00:08I'm Diego Sanchez, president of HousingWire, and we're thrilled to be the exclusive media sponsor
00:15for ICE Experience 2026, which actually kicks off in just a few short days on Monday, March 16th.
00:23Our digital news desk will be set up right on the exhibition floor,
00:27where our newsroom and content studio will be recording interviews for three days straight.
00:33But right now, I'm sitting down with the president of ICE Mortgage Technology, Bob Hart.
00:38Bob, so great to chat with you today.
00:40Good to see you, too. Thanks, Diego.
00:42So we're less than a week away from experience, and that's an event that you've been a part of for
00:49many years.
00:50But now you're leading the company. What are your aspirations for the event this year?
00:56Yeah, actually, I did the math the other day. I think this is either year 14 or 15 going to
01:01experience.
01:02So tallying up the amount of time I've spent in Vegas is perplexing.
01:07Yeah, I think first and foremost, I think the key is making sure that our customers,
01:14as it relates to the presentations, the content, have tangible things that they can take home,
01:20things that they can leverage, get a better understanding on how to be more efficient,
01:26how to take advantage of new technology, test a lot of different products or features that we're releasing
01:32and see how it fits into their paradigm.
01:35And so I think the key thing is making sure that the things that we've been working on for the
01:39last three months,
01:40six months, last year are actually getting in their hands and are things that they see value in right out
01:46of the gate.
01:48Go ahead.
01:49No, I was just going to say, at the event, you have a fireside chat with Bob Brokesmith,
01:57the CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
02:01Can you tease anything about what you and Bob will be discussing?
02:05Sure.
02:07What I would say is that Bob is a unique individual in that he's been a part of mortgage for
02:13a number of years
02:14and a number of different seats.
02:16And so a lot of the things that we're looking at, number one, is going to be the state of
02:20the market.
02:20You know, the market today, it's changed obviously dramatically in the last two weeks.
02:24What are the things that are top of mind for him now, given some of the things that are going
02:29on
02:29as it relates to the Middle East, rates, jobs report, inflation?
02:35How does that change where his focus is week to week, day to day?
02:39And then the other thing that I think is very topical right now is AI.
02:43You know, AI has in some ways taken on a life of its own.
02:47We live in a very fast-paced media environment in society.
02:52And so you're getting dribs and drabs of what different people are doing, what people are claiming.
02:57And I think Bob has an interesting view thinking about AI as it relates to being in the mortgage market
03:0210 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, what other types of things has he seen?
03:06And how does he think about it going forward as it relates to AI and the mortgage industry?
03:11So I think those are going to be two key areas as well as some others that we'll focus on.
03:15And beyond that fireside chat, you've really got a jam-packed agenda of sessions and networking.
03:22What parts of the agenda are you most excited about personally?
03:27I think there's three.
03:29So one is our CTR, Mayor Capone, is going to be interviewing members of Anthropic and Google.
03:35And so I think now you're getting real experts around what I would call scalable, large enterprise AI,
03:42what they're hearing, what they're seeing.
03:44And I think those are very important.
03:46And then second one is our chief security officer, Steve Pugh,
03:51is going to be meeting with an FBI strategist around security.
03:55And I think security sometimes goes as a little bit of the unsung hero until it absolutely matters.
04:01And I think we see at different points in this industry in particular where someone wasn't paying as close attention
04:08to security
04:09and you have an issue and those end up being headlines.
04:11So I think Steve's really going to unpack, you know, what are the things the FBI is looking at?
04:16What are the ways to prepare?
04:17And what are the things ICE is doing to protect our customers?
04:19So I'm very interested in that.
04:20And then one of the most fun, I would call it, events within the event is the Women's Networking Luncheon,
04:27Women Executive Networking Luncheon.
04:29And so we're going to have a member of our team, Lindsay Pfeiffer, interview a successful female executive
04:36that came out of the armed forces and what she did to grow and build her career.
04:39And that's, frankly, one of the most attended events of the entire conference.
04:43I go every year.
04:44I find it incredibly valuable.
04:46And our whole team actually comes out for that one.
04:49ICE always does major product announcements at Experience.
04:54I'm sure you don't want to spoil it, but is there anything you can preview for our audience?
04:59Yeah.
05:00What I would say is we are absolutely going to announce some new products and some new features.
05:06Yeah, obviously, there's a lot of momentum around AI.
05:11And so I think you're going to see a lot of exciting new approaches in how we're thinking about AI
05:17as it relates to our originators and our servicers.
05:20And I think it's not just the originators and the servicer component.
05:23It's also the consumers that are interacting with those platforms.
05:27And so we're looking really at how do we create more efficiency across the entire ecosystem from origination to servicing
05:35and everything in between.
05:36And so I think you'll see some exciting launches there.
05:40And I think you'll also see some starting points of other things that will be coming later on this year.
05:45So, yeah, we're incredibly excited to finally be able to reveal some of the stuff that we've been working on
05:49behind the scenes for the last three to six months.
05:51So, yeah, there will be a big announcement, several, hopefully, that you guys will get to see.
05:56So, in three questions, AI has now come up twice.
06:01Is that going to be a little bit of a theme of the overall event and what you're thinking about
06:05and working on?
06:07Well, I think you'll have to wait and see for the main stage.
06:11But, yeah, certainly we are going to be talking about some of the investments that we've made.
06:15I would call them more soft announcements, things like what we've done with MSP to modernize the workflow and the
06:24screens themselves.
06:25But I also think that you're going to hear a fair amount about AI and how we think about it,
06:29where we're looking to deploy it, and the efficiencies that we're expecting from it.
06:34Amazing.
06:34And so, for anyone that's still on the fence for this event, which is just a couple days away, as
06:41we just talked about, what's your pitch for why they need to be at the Wynn in Las Vegas starting
06:47this coming Monday?
06:49Yeah, well, I mean, it's called experience for a reason.
06:51We really try to curate the right conference for our customers and our partners.
06:57And so, you know, one of the things about it that I find interesting is that everyone's basically in one
07:02section of a hotel.
07:05There's not suite meetings.
07:06There's not people racing out to go have a meeting, you know, two blocks away or a mile away.
07:11Everyone's concentrated right there.
07:12And I think what it brings is it allows us to have meaningful conversations around what are people focused on?
07:18What do people need?
07:20What's the state of the industry?
07:21You can do that with peers.
07:22You can do that with leadership.
07:23You can do that with product people, engineering people.
07:25And so I think if you're somebody who's looking to get that information, if you're somebody that's looking to have
07:31conversations to understand what you can do in this market, what are the expectations for the market going forward?
07:37How do you prepare?
07:38How do you think about things?
07:39This is a very, I think, a thought-provoking conference for that purpose.
07:43So if you're somebody, again, there's a myriad of conferences throughout this industry.
07:47It feels like there's one every week.
07:48If you're looking, though, to have what I would call a larger view, I think this is the one to
07:54go to.
07:55And if you're a customer of ours, we go out of our way to really try to make sure that
07:59we have one-on-one meetings as frequently as we can to get real-time feedback around what we showcase.
08:05What are the things that you want to understand more of?
08:08What are the things that you want to follow up on?
08:10So we do a lot of one-on-one engagement with our customers there as well.
08:13And our partners do that as well.
08:15So our partners, you know, we really want our partners to feel showcased and make sure that they have a
08:20voice in their innovation and their journeys and what they're working on.
08:23So I think it is very unique from a lot of the other conferences that are out there.
08:27Yeah, I have to say Vegas can be tough in terms of conferences.
08:30They can be really spread out, and people can kind of disappear into the city, and there's not a lot
08:35of networking involved.
08:36But I've been to a couple of experiences so far, and it's not like that at all.
08:42You really do manage to keep people in one location, networking, doing deals together, and that's really impressive, especially when
08:51you've got, you know, several thousand people in attendance.
08:54Yeah, so this year we'll have 3,000 people.
08:57I think there's 600, 600-plus individual logos represented at the customer level and about 200 partners.
09:03And, yeah, to your point, I mean, every year our marketing team does a fantastic job of curating it the
09:09right way, making sure everything's within close proximity.
09:13And, yeah, the goal is to keep everyone together at all times so they can have those networking opportunities and
09:18conversations.
09:20Well, Bob, it's so great to catch up with you this morning.
09:23I hope we have a chance to have a longer, more in-depth conversation sometime in the future.
09:28Absolutely.
09:29Thanks, Diego.
09:30Appreciate it.
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