Interval International’s 17th Annual Shared Ownership Investment Conference

In just a few weeks, more than 500 of the timeshare industry’s best and brightest are expected to gather in Miami Beach for another edition of Interval International’s Shared Ownership Investment Conference. To be held September 30-October 2, 2015 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, the 17th annual event’s attendees will include potential new entrants and lenders, as well as existing developers and resort operators. Why do they keep coming back?

“We continue to grow this conference by delivering content that’s relevant for both new entrants and established players who seek fresh perspectives along with hard data on the trends affecting them,” says Bryan Ten Broek, Interval’s senior vice president of resort sales and marketing.

Headlining this year’s conference is Lynne Lancaster, co-founder of BridgeWorks, which advises many leading American companies, including 3M, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Disney, on how to bridge generational gaps at work and in the marketplace by understanding the differences that drive them apart. Her best-selling book, When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work has been a consistent favorite among CEOs.

Another highlight is sure to be vice chairman of MMGY Global Peter Yesawich’s presentation on findings from a custom portion of the 2015 Portrait of American Travelers, a highly acclaimed survey that is one of the most closely watched barometers of emerging travel trends.

Ten Broek gave Resort Trades a preview of what else is on tap for attendees.

• A shared-ownership “Boot Camp” especially for new entrants will cover the basics of the business from the experts, the different profit centers within a timeshare business model, and how mixed use can complement a hotel operation and increase return on investment.

• The 2015 State of the Industry session will cover current market conditions in the shared ownership and hospitality industries, including new research published by the ARDA International Foundation that reveals a youth movement among first-time buyers. STR will present insights on domestic hotel performance.

• Experts on cyber security will discuss how to protect computer networks, proprietary and third-party information, and hardware.

• On the finance front, active lenders will describe “How to Structure the Right Deal” and what makes timeshare financing unique, including the acquisition, development, and receivables financing available today.

• The high-tech sales presentation will cover techniques and strategies to help your sales force create a winning environment and turn the next generation of prospects into owners.

• A media expert roundtable will cover how to tell your story and get the “right coverage.” The panel includes leading journalists and top corporate communications professionals.

• The new project showcase will address the fact that capital is now flowing and developers are building again. Successful developers will discuss how they secured financing, selected architectural and design plans, made marketing and sales decisions, and more.

• An hour-long session will cover the opportunities and the challenges associated with shared ownership development in the Caribbean. According to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the region had a record 26.3 million visitors in 2014 – a 5.3 percent increase over the previous year, and tourists spent an impressive $29.2 billion, so it provides favorable conditions for developers and hoteliers looking to diversify their product offerings in this market.

• A session on revitalizing legacy resorts will cover the unique challenges facing legacy timeshare resorts and their HOAs, and what the industry is doing to address them. The session will include successful marketing and sales tools, and steps you can take to ensure your single-site development will flourish for years to come.

New This Year — Latin America Program
New for this year’s conference is a half-day session on Latin America. The session will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the first day of the conference and will explore shared ownership opportunities and reveal insights from operators across the region.

“As Latin America’s economies have grown, so, too, have the tourism sectors,” says Marcos Agostini, Interval’s senior vice president of resort sales and service for Latin America. “This is an area of the world where shared ownership products have a bright future.”

Conducted in Spanish, with English translation, the session will include executives from the region discussing how they’ve positioned vacation ownership to the growing middle classes. Pre-registration is required for this session.

All attendees will receive complimentary research studies with a combined retail value of more than $1,000. They include three studies from the ARDA International Foundation: State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry: United States Study 2015 Edition, Financial Performance 2015: A Survey of Timeshare & Vacation Ownership Companies, and Next Generations 2015 Study; as well as The Shared Ownership Resort Real Estate Industry in North America: 2015.