Trammell Crow, the renowned Texas-based real estate developer, was among the leaders honoured in Dallas last week for contributing to the transition of the $21 trillion plus commercial real estate industry from the old to the new, digital economy.

Crow received a Commercial Real Estate Digital Media Award or 'Digie' during Realcomm 2000, a conference devoted to the Internet, ecommerce, automation and technology for commercial real estate.

More than 2,500 members of the commercial real estate industry and the technology and ecommerce communities attended this year's Realcomm.

The Digie Award for 'industry impact' went to Trammell Crow in recognition of his visionary development 15 years ago of the Dallas INFOMART. "Trammell Crow was way ahead of his time," said Realcomm producer, Jim Young. "He pointed the way to today's digital wired buildings and self-contained technology campus communities."

Also notable among the Digie Award winners was the field's only repeat from last year: Koll Development, of Los Angeles. Last year, Koll was cited for its use of webcam technology, enabling tenants to watch construction progress over the Internet without having to make a site visit. This year, Realcomm again selected Koll's Web site for its progressive use of 360-degree photography.

Young said the common trait among all the winners is a mix of vision and pragmatism: "Commercial real estate is incredibly complex, involving a staggering amount of information. Real estate professionals who embrace digital technology are going to operate much more efficiently than competitors held back by the paper-based practices of the old economy."

Other Digie award winners included W.W. Grainger, Inc. the business-to-business distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) supplies and 55 Broad Street nominated best e-Building.

Though only in its second year, the Realcomm conference and exposition has quickly become the 'ground zero' for the convergence of technology and commercial real estate, according to Craig Robbins, senior vice president of PropertyFirst, a speaker during the morning's conference opening session.

Last year's Realcomm attracted more than 750 people to Chicago. This year, the conference producers, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and The Jamesan Group a California-based commercial real estate technology services firm, moved Realcomm to Dallas to meet the huge demand from attendees and exhibitors.

More than 2,500 people attended Realcomm 2000, representing REITs and other organisations that own and asset manage real estate; lenders and borrowers; property managers; brokers and other service providers; architects and appraisers; bankers, investment bankers and venture capital firms; as well as members of the new real estate economy.

Richard Byatt