What does the future of luxury real estate look like? We travelled to Beverly Hills to find out.

Last week, Windermere Real Estate sent 25 agents to Beverly Hills, CA for Luxury Connect, an exclusive, invitation-only event that focused on the tools and trends that are shaping the future of luxury real estate. Held at a $135 million dollar estate, the impressive line-up of speakers were the who’s who of luxury real estate and reality TV, including Josh Altman and Madison Hildebrand from the Bravo TV show, “Million Dollar Listing”, and Mauricio Umansky, CEO of The Agency and a regular on the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. Among the topics discussed were the latest cutting-edge technology trends, like 3-D photography, and how they will enable agents to deliver the ultimate luxury real estate experience. Attendees also listened to discussions about international real estate with particular emphasis on the growing number of Asian home buyers in West Coast markets like Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Windermere agents Erica Clibborn, Wendy Paisley, and Tere Foster with Madison Hildebrand

The Luxury Connect event was held at the legendary “Beverly House” which was once lived in by William Randolph Hearst and served as the location for John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s honeymoon. The Beverly House was also featured in the films, “The Godfather” and “The Bodyguard”, and is currently on the market for $135,000,000.

Beverly House

The keynote speaker was Huffington Post founder, author, and syndicated columnist, Arianna Huffington who spoke about the habits of high performers and the importance of achieving balance (and eight hours of sleep a night) in a fast-paced, multi-tasking, high-tech society. She also discussed the need to incorporate spaces into our homes that combat stress, promote peace and balance, and allow us to unplug from the world. She challenged everyone to remove their phones and other electronic devices from their bedrooms at night. The consensus among the attendees was that this is probably easier said than done for real estate agents who are almost always on call, but great advice, nonetheless.

Million Dollar Listing star, Josh Altman, Arianna Huffington, and Josh’s brother/business partner, Matt Altman