s been humbled and bettered with the experiences she has had.

“But my fear of failure never approached in magnitude my fear of what if. What if I never tried at all?” — Jess Ekstrom

Click Here – Headbands of Hope Website

Headbands of Hope – Group Activity

Immediately following the keynote speaker, all attendees were invited to create headbands to be donated to children battling cancer.

Breakout Sessions

Following lunch, two breakout sessions were available for attendees.

• Risk Management | “New Risks for 2019 & Beyond” with Ben Worley, Longleaf Law Partners

• Education | “APM Training” with Chantele Hawkins, Operations Specialist

Life in the Fishbowl

In the next session, attendees were able to hear from the New Business Development team and learn about the exciting transactions TPCO has been involved with so far in 2019. The NBD team also shared insight into some potential business that is in the pipeline.

Attendees also learned about the NBD team’s strategy on how they search for new business and evaluate potential deals.

RealPage Product Updates

Vice President of RealPage Student, Whitney Kidd, and Industry Principal, Jennifer Hewett, presented an exciting review about its partnership with TPCO, the evolution of the RealPage Student team, and exciting new features that will roll out in the 2019-2020 leasing season. Here are a few highlights:

• Integration 2.0 – All properties utilizing OneSite + On-Site will onboard with Integration 2.0 before next leasing season. Key features include: integrated payments, integrated renewals, improved reliability, integrated scheduled billing, and continuous data syncs + more!

• Prelease – RealPage developed a new way to track pre-leasing from a portfolio and property level. This development will be integrated with On-Site by Fall 2019 but, it can be used today!

• Placement – There is a brand new placement tool ready to be used today that has a drag and drop feature.

• Products Coming in 2019 – 2020:

  • Active Building – All properties utilizing OneSite will be upgrading their Resident Portal to Active Building on July 5th of this year. Key features include – community message boards, login prior to unit assignment, and resident communication.

  • Relate 24/7 – A communication platform that enables the user to text or email a prospect or a current resident.

  • Certified Lease – New leases that have are validated in all 50 states to be used starting in Fall 2019.

Breakout Sessions

Day 2 came to a close with two additional breakout sessions.

• Flooring Tips & Tricks | Tramayne Simmons and Jim Mannes with Shaw Industries

• Reputation Management | Jared Rennick with Birdeye

Evening Networking Events

Following the day’s sessions, attendees were invited to fun evening events including dinner and drinks on the Autry Lawn, followed by Dueling Pianos at Mister Parker’s.