Modern Building

WEBINARS AND EVENTS

The Latest in Commercial Real Estate Trends and Tech

All Events

View our on-demand webinars & events below.

Cohesion’s CEO, Thru Shivakumar, and Justin Daab, Chief Product Officer, discuss the power of leveraging data for elevating building health and sustainability initiatives through autonomous building technology.

Autonomous technology provides more than conveniences for tenants. Smart buildings are the foundational building blocks of smart cities, which are the path to larger health and sustainability initiatives. Reducing emissions is only the beginning; energy consumption can be further optimized through adaptive spaces powered by data and autonomous technology.

In this webinar, they discuss how integrated platforms empower both macro and microscopic sustainability initiatives, create healthier buildings, and a more engaging human experience.

This webinar addresses how economic incentives are aligning to incentivize healthier, greener buildings, how an integrated platform can support sustainability initiatives and create healthier spaces, and how leveraging data and automation can simultaneously optimize energy consumption and create a more engaging experience through adaptive spaces.

Thru Shivakumar states, " o There are 3 fundamental problems that are colliding right now in the market. First is that because of the pandemic, healthy buildings have become a focus for building occupants – this is specifically related to the air they breathe and the surfaces they touch. 2nd is that workplaces need to be flexible to accommodate a hybrid workforce. In a recent study done by PWC, 87% of companies intend to return to the physical office – but in a more hybrid way. That means that buildings will be constantly challenged by the changing needs of the tenants and employees. And finally the necessity for buildings to play their part in climate change is now. Buildings are Phase 1 of the Climate Accord and need to make concerted efforts to reduce their carbon footprint."

To view the full webinar, visit our YouTube page.

Data for an Engaging, Healthy, and Green Building

August 12, 2021

Cohesion's Director of Sales, Taylor Marsh, and Transwestern's Vice President/Director of Operations, Jake Smith, discuss the future of tenant experience including the new expanse of touchless capabilities and how proptech enables a more productive and efficient workplace.

The rising adoption of IoT-enabled building management systems and the modern health and safety protocols in the aftermath of COVID-19 have given rise to a new demand for the implementation of more touchless technology to make buildings healthier. Smart, integrated platforms are uniquely suited to create a dynamic and adaptable workplace through tenant experience technology that improves health and safety, and provides a more personal, tenant-first experience.

This webinar looks at the world of touchless tools available to create a productive and healthy building, and the power of using an integrated platform to develop the best-in-class tenant experience.

This webinar will teach you how an integrated platform deepens the value proposition for tenants, new health and safety norms currently moderated by an IoT-enabled platform, and the future of tenant experience through the lens of autonomous building technology.

Visit our YouTube page to learn more: https://youtu.be/gWTlZlIwKz0

Say Hello to Tenant Experience 2.0

July 29, 2021

The Internet of Things is making a big impact on our ability to measure, manage, and control physical space. Whether it's sensors, switches, equipment, or other connected devices, the ability to integrate "things" allows data to flow instantaneously from one system to another. This session focuses on what an IoT strategy should include, why you need an IoT strategy, and how to get started.

Cohesion's CEO, Thru Shivakumar speaks on how her company has used IoT to help the commercial real estate industry.

Cohesion helps commercial buildings better integrate disparate systems into a smart building SaaS platform. It empowers real estate owners to maximize asset and portfolio value with all building systems, workflows, and people seamlessly connected in one solution. In addition, the vertically integrated platform improves health and wellness, experience, efficiency, and sustainability by leveraging the industry's most comprehensive data, enabling operators to enhance tenant experience, save money, and increase operational transparency.

CoreNet Global Hosts Cohesion's CEO on their IoT Strategy Panel

April 29, 2021

During Chicago Inno's annual Startups to Watch event, local Chicago startups spoke on their newest innovations and how they are positively impacting the city.

Cohesion is the only application that creates touchless access controls for elevators and mobile credentials, arms you with Indoor Air Quality monitoring tools, and streamlines daily operations tasks like work orders, mass communications, and visitor management. This platform is comprised of a unique combination of native features and powerful integrations with existing building systems. By breaking down system data silos and incorporating occupancy data, Cohesion brings building systems under a single pane of glass and unlocks the building's full potential.

Cohesion's platform addresses all its stakeholder's needs no matter how complex they may be. The flexibility the platform offers can provide solutions like no other while paving the way for a healthier, sustainable, and smarter building.

Chicago Inno Hosts Cohesion's CEO After Making 2020 Inno on Fire List

January 29, 2021

Cohesion’s CTO and Co-founder Nik Patel and Senior Product Manager Isaac Townsend discuss how to enable healthy and operationally efficient buildings powered by Cohesion’s digital twin.

Digital twin technology is central to an integrated platform. It consolidates comprehensive data across a portfolio to automate building processes, solve complex problems and optimize building operations.

In this webinar, we invited the audience to consider the impact a digital twin has on increasing asset value by connecting building systems, workflows, and people in one solution.

The webinar discusses what digital twins are, why real estate should leverage digital twins, and how AI is leveraged through digital twins to elevate your portfolio.

Visit our YouTube page to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJKf1xzT-Zo

The Digital Twin: Unlocking New Value in Commercial Real Estate

August 5, 2021

Cohesion's VP of Product Ren Wang and Data Scientist Tara Larrue unpack the benefits of good indoor air quality (IAQ) at the office and explore the future of managing IAQ through autonomous building technology.

Tenants care about clean air in the office, and the rise of IAQ monitoring technologies are only the beginning of an oncoming evolution around how we create cleaner spaces and manage building health and wellness. A healthy building not only gives tenants peace of mind but also has real impacts on human health and productivity in the workplace.

In this webinar, they explore the importance of indoor air quality as people return to work and examine how an autonomous building platform enables efficient and comprehensive management and monitoring of a building’s air quality.

This webinar goes over the importance of IAQ, how IAQ is currently managed and the shortcomings of disparate systems, and the future of IAQ through the lens of an integrated platform.

To watch the full webinar, visit https://youtu.be/7YX1sfAudoE.

Why Healthy Air Quality Matters at the Office

July 22, 2021

Technori is a group of entrepreneurs that host podcasts and pitch videos where followers (both accredited and not) can invest in startups for as little or as much as they want, via equity crowdfunding.

When COVID-19 put the office workers at home indefinitely, Thru Shivakumar thought her company would be dead in the water. However as the dust began to clear (working professionals and parents struggling to work from home), it’s evident offices are a needed space in the current work environment. What was an existential concern became a strength when it became clear how Cohesion could serve companies even better with a gradual shift back to safe office environments.

Cohesion empowers real estate owners to maximize asset and portfolio value with all building systems, workflows and people seamlessly connected in one intelligent building platform.

Thru joins the show to talk about the future of the workplace environment, how Cohesion uses IoT to make office systems more efficient, employees safer and more comfortable.

Cohesion Empowers the Commercial Real Estate Industry

April 1, 2021

Nexus is a newsletter and podcast for smart people applying smart building technology — hosted by James Dice. The Nexus podcast offers a chance to explore and learn with the brightest in our industry —together. James Dice, the host, is a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Episode 7 of Nexus is a conversation with Thru Shivakumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Cohesion, an intelligent building software platform.

Cohesion's smart building platform bundles into a single application for tenants, operators, and owners. Real estate owners can easily facilitate workstreams, manage employees through access control, and use data to understand how visitors use their spaces and plan for maximum usage. Tenants are empowered to use features like mobile keycards to easily access their buildings and smart elevators to go to their destination in a touchless manner. Operators can leverage Cohesion's Digital Twin technology to establish rules as parameters for regular operations that could help with maintenance planning and budgeting if any problems occur and use the platform's IAQ Optimization program to give tenants transparency their building health while optimizing indoor air quality.

The podcast discusses what makes a building intelligent and how deep system integrations help with that. It mentions the importance of digital twins, what they're used for, and the operating savings to be had by using them.

It covers some of the misalignment of incentives in real estate and highlights how Cohesion is making buildings smart with its IoT-enabled platform.

Cohesion CEO Speaks on What Makes a Building Smart

May 28, 2020

Nik Patel led a presentation at this year's Leading Entrepreneurs Conference.

Leading Entrepreneurs of the World is one of the most comprehensive entrepreneurial platforms and events in the world and features entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders presenting on cutting-edge topics and the latest industry developments.

Nik Patel spoke on the future of autonomous buildings and the impact it'll have on the commercial real estate industry. By combining data from beacons, card readers, personal devices, air quality sensors, occupancy sensors, HVAC devices, and energy monitors, buildings can contextualize this data to powerful building autonomy. This includes visibility into real-time analytics and insights, automated building controls, demand-driven, and self-optimizing building operations, and balancing healthy building efforts with lower energy consumption.

Watch the panel to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSTkNRrOM2g&list=PLdG6sjQ9ERntqNUWoleTG-LszcK4hcXJ5&index=64

About Cohesion
Founded in 2018, Cohesion helps commercial buildings better integrate disparate
systems into a smart building SaaS platform. It empowers real estate owners to maximize
asset and portfolio value with all building systems, workflows and people seamlessly
connected in one solution. The vertically integrated platform improves health and
wellness, experience, efficiency, and sustainability. Cohesion provides the industry’s most
comprehensive data, enabling operators to enhance tenant experience, save money,
and increase operational transparency. Cohesion is a spin-off venture of ESD, a leading
Chicago-based global engineering design firm at the forefront of next generation
building design. For more information, visit cohesionIB.com and follow @CohesionIB.

Accelerating the Transition to Smart Buildings

August 1, 2021

Startup Hustle is a podcast, web series and community for entrepreneurs. Driven to tell the real story of startups, entrepreneurs, wins, losses and a lot of stuff that happened in between. If you want to start, own, or build a business, then you're in the right place.

In this episode of Startup Hustle, Lauren Conaway and Thru Shivakumar, CEO and Co-founder of Cohesion talk about tripling your team during a pandemic.

Cohesion was founded in August 2018 when Co-Founder and CEO Thru Shivakumar launched Cohesion as a spin-off venture from ESD, a leading Chicago-based global engineering design firm. Cohesion delivered its smart building SaaS platform to a total of seven clients, representing 10 million square feet combined, within a year.

One of Cohesion’s first customers, 151 N. Franklin, was recognized by the Digie Awards at Realcomm 2019 as the “Most Intelligent Office Building.” Since then, Cohesion has grown to be trusted by real estate leaders including The John Buck Company, JLL, Transwestern, CBRE, and Riverside Investment & Development.

Cohesion was recognized in major publications, such as the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business, upon the announcement of $6.5 million raised in SEED funding in July of 2020 from major investors including Citadel’s Ken Griffin and GCM Grosvenor’s Michael Sacks.

Cohesion’s most significant product innovation to date grew from the COVID-19 era. In 2020, the company announced the launch of its innovative indoor quality program at 150 N. Riverside, a prominent Class A Tower in Chicago to enhance occupant health and wellness. The program is the first of its kind, and in May 2021, the fully automated program was able to address tenant air quality concerns by measuring pollutants in real time and autonomously mitigating issues. The program resulted in a 46% decrease in average volatile organic compound (VOC) levels and an 82% decrease in fluctuation of VOC levels. The robust building control platform gives commercial landlords the ability to ensure the cleanest air and provide occupants transparency via continuous monitoring that is displayed in the app to keep them informed as millions of office works prepare to return to work.

In 2021, Cohesion has been awarded the Best Application of IoT Technology for Buildings by Connected Real Estate and the winner of CoreNet Global’s Innovation Award for Property Management for its IAQ Program.

Over the past 12 months, Cohesion has grown its customer square footage over 3.25x and grown the team by over 6.5x. The company is an active member in the Chicago tech community and has been recognized by Built In Chicago’s Best Places to Work and the 2020 Inno on Fire list by Chicago Inno. Cohesion has built a collaborative, enthusiastic, and cohesive team of problem solvers and innovative thinkers.

The company is poised to disrupt the commercial real estate industry with green, healthy, and autonomous buildings and continues to look for people to join their growing team.

Visit their careers page to see their open positions: https://cohesionib.com/careers.

Cohesion CEO Triples a Team During a Pandemic

May 26, 2021

Chicago Innovation highlights successful tech startups in Chicago and how they have successfully pivoted for COVID by answering questions and taking Q&A from the audience.

Cohesion CEO and Co-Founder, Thru Shivakumar, speaks on the importance of never giving up and to always have the grit to move forward. Cohesion is a company that started only three years and it's already grown significantly. Not only because of the heavy work that went behind, but because of everyone's collaboration and positive attitude.

IT's because of that Cohesion is a one-of-a-kind platform that bridges the gap between siloed tenant-facing apps and legacy building engineering systems. Its single, smart building platform arms the commercial real estate industry with Indoor Air Quality monitoring tools, streamlines all building operations and creates touchless access controls for elevators and mobile credentials. Because Cohesion leverages the most comprehensive insights, they can empower forward-thinking owners and operators who want to increase asset value by delivering the best-in-class tenant experience in green, healthy, and operationally efficient buildings.

Cohesion CEO Panels in Chicago Innovation's Panel on Successful Tech Startups

March 18, 2021