California Apartment Association

This year’s first CAA industry partner meeting for the Inland Empire introduced a new format that features a panel discussion and afternoon networking reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

The meeting, held at the DoubleTree Ontario on Tuesday, Feb. 18, attracted more than 50 industry partners of the California Apartment Association and garnered rave reviews.

“I really enjoyed the new event format! Much more intimate and it gave us a chance to interact and get to know the speakers better,” one attendee said in a survey. “Thank you!”

Changing the format and holding fewer IP meetings annually will make each meeting more valuable to both vendors and property management companies.

“Our goal for 2014 is to engage our members. Our IPs have not seen many of our property management companies for several years.  We need to reintroduce them,” said Jennifer Giddens, CAA’s regional events and membership director “Many of our property management companies have scopes of work and need quality vendors.”

Tuesday’s panel consisted of three mid-size property management companies. Each was invited to bring decision-makers with them. The following were represented:

• Carol Higgins, Vice President – MGR Property Management
• Rochelle Smith, Onsite Manager – MGR Property Management
• Jon Suematsu, Regional Manager – StarPoint Property Management
• Wade Smith, Senior Engineer – StarPoint Property Management
• Teri Hoerntlein, Regional Manager – QMG

“CAA has the best industry partners,” Giddens said. “These meetings are a win-win situation for both, and it was thrilling to see the two interact.”