Chris Sonne, a regular contributor to MSM and the Self-Storage Almanac, looks at key data impacting the self-storage industry and reviews investor surveys that provide insight into the state of the industry.

The world of storage has become much more polished, particularly since institutional capital has driven sophistication to meet technology in our industry. There are so many more tools at our disposal. It is enhanced by Super Intelligence, but that is not the real story. The act is that you can use these tools to drive success in self storage from site selection to disposition…and all steps in between.

Join RK for this interactive discussion and let’s talk about the many tools that are at our disposal and how data can drive our business like a Waymo on steroids! Bring your best story about data and share it with the group! Let’s have some fun and laugh and learn.

At 19, Wayde Elliott was told he had “no chance” of getting into dental school. He went on to practice dentistry for 20 years and built a successful practice. Along the way, one of his patients, a self-storage developer, introduced him to the industry. Then a career-ending injury took his income from $30,000 a month to zero overnight and pushed him into self-storage full time.

In this keynote, Wayde walks through the deals behind 11 projects and more than $92 million in development. There’s a first project that hit every obstacle a jurisdiction could throw at it, and a lumber yard nobody wanted that became his biggest win. There are deals he walked away from, and a Porterville relocation where every single tenant followed StoreIT to a new facility. Each story is tied to one simple framework, the belief cycle, which shows how what we believe drives the decisions we make and the results we get.

A conversation about big box condos, large storage units that are individually owned rather than rented. How does it work—and is it worth it?

A self-storage facility's performance used to only depend on location, unit mix, and occupancy. Today, it also depends on the technology behind it. The management tech stack, including AI call answering, online rentals, revenue management, smart access, and remote operations, now shapes how much a facility earns, what it costs to run, and ultimately what it's worth. The tech stack has become a fundamental part of the asset. But different asset types require different tools.

In this session, White Label Storage CEO Peter Smyth shares front-line lessons from testing and running technology across a diverse portfolio of managed facilities. Attendees will leave with a simple way to measure the return on any management tool, a framework for building the right tech mix for their facilities, and practical guidance on whether to self-manage with today's technology or partner with a management company, including how to judge whether a manager's tech stack will truly drive results.

Aggressive or conservative on street rates? Budget for occupancy or revenue? Can AI build a better budget than an experienced operator? Two third-party management operators trade perspectives on the questions that shape every self-storage budget, sharing how they each build, track and adjust their plans. Expect lively conversation, real examples, and a candid look at where AI is helping today and where judgment still wins. You'll walk away with fresh ideas to make your 2027 budget work harder for you.