RISMedia editors are reporting live this week from the company’s 2026 CEO & Leadership Exchange, taking place September 30 – October 2 at the Georgetown Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C. The iconic event gathers the industry’s most influential Power Brokers, franchise executives, MLS leaders, top agent teams and real estate experts to discuss strategies and solutions for successfully moving forward during this period of rapid change and challenge.
The 38th annual production of the iconic event features more than 100 speakers taking part in 30-plus presentations and panel discussions over the course of the two-and-a-half-day conference. Presenters and panelists will cover a wide range of pressing topics, including consolidation, AI, new competition, next threats, listing data, MLS evolution, affordability, recruiting and retention, and brokerage growth to name just a few.
Follow along with us by bookmarking this page to catch the latest live updates from the event, including key speaker sound bites, breaking news, special announcements and more.
Wednesday, Sept. 30
2:45 p.m. ETBeyond the Chatbot: “Synthetic Humans” Take the Stage
AI technologists, brokerage leaders and newly unveiled “digital humans” took to the stage for a forward-looking conversation on how Agentic AI is reshaping the industry as we know it—unveiling RISMedia’s new synthetic human, Jackai, alongside HomeServices of America’s AI “synth human” Mae.
“AI is starting to grab a stronghold with everyone,” said Ben Silva, founder, chairman and chief AI officer of AREIA Synthetics. “The beautiful part about the real estate industry is that it’s personal. My relationship with my real estate agent is very personal. That’s why I picked them, because the one that I choose is because you’re a member of my family, you’re helping me move my family. AI is going to help that in every possible way because as a real estate agent, you can’t do everything and be everywhere, but the AI can.”
The live demonstration offered a glimpse into how AI-powered digital colleagues are bridging the gap between what the consumer is wanting to do and what the agent is already doing with AI technology. During the session, Mae and Jack interacted in real time, responding to questions from the panel and audience.
“Our real estate industry as a whole, as well as individual businesses around the world, has the potential to thrive in a form we’ve never seen before if we adopt and leverage the power of Agentic AI,” said RISMedia’s Founder and CEO John Featherston.
– Paige Tepping, Senior Managing Editor
2:00 p.m. ET
The Regional Perspective: Finding a Way to Compete
Following Dan Duffy’s big picture look at the national real estate industry, four regional and national brokers took the stage to share how macro trends are playing out in their regions.
While the laments about market challenges as interest rates rise are widespread, panelists concurred that the silver lining is a return to balance.
“Listings are sitting and part of me is happy about it,” said Lamacchia Realty CEO Anthony Lamacchia. “How else will we get back to higher inventory unless sellers have a little bit of a gut check. We can do a lot of business off 4 million home sales.”
DeAnne Golden, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties said her market is returning to “a sustainable and healthy market,” and to be wary of national headlines. “We have to stay focused on controlling the controlables.”
In the Midwest, Tracy Hutton, CEO of Indiana’s CENTURY 21 Scheetz, has witnessed market normalization in just the last 60 days. “The Midwest doesn’t see the extreme highs and lows,” adding that success is independent of market conditions. “We get to determine where we finish and how we start next year.”
HomeSmart Founder & CEO Matt Widdows concurred. “The market sucks, let’s be realistic. Successful agents find ways to be successful regardless of the climate we’re in. Successful enterprises find ways to compete and keep going forward.”
1:40 p.m.
The State of Real Estate with Dan Duffy, CEO of United Real Estate
Outspoken United CEO Dan Duffy took a notably scientific approach with his keynote address, starting with a quick lesson on thermodynamics. He also took some time to grade the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) on its transparency and turnaround promises, a year after offering pointed criticism of the organization at last year’s event.
Starting with entropy, as described by the second law of thermodynamics, Duffy said that organized systems naturally tend toward disorder and disorganization. This happens to subatomic particles, and also to industries like real estate, Duffy claimed.
Consolidation, plummeting valuations for real estate companies and other recent upheaval are all indications that “we’re in an entropic situation,” something he said he preferred to “stasis” as a business person.
The message to the audience was to use this year of change to “reset (your) strategic statement,” and home in on how real estate businesses can “get a greater share of wallet” as they reexamine all the partnerships, relationships, clients and markets.
Looking at NAR and going back to entropy, Duffy gave the organization failing grades on some of the “asks” brought by the “Pro-Agent Restore Trust in NAR” working group that he is a part of, including transparency, governance and communication.
Duffy also showed anonymized graphs of real estate company valuations over the last five years, saying that entropy would week out “sub-optimized methods” in the industry.
-Jesse Williams, Content Director, Premier
1:30 p.m. ET
The New Era of Real Estate: John Featherston Kicks Off 38th Annual CEO & Leadership Exchange
With foreign dignitaries on site at Washington’s Fairmont Hotel, RISMedia Founder & CEO John Featherston was asked to go old school and open the event using a hand-held, wired mic to avoid interfering with Secret Service comms. The only-in-D.C. moment was a great jumping-off point for Featherston who discussed the four eras of the real estate industry, from the pre-1996, Rolodex and MLS Book era, when agents averaged 1 -6 deals per year, to the current agentic AI and Consolidation era, marked by rapid AI development, intelligent work flows, predictive data and 24/7 client nurturing, with AI working as a tireless digital workforce, and transactions reaching 50 – 100 per year for top professionals.
‘If we want to successfully move forward, we have to stop looking in the rear view mirror and look forward,” he told the audience during the Opening Session. “Real estate professionals are challenged every day. We’re feeling the squeeze – tighter margins, interest rates, consolidation. We’re facing all of these hurdles and roadblocks…we have to have consistent tech innovation working for us.”
Drawing upon his 49 years in the real estate space, Featherston stressed that brokers and agents must “live in reality” and be the purveyors of accurate information to consumers.
“I wish we could say that interest rates are going down to 3%, but we live in reality,” he said. “We have to let people know that homeownership is an extremely viable, long-term wealth-building tool.”
Featherston also acknowledged the potential of the current consolidation trend. “Consolidation is not a nasty word. You can utilize consolidation to improve your firm. If you have a vision, and you have a plan, and you’re a leader, consolidation is your ally.”
– Maria Patterson, EVP & Executive Editor
