How did BOMA Rochester's Annual R.E. Review begin?

I have been on the BOMA Rochester board for many years. I started as program chair for two years, VP for two years, then became president in 1998 and since 1999 have served as director at large along with Kevin Telga. During my years on the board, we wanted to come up with something that would give BOMA a local identity. Since our initials stand for Building Owners and Managers, it was clear that our connection was to provide the local community with commercial real estate information. But, in what way? We formed volunteer task groups to gather data on commercial s/f by type and class, we attempted to determine operating budget expense standardsand cost per s/f analysis, but the tasks were too daunting for a volunteer board and members who were giving their time to attempt to put this information together. In 1996, Tom Cahill, a past-president of BOMA, myself and another gentlemen, who worked for Trammel Crow, is no longer in Rochester and whose name I unfortunately cannot remember, got together to brainstorm on how we could highlight BOMA as the premiere commercial office real estate organization in the area. Knowing what we had gone through to this point, we had to start "thinking out of the box." As we kept meeting and talking,we realized that there were resources already in place locally which could provide us with information. Our goal was to provide our membership and the real estate community as large with a program that would give a years' snapshot. We started to list organizations, along with knowledgeable and prominent people who could deliver the message - and " kazaam," we had the birth of our first Real Estate Review luncheon! Our program has been "tweaked" a bit here and there, but the speakers who presented in year one are still with us - Kent Gardner, president and chief economist of the Center for Governmental Research; Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of Rochester Downtown Development Corp. and Angelo Nole, executive VP of CBRE. They have my personal thanks and gratitude. The BOMA Real Estate Review Program was successful beyond my wildest imagination. Everyone works together as a team to deliver to the audience information about our local economy and commercial real estate market. More than 100 people attend this annual event. Greater Rochester BOMA's name is synonymous with this event and the program is unequalled. Congratulations to the BOMA board and its great membership on the success of its 10th Annual Real Estate Review! Mariann Hooper, RPA, is a member of the board of directors (at large) at BOMA of Greater Rochester and is VP at Ryco Management, LLC, Pittsford, N.Y.