The second edition of INREV ASPIRE (33+) brought mid-career professionals together in Amsterdam on 28 and 29 October for the programme’s dedicated training course. Over two days, the cohort took part in group discussions, practical workshops and peer exchange focused on leadership, career development and professional growth.
Led by Andrea Carpenter, Co-Founder and Director of Diversity Talks Real Estate, the programme opened with a keynote presentation by Sabina Reeves, Chief Economist and Head of Insights & Intelligence at CBRE Investment Management, exploring the megatrends transforming real estate and how the industry is responding.
From there, the focus turned to leadership and career development. Participants shared their own leadership challenges in peer roundtables before Anne Kavanagh joined Andrea for a fireside chat on career progression, navigating corporate cultures and influencing teams and stakeholders. Anne was later joined by Annemarie Manning (Orange Capital Partners) and Luc Joosten (a.s.r. real assets investment partners) for an honest conversation on career growth.
The first day continued with a practical career workshop led by Victoria Hill (PROMIND Coaching), challenging participants to reflect on two important questions: what do you actually want and how do you get there? Participants explored how to define their career ambitions with greater clarity, increase their visibility, build their networks and engage intentionally with key stakeholders. Working in small groups, they put this into practice by developing their own ambition statements and identifying concrete actions to take forward.
After a full day of learning, the cohort came together for a group dinner, providing another opportunity to build connections and continue conversations in a more informal setting.
On day two, communication and relationship-building skills took centre stage. Andrea led a workshop on speaking with impact as an expert panellist, including a mock panel where participants could put their learning into practice. Nioki Doggett (M&G Real Estate) then took participants through the journey of building long-term investor relationships, from the initial pitch to lasting partnerships and navigating cultural differences.
Jeroen van der Schenk (disc-over Group) closed the learning programme with an interactive DISC workshop, encouraging participants to reflect on different communication and decision-making styles and how adapting to these differences can strengthen leadership, collaboration and professional relationships.
Interested in joining the next cohort? Make sure to get notified about INREV ASPIRE 2027.