July 2015
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Optimism Marks Annual Address on the State of our Industry

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BOMA International President and COO Henry Chamberlain is certainly an optimist, as was the entire crowd at the June 29 morning General Session, where the BOMA executive said that despite fantastic growth in the US office market, now at about 15.6 percent vacancy, there's still a long way to go. With pre-recession numbers around 13 percent, the recovery is not complete.

What's more, he said that the future is somewhat uncertain, though that's heavily attributed to outside factors, such as the economic hardships in Greece (which came to a head one day following the address), and the talk that Puerto Rico may also default on its debts.

One thing Henry is extremely bullish about is the rise of Millennials. "I really like Millennials," he said. "We need to invest in these folks. They're bright, they're energeti -- and they're our future." He challenged those still living with pre-conceived notions about the age group as lazy and disloyal, to embrace Millennials.

As far as the biggest change coming to the industry, he pointed to an increasing dependence on technology, stating that the industry should expect to see more change in the next five years,than has been seen in the previous 20, including more growth in robotics, and even in artificial intelligence.