With more than 33,000 attendees at the 2013 ICSC RECon in Las Vegas, all are talking about the upbeat condition of the retail market and wanting to put together a deal.

Now is when the real work begins.

De Rito Partners had more than 30 agents and all of its principals attend the event. More than 500 meetings were scheduled, not to mention the hundreds that resulted from being an exhibitor.

Now we have to follow up with all the leads and contacts, whether it is sending a site plan to a tenant to get the deal started, tweaking the language in a lease that was holding up execution, or finalizing agreed upon changes to the LOI (Letter of Intent).

A deal starts with a vision, but deals are developed step by step, execution by execution and execution is what gets the deals done. Sweating the details for our clients is of utmost importance to ensuring the experience is a positive one.

De Rito Partners employs state-of-the-art technology that provides up-to-date demographic data and market trends to benefit its clients and its team. This kind of technology gave agents access to their property materials and information as they worked away from the office.

Brokers were encouraged to “bank” their data on GoodReader, an Ipad application that provided marketing materials for each member of the company at their fingertips. We are looking forward to the next year as we seek additional ways to improve our resources and functionality at the next convention.

As a relatively small company in a large market, we are committed to implementing cutting edge technology more efficiently and effectively in order to exceed expectations.

The ICSC arena gave our brokers the opportunity to meet clients on a different level from the in-office environment. Face-to-face meetings often build a rapport that might never have formed otherwise. Everyone attending this year’s session appeared to have a “let’s do business” attitude, which was encouraging and will result in more deals this year.

Phoenix once again was among the nation’s fastest-growing cities last year, newly released Census Bureau estimates show. The city added more than 24,000 new residents and edged closer to overtaking Philadelphia as the fifth-largest city in the country.

This kind of growth makes Phoenix and Arizona one of the most desirable marketplaces right now. Now we really have to focus on getting a return on all of the time and energy spent in preparation and execution of what we call the “Super Bowl of the Shopping Center Business.”