Mónica Prieto in COM-EX

A unique opportunity to learn about the most innovative trends and strategies in community management.

Last June, Mónica Prieto, director of Monapart communityparticipated as a panelist in the second edition of the COM-EX meeting organised by GroundInn in Barcelona together with other business experts in the real estate sector that promote the creation of a community as a growth strategy. 

The meeting took place at Club Caramel, a former candy factory in the Born neighbourhood converted into a shared space for artists of all disciplines, the perfect setting for an event dedicated to reflecting on and discovering new ways to strengthen and empower communities.

Local Collaboration in Real Estate

Monica shared a panel with Samuel Toribio, director of international markets at Homelike and Enric Solé, co-founder and CEO of Circles Houses, both experts in coliving and short-medium stay accommodation. Together, they discussed the importance and challenges of creating communities in a traditionally conservative sector that needs to listen more actively to its customers in order to adapt to their real needs. 

Samuel Toribio began the talk by providing statistics and trends observed since 2020 in Homelike, a platform that offers monthly stays in more than 500 cities, to analyse how the needs of its users have evolved and how new demands have arisen in terms of creating communities in this area.

Next, Monica shared her experience in Airbnb managing for almost seven years the home sharing community in Spain and Portugal, applying these learnings to projects with soul as the #buenagente community of Monapart that grows strong and healthy with the agents as protagonists of a different way of doing and being a real estate agent. 

A community is not owned, it is led. Communities have to become what communities want to be... Only then does the community become an ally of the company. 

For his part, Enric Solé explained his proposal for coliving and coworking for international entrepreneurs in Barcelona. Circles stands out for generating intergenerational synergies in a space where not only young digital nomads live together. The boomer generation also actively seeks the opportunity to be part of a community full of dynamism. 

The meeting also heard the opinions of experts such as Coté Soler, actor and CEO of BeLiquid, who shared innovative ideas on how to design more inclusive and sustainable communities; or our CEO José Luis Echeverría who highlighted the importance of building a strong and healthy internal community in the current business context. 

We are building a railway track while the train is moving forward... How do you manage so many wills? We need professionals to manage all these energies.

The challenges facing the real estate sector

Real estate agents are self-employed professionals to whom society does not grant recognition or prestige regardless of their level of competence. They tend to work alone, with irregular and uncertain incomes, often with no brand other than their own and without the right support to offer the best service to their clients. This point is particularly worrying because, as our community manager pointed out during the COM-EX meeting, according to the longest-running Harvard University study of adults, loneliness and isolation are as much of a problem as smoking or alcoholism. 

Even in the most difficult times, such as in the midst of a global pandemic, humans naturally tend to seek contact and belonging. We are gregarious animals, both personally and professionally. That is why networking, celebrations and face-to-face meetings are so important. If society deserves the best possible agents, agents at their best, they also deserve the best possible support and the best possible economic retribution.

You don't just share what you have, you share who you are.

You can follow the full video of the talk on this link link. 

Monapart serves a community of estate agents independent and experienced retailers to whom it provides marketing, method, technology, training and comprehensive support, offering them to retain between 70% and 100% of their turnover and boost their own brand. At Monapart, community is a strategic business element because we understand the importance of one of the biggest commercial motivators for retention and recruitment: belonging.