We participated in ReCoTech, one of the leading proptech events in the Nordics, which was arranged after a while physically on site in Helsinki on November 30th.
Goes without saying, the event was shadowed by Covid in many ways. In the midst of the emerging 4th wave of the pandemic, Covid has been defining the proptech scenery in many ways during the last two years.
Firstly, the events themselves have been struggling to gather a critical mass of participants to exchange ideas and innovate together – and just to mingle.
This was true for this year’s ReCoTech as well. There was a decent number of people present, but if I compare this to the last event before the pandemic, it wasn’t really buzzing. I mean, the organisers had done an amazing job of arranging the event and the event as such was superbly run. It was just that many, especially outside the Nordics, just had decided not to show up since traveling was and is still causing a real risk.
Then, which is evident and more profound, is that Covid has really pushed the need for digitalising this somewhat archaic industry to an extra height. There are more and more proptech applications emerging in each proptech event. Yet, some of the faces are familiar from years before manifesting the reality that despite the accelerated need for digital change, we are still in the baby steps when looking at the industry as a whole.
Maybe this gradual development or ‘evolvement’ is something which I call “Proptech 2.0” which means more mature proptech products for more mature buyers, relatively thinking.
All in all, I am not sure if we have seen the return of the proptech events yet – and will we even see that during 2022. Nevertheless, looking with excitement towards 2022 for more face-to-face events on site in the proptech scene, if this almighty Covid pandemia just allows that.
With this in mind, I wish Merry Christmas to you all!
