Early last week, Hubble Bisbee’s Karen Hubble Bisbee, Keisha McClain and Alisa Goldsmith traveled to Chicago for the 2026 Christie’s International Real Estate Masters Circle & Agents Summit, a gathering that brought together leading real estate professionals from across the Christie’s International Real Estate network for two days of education, connection and conversation about the future of luxury real estate.
Held September 14–15 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, the event combined the invitation-only Masters Circle Summit with the broader Agents Summit, creating opportunities for professionals from across the network to exchange ideas, strengthen referral relationships and explore new ways to serve buyers and sellers in an increasingly connected luxury market.
For Karen, Keisha and Alisa, the conference was also an opportunity to connect with fellow members of a network that reaches well beyond Maryland. All three, along with Lynn Peaper, were named to the Christie’s International Real Estate 2026 Masters Circle, an annual designation recognizing top-performing luxury specialists within the global network.
What Is the Masters Circle & Agents Summit?
Christie’s International Real Estate is an invitation-only network of leading luxury real estate brokerages and professionals spanning markets around the world. Beyond the recognizable name, an important part of the network is the ability for affiliated agents to share market knowledge, connect buyers and sellers across regions and collaborate on extraordinary properties.
The Masters Circle is a particularly selective group within that network. Members are recognized for achievement in luxury sales, significant transactions and listings, client service and professional standards. For the 2026 class, more than 500 professionals collectively represented more than $14 billion in annual real estate sales. Members also have access to dedicated networking resources, enhanced property marketing, professional-development events and a private platform for sharing properties with other Masters Circle agents worldwide. Gatherings such as the annual Summit are not simply an awards event or an industry conference. They are an opportunity to turn a global affiliation into working relationships.
A Closer Look at Luxury in Real Estate and Beyond
The Masters Circle portion of this year’s event began with something rather fitting for a Christie’s gathering: an exploration of design and collecting.
Attendees visited the Mart Showhouse Designer Experience before returning to the Four Seasons for programming that included sessions such as “Developing a Collector’s Eye: Unlocking Hidden Value.” The afternoon continued with tours of Chicago properties before the Masters Circle attendees joined fellow agents for the conference welcome reception.
That combination of real estate, design, art and collecting is an important distinction of the Christie’s International Real Estate network. Its connection to the Christie’s auction house brings the worlds of exceptional property, art, design and luxury goods together in ways that can be particularly relevant when representing distinctive homes and the people who own them.
For our clients, there is a practical benefit to that broader perspective. Successfully representing an exceptional property is often about understanding more than bedrooms, baths and square footage. Architecture, provenance, art, interior design, landscape, collections and lifestyle can all be part of the story and understanding how those elements contribute to value is especially important at the upper end of the market.
Technology Is Changing Real Estate. Relationships Still Matter.
Not surprisingly, artificial intelligence was one of the major topics running through this year’s programming.
The Masters Circle Summit included an “AI Visibility Audit” with Mark Neuterman, and the broader Agents Summit also explored marketing, storytelling and how technology is changing the way consumers discover and evaluate real estate professionals.
But one of the more interesting counterpoints to all the technology was the conference’s continued emphasis on human connection.
Digital transformation and marketing executive Swan Sit and Colin Cloud, whose work combined psychology, behavioral profiling and performance, both led presentations around understanding people and communication, rather than technology for technology’s sake.
That is an especially useful takeaway for real estate. Technology may change how people search for homes, market properties and consume information, but buying or selling an important home remains an intensely personal decision. The tools will continue to evolve; judgment, communication and trust remain human and personal.
The Strength of a Global Network
Another major focus of the Agents Summit was the network itself. The September 15 program included conversations with Christie’s International Real Estate President Gavin Swartzman, @properties Co-CEO Thad Wong and Compass CEO Robert Reffkin, along with sessions focused specifically on “The Christie’s International Real Estate Advantage: Leveraging Brand and the Network.”
That network has very tangible value in a market such as Maryland. A buyer relocating to Baltimore or Baltimore County may be arriving from New York, California, Florida or overseas. A longtime Maryland homeowner may be selling here and purchasing somewhere entirely different. An exceptional listing may require exposure to buyers well beyond the immediate region.
Having personal relationships with accomplished agents in other markets can make those transitions more seamless and give distinctive properties an additional avenue for exposure. Christie’s International Real Estate focused on networking as one of the central purposes of this year's Summit. The value of the global network is the people within it who know one another, exchange information and can pick up the phone when a client needs help somewhere else.
Bringing the Experience Back to Maryland
For Karen, Keisha and Alisa, attending the 2026 Summit meant time spent alongside other leading professionals discussing how real estate is changing in areas such as technology, market strategy, client community, economic and industry trends, design, collecting and the growing importance of relationships across markets.
For Hubble Bisbee Christie’s International Real Estate, those conversations strengthen something we have always believed matters: combining deep knowledge of the Baltimore and Maryland market with resources, relationships and perspectives that extend far beyond it.
Regardless of whether we are marketing a distinctive Maryland estate, helping a client relocate across the country or introducing a buyer to our region, being part of the Christie’s International Real Estate network gives our clients access to more than a name. It gives them access to people. After a few very full days in Chicago, Karen, Keisha and Alisa returned to Maryland with fresh ideas, new perspectives and stronger connections across the Christie’s International Real Estate network. We’re excited to put those ideas and relationships into practice in ways that directly benefit our clients and, most of all, we’re grateful for the opportunity to keep learning, connecting and finding new ways to serve our clients at the highest level.
