The NAEA National London Forum took place yesterday at the Lancaster Hotel.

The pre-event promotion had sent a message that it is not necessary to be a member of the NAEA in order to attend and of the 400+ delegates that registered a significant proportion were non-members.

NAEA President, Martyn Baum, bathed in spectacular red-hued lighting, welcomed the audience and introduced the keynote address by a senior government minister.

This turned out to be a video message from housing minister Brandon Lewis who, rather predictably, drew heavily on the apparent successes and promises of government housing policy and then fulsomely praised the estate agency industry for providing ‘ a valuable and much loved’ service’ and urged everyone to ‘continue the good work’.

Yes, your correspondent was slightly taken aback by the ‘much loved’ bit but guess we should be grateful for it.

From this rather upbeat message we plunged into the dark world of money laundering and serious crime as Nigel Kirby, deputy director of the National Crime Agency gave a rather scary presentation on the dire consequences of failure to follow the anti-money laundering rules.

Mention was made of the now infamous Channel 5 documentary from last summer that showed agents being ‘set up’ by a fake Russian minister.

A question as to how many in the room were aware of SARs – Suspicious Activity Reports – drew a worrying lack of response given that two years imprisonment may await an agent who fails to follow procedures. Kirby would not be drawn on whether the NCA had had any ‘chats’ with the agents shown in the documentary.

On a lighter note, his presentation broke every record in the book for the use of acronyms. On just one slide your correspondent noted ILO, SAR, SCPO, RIPA and NCA. Enough!

Peter Walker of Security Dialog, a firm that manages the risks of online security breaches then painted a really concerning picture of just what can happen to any business in the event of cyber attack, which can take many forms – from the theft of data to the complete closure of websites and systems, often linked to blackmail demands. The consequences of large scale data theft are very well documented.

The breach of security at TalkTalk last year has so far cost them $96million and rising. But Peter stressed it is not just large companies that are targeted. A staggering 74% of small/medium businesses will have been hacked – but many don’t even know it has happened. And of those that do very few want to make it public. The potential for financial losses and loss of reputation are immense.

In an absorbing presentation, Tony Anderson, a past director of sales and marketing at easyJet, gave a fascinating, and at times very amusing, insight into the launch and development of the airline that is now 20 years old.

In taking on the giants of the industry, such as British Airways, the fledgling airline adopted some very unconventional marketing ploys that won them huge amounts of publicity and set them on a trajectory to become one of the most successful carriers in the business. Attempting to put an enormous banner saying ‘Beware of thieves operating at this airport’ over the BA check in desk at Aberdeen airport was one of their genius campaigns.

The sign never went up but the papers gave it enormous coverage – for free. Easyjet really was a market disruptor and Anderson identified several key factors in its rise. A charismatic and visionary leader ( in Sir Stelios), timing of entry into the market just as the consumer began to purchase over the phone and then the internet, a great product consistently delivered, and great pricing.

On the back of Easyjet grew many other easy brands, not all of which enjoyed similar success to the airline. But rather surprisingly no mention whatsoever was made of easyProperty and no one in the audience asked if Anderson has views on its potential.

Jeremy Tapp of Homeflow gave one of his classic high-powered performances taking us at some speed through strategies for ensuring that agents don’t end up as ‘piggy in the middle’ as the rise of the online agents continues.

Some agents will thrive as high value/high touch organisations having considerable customer contact in the traditional manner while others will go to the pure online model. But in order to compete, all agents need to make extensive use of intelligence gathered from customer behaviours online and tailor their offerings to maximize returns.

Knowing consumers’ needs in the digital age is a major challenge for all businesses, none more so than agency.

The lunch break gave everyone a chance to network and meet with the extensive group of suppliers in the exhibition hall and your correspondent found the choice of food on offer to be entirely satisfactory. The chips were exceptionally good and the cheesecake was a delight…

Post-lunch is always a bit of graveyard slot for speakers but if anyone was expecting to get away with a quiet doze in the shadows they would have been rudely awakened by what can only be described as a ‘ballistic’ session from motivational speaker Adrian Webster whose animated delivery veered between old-style shouty Alexi Sayle to full-on Gwyneth Paltrow tearful.

Your correspondent must confess to an allergic reaction to most motivational speakers but Webster certainly raised some laughs with his take on ‘TNT’s – the Tiny Noticeable Things that make all the difference when dealing with people.

A panel discussion of experts on Financial Crime highlighted the difficulties that agencies have in pinning down just who is behind serious money laundering. Through intricate webs of off-shore companies and multiple bank accounts, criminals are able to conceal their dealings.

And of course the likes of estate and letting agents are tasked with playing their part in recognising such activity. An impassioned statement from the floor by one delegate, who berated government for foisting money laundering rules on us while ignoring the blatant activities of individuals and company in dependencies such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands, drew considerable applause.

As one speaker said, on this ‘off-shore’ subject government has plenty of words but not a lot of action.

At this point it was time for the much-anticipated panel debate ‘Online vs High Street Agency’. Your correspondent was among those anticipating if not a full blown punch up then at least some fiery rhetoric and impassioned argument. After all, with Russell Quirk and Michael Bruce on one side, and Jan Hytch and Jonathan Hudson on the other, plus Martyn Baum as an impartial participant the sparks might be expected to fly.

Not a bit of it. The debate was a civilised and mild as a vicarage tea party. Everyone was frightfully nice to one another and except for a bit of light wrangling over just what is the average estate agency fee in the UK the participants could not have been more pleasant to one another.

Even the audience was in a placatory mood, for when asked if anyone thought online agents should not be part of the NAEA not a single hand was raised.

Is online going to take significant market share in the years to come? Well, Russell Quirk reckons that it will be 35% by 2020. Watch this space.

To round off the day Lucien Cook, the head of UK residential research at Savills, gave an excellent fact-packed presentation on property market trends – backed up by a plethora of graphs and icons that illustrated what has happened in the market from the time before the credit crunch to what is likely to happen in the next five years.

Between now and 2020 several factors will affect the market, prices and transaction volumes.

Interest rates are likely to rise and will cause a drag; mortgage regulation will act as a constraint; the requirement for higher deposits is a further constraint; London’s growth will drive prices in the provinces; areas away from the London hinterland, especially the North-East of the country, will need economic stimulus if their property markets are to prosper. Overall Savills predict a 17% rise in house prices by 2020.

This was a long day and a very packed programme and it was delivered with considerable skill by the NAEA team. No doubt the ARLA team will be looking to outdo their colleagues when their conference comes around later this year!