½ Day Event: Design + Customer Experience

Sara Maffey is the Head of Industry Relations at Local Logic, a location intelligence company, where she combines her passions for real estate development and placemaking with data analytics and PropTech. She is responsible for building Local Logic’s brand and driving its growth across the U.S. and Canada. Sara has deep experience throughout the built environment lifecycle. She previously served as the Managing Director of Placemaking and board member at commercial real estate services and advisory firm Transwestern, where she led the repositioning of major commercial assets. Her career also includes running her own economic development consulting firm, Edgewood Strategies, and stints with real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and a Presidential Management Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Obama Administration. Sara holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Yale University and a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Design and Architecture from New York University.

Rhea Vaflor, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C, NCIDQ is an Associate Principal at Hickok Cole and the Director of Hickok Cole Lifestyle, the firm’s award-winning boutique interiors studio focused on crafting compelling residential, hospitality and retail environments. Rhea earned her Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design and Master of International Development at The George Washington University. Rhea received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, International Relations and Spanish at Virginia Wesleyan College, graduating magna cum laude and launched a career in international affairs prior to formally pursuing her design interests. During her academic tenure, Rhea was named both Outstanding Interior Design Graduate Student of the Year and Outstanding Political Science Student of the Year. She is an active member of several professional organizations, including the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), the DC Real Estate Group, and the DCBIA DLD. Passionate about women’s leadership, education, and civic activities, she is the Vice Chair for the Urban Land Institute Women’s Leadership Steering Committee, where she created the WLI Community Engagement committee and co-founded a mentoring program for high school students at the Maya Angelou Charter School. In addition to her volunteer work with local service groups including Open Table, a nonprofit serving the homeless population, Rhea previously served as the community advisory representative for seven years on the District of Columbia Charter School Board Parent and Alumni Leadership Council. Rhea’s work has been featured in a variety of local, national, and industry publications and organizations including, ArchitectureDC, the Washington Post, Design Milk, and the Washington Business Journal, NAIOP DC|MD, Multi-Housing News, and Delta Associates.

Meghna Krishna Bondili is the Founder of Butterfly Voyage, which brings fresh perspectives to real estate development marketing. Butterfly Voyage works with real estate developers, new developments, placemaking endeavors, and proptech companies as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to build, implement, and execute marketing & branding strategy as an extension of the leadership team. Meg’s extensive background in new development design, marketing, brand strategy, and sales guiding ultra-luxury developments from inception to completion brings top-tier marketing experience and expertise to real estate developers & new developments across the United States.

Ashley is a highly competent Marketing, Growth & Sales Executive with senior-level experience in corporate strategic communications, public relations, branding, marketing, events, client programming and social media management. Her areas of expertise include the development of strategic partnerships and industry awareness, annual marketing & business plans, execution of digital marketing and product/service campaigns, new product launches, project management, social media analysis, and financial budget management.  

Bobby Bryant is the Founder + CEO of Ask DOSS which is developing a Voice-Activated Intelligent Assistant built into a proprietary search and transactional platform that empower consumers and realtors to ask any question about any property in the world to get accurate, easy, and instant answers 24/7. He has been in real estate for 20 years where he began his journey in the mortgage business. In 2008, he took one year off to relentlessly study and understand the collective real estate industry, what happened, and what’s to come. That started his journey which resulted in becoming the founder of DOSS.

Blair Costello is a lead designer specializing in indoor environments at Vera Iconica Architecture. With over ten years of project management experience from New York to Jackson Hole, Blair has led nationally recognized projects such as the Vera Iconica Wellness Kitchen™ and luxury residential and commercial projects. She believes in healing through nature, behavior and lifestyle, which has led to her specialization in indoor environments and materials that enhance wellbeing.

For more than 20 years, Betsy Scott has excelled at helping people think differently by taking complex ideas and concepts, analyzing them from the perspective of others, and translating the results into action. If you want to meet people bringing innovation to the housing industry, or know what’s new, she’s your ticket. A natural collaborator with a great social sense, she connects the dots between smart people, forward-thinking companies and big ideas. With Betsy in your corner, everyone wins. That’s why she helms the Housing Innovation Alliance, a passion she’s pursued since 2008 with founding partner IBACOS and now as the Executive Director, Program + Engagement of an independent entity focused on bringing business and technical innovation to housing. Her responsibilities for strategic planning, member and sponsor engagement, and programming speak to her fierce attention to detail, creative mind, and ability to make complex subjects tangible, relevant and actionable.  She adds depth to ideas, finds and shares new opportunities, and conveys greater understanding to business issues. Armed with a degree in Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh, Betsy cut her teeth in the agency world and as an independent B2B and B2C marketing consultant before joining IBACOS in 2006. In her off-time, she’s either feeding her farm-to-table foodie jones, working on her century-old house, or spending time with her husband and fur children, Watson and Finnegan, at one of Pittsburgh’s many parks and rivers.

Natalie serves as Communications and Membership manager, developing strategies to manage and deliver digital content, ensuring that our community receives the most relevant, engaging, and insightful information. A systems thinker with a background in the arts, she’s always searching for unique ways to connect the dots and craft a digestible story –that emphasizes the WHY. After teaching fine art and art history at Pittsburgh museums + continuing ed programs, Natalie entered the housing industry via AIA Pittsburgh where she managed membership and communications and assisted in event planning. Natalie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Penn State University. In her “free time” she can be found kayaking, gardening, or making art with her husband and three mighty little girls. Moto: Execution matters as much as inspiration #Buzzword I’m crossing out of my vocab: “Deep dive!”