Ron Starner, executive director of IAMC

There are usually too many to mention by name, but the bottom line always boils down to this: superior education and high-quality networking in a collegial, professional, non-sales environment.

Last month’s IAMC Professional Forum in San Diego was no different. In this case, the Forum more than lived up to its theme, "Real Estate’s Contribution to the Corporate Bottom Line."

If you want take-home value, consider these deliverables:

More than 320 Forum attendees were both energized and motivated by Forum keynote speaker Barry Asmus, senior economist for the National Center for Policy Analysis. Debunking the conventional wisdom of the mainstream press, Asmus boldly declared this about the U.S. economy: "The good news is that the bad news is wrong."

Pointing to 10 consecutive quarters of 4-percent GDP growth, the fact that 75 million Americans are now between the ages of 40 and 58 and are thus in their peak earning years, and the fact that the $12-trillion U.S. economy now produces one-third of the world’s wealth, Asmus said that the future is indeed a bright one paved with low interest rates and low inflation.

Forum keynote speaker Barry Asmus.

"The productivity of the American work force is growing at 3 to 4 percent a year," he said. "Since 1995, productivity has doubled. Today, the U.S. feeds one-third of the world. One John Deere combine can do the work of 30,000 Chinese farm workers."

The news gets even better for those involved in developing and managing production assets, Asmus said. "Some 50 percent of all industrial manufacturing space needed in this country by the year 2030 hasn’t even been built yet. Today, only 9 percent of the U.S. labor force is employed in manufacturing. The factory of the future will be even more efficient."

About 50 current and future leaders of IAMC were challenged in the pre-Forum Leadership Development Seminar by speakers Michael Wynne and Janelle Brittain to tackle the "tough stuff of leadership."

Wynne, who has advised and coached leaders at IBM, Xerox, Monsanto and many other large industrial companies, said that Corporate America today has an urgent need for "strong visionary leaders" who will pursue new strategies and innovate. Wynne warned his audience not to settle for routine transactional or asset management work but to seek out opportunities to develop and lead teams that will challenge their firms’ conventional thinking and be more self-directed.

Brittain challenged attendees to mentor others in their organizations by teaching them how to think strategically and less tactically. "Do you have a succession plan for yourself?" she asked. "Where is the balance of your time spent? How can you set aside more time in your work day to tackle strategic problems?"

Phil Hammel was an active listener at the IAMC Leadership Development Seminar.

Dave "Lefty" Lefkowith, president of The Canyon Group, carried on this theme by urging the entire IAMC audience to "be relevant, be empathetic, be timely, be persistent and deliver the goods."

The former creative chief at Procter & Gamble Brand Management said that "creativity drives business progress" and that creativity would be the single most important asset that anyone in the room could bring to their company.

"The essential challenge of your industry is for you to get involved earlier in the process on strategic issues and opportunities facing your company," Lefkowith said. "You must get further up the food chain."

Randall Bell, principal of Bell Consulting and the man the media like to call "Dr. Disaster," spoke of life lessons learned from studying such historic disasters as Chernobyl, Love Canal, the Heaven’s Gate Cult and the Marshall Island nuclear test sites.

"Intelligence is not I.Q. It is a way of thinking," he said. "In almost every disaster I have ever studied, our mindset determined our results."

Bell urged his audience to look for the learning opportunities in the midst of disasters like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. "There are great lessons in both triumphs and tragedies," he said. "The greatest ideas come from solving the greatest problems."

Robert Tucker, president of The Innovation Resource and author of "Driving Growth Through Innovation: How Leading Firms are Transforming Their Futures," encouraged IAMC attendees to seek out the "breakthrough ideas" that most often emerge from "happy accidents."

"To become an innovator in your field, you must be willing to assault your assumptions and establish a process for innovation," Tucker said. "If you are not reading at least three newspapers daily and 15 to 20 magazines regularly, you are not learning enough. Also, don’t just schedule meetings. Schedule ‘questioning’ meetings. Encourage everyone on your team to come to the meeting with 20 questions, and then see what happens."

Tucker also urged his audience to "reward and celebrate risk-taking behavior." High-growth organizations "embrace change," he said.

Closing session speaker Luis Belmonte.

Finally, closing session speaker Luis Belmonte, principal of Seven Hills Properties, spoke candidly about the political, logistical and business factors that drive corporate real estate decisions. His bottom-line advice? Be more flexible, be more global and be more politically active.

"Flexible entitlement ought to be the mantra of every real estate deal you do," Belmonte said. "Before you sign any deal, make sure that you secure options to expand, options to contract and options to renew. If you get an option, you win. If you give an option, you lose. Never forget that."

On the issue of globalization, he said, "Companies don’t have nationalities any more. I closed several major transactions with Flextronics, for example, before I ever realized that the company was headquartered in Singapore."

For those who regularly conduct business in other states and countries, Belmonte encouraged them to learn the local laws, customs and political ties to gain an edge over their competition.

"Always remember that the developer speaks a different language than the politician," he said. "To be successful, you must learn to sublimate your ego. You must choose between your dignity or the dollars. As long as you don’t care who gets the credit for the deal, you can get a lot of deals done. Besides, the only esteem worth having is self-esteem, and the only legitimate source of pride is that which comes from self accomplishment. If you’re the type that needs a pat on the back for doing your job, you’d better seek another line of work."

New member Alex Meade taking it all home.

At various workshops, IAMC attendees also learned about industrial lease clauses, disaster preparedness, business continuity, lease-vs.-own analysis, super-project site selection, and proper valuation of incentives.

The 320-plus attendees at the IAMC Professional Forum had plenty of opportunity to discuss these and other points of learning at the many networking events and interactive sessions, such as Peer-to-Peer, Get Some Help and Research Roundtable.

A common refrain heard on beautiful Coronado Island next to San Diego was, "This was the best IAMC Forum yet."

When asked to explain that comment, the typical response was to cite the immediate take-home value offered by the speakers, interactive sessions and networking.

Even newcomers to IAMC took home lasting value, as evidenced by this comment from a first-time attendee from New York: "Although this was my first experience with it [IAMC], I felt right at home."

This new member to IAMC didn’t know it, but he spoke for many.