I Heart KC by Sarah Choy

I Heart KC - 2023 BOMA International Conference

Written by Sarah Choy, DEI Scholarship Recipient

This past June, I was given the opportunity to attend the 2023 BOMA International Conference in Kansas City. BOMA Seattle King County awarded me with a DEI scholarship to attend. This is my first year being involved with BOMA and this conference allowed me to get to know more about the organization, what they are advocating, as well as meet my local BOMA colleagues!

Reviewing the education session topics, I was quite overwhelmed. I was interested in so many topics, how on earth would I be able to fit it all in? I stepped into the property manager role this year and decided to prioritize my personal career development. I attended several leadership, career, and development workshops to start and eventually trailed off to other topics of interest: occupant engagement, pitching to asset management, creating value in your asset, energy efficiency and tech innovations. It was information overload in the best way possible!
There were several keynote speakers that truly resonated with me. The first keynote speaker spoke on chaos. He had been through different forms of chaos several times in his life and emerged with lessons learned. He now works to provide homes to veterans as the first step to getting them set up and into permanent homes. At the Women in Commercial Real Estate breakfast, there was a panel of three women veterans. Each served different branches of the military at different times. Each shared powerful stories of their experiences in peace time, war time, integrating back into their communities, and their struggles. Their experiences were relatable, and I respect their courage to be so open to share and inspire.

The BOMA International Conference not only allowed me to engage with other people in my industry but was a great networking opportunity. During the vendor expo, I met with several vendors that blew me away at how they approached issues with innovative solutions and brought to light why their products are better than what I’m utilizing at my properties.

Thank you again, BOMA Seattle King County, for the opportunity! I was able to develop my own knowledge base, curate new relationships, and have conversations with folks that are doing such innovative things in our industry. And I got to look at some really beautiful buildings - thank you for the visit, Kansas City!