The last 24 hours has made for a very interesting dialog online about the various real estate conferences coming up in 2009. The conversation started with my first comment on Bloodhoundblog in response to Brian Brady’s post about Unchained (coming up in April). We went back and forth – and others jumped in. Not sure that dialog is over yet but it was thoughtful and spirited.
That really got me thinking about the conferences I would attend this year. Of course, REtechSouth is #1 on my list, but I’ll also be at Inman NYC and others. So, I wrote this post on my active rain blog, and the conversation continued over there with even more great thoughts and comments. I think it’s worth some specific comments here because I assume that if you are reading this that you are either coming to REtechSouth or giving it some consideration.
(btw, you get a free pass for a friend before Dec 31st)
We’re going to have what I call “the full conversation”. We’re putting forth panel discussions that have all the appropriate voices on the panel. This way, you don’t just get one point of view or a one company sales pitch. You get the whole dialog. You get more complete information.
During some of the spirited dialog yesterday and today, it’s been suggested that perhaps you can’t bring high value to the conversation if you have something to sell (vendors). I don’t agree with that AT ALL. Jeff Brown wrote a subsequent post on Bloodhound where he made this point:
Integrity says I must believe in products I’m paid to endorse. Getting paid to endorse products in which I believe is called, for lack of a better phrase, The American Way.
I think agents, brokers, vendors, priests, doctors, etc – everyone can add real value to the conversation at these events if they come with a spirit of giving & a genuine desire to share and help others. If they just came to sell me something, it just won’t work. And, it will be obvious to everyone that they are just there to sell. Integrity is always the filter. Any conference that’s built with true integrity – built with the attendees in mind – can be rock solid and effective with vendors and with sponsors. The “American Way” as Jeff Brown says.
But that doesn’t mean that all vendors have a one track mind & and a “sell, sell, sell” agenda. In fact, some of the vendors I’ve met have some of the best voices in the industry. Jeff Turner is perhaps the most engaging speaker that I’ve heard anywhere. No one can accuse Jeff of selling anything at a conference. In fact, unless you ask him you probably won’t ever here his company name (realestateshows). Rob Hahn from Onboard Informatics is another fantastic voice in the RE.net crowd. Same story – he’s never pushing for a sale.
REtechSouth is about getting the complete story – the complete set of available voices. So, “Bring your Voice” to REtechSouth 2009! Heck, bring your voice to this post and comment below.
Brian, will you be first?
January 15th, 2009 at 2:01 am
The speaker line up this year is just incredible, really wish I had not missed the BOGO offer, but your emails were languishing in my spam box
My friends will just have to believe me when I tell them they should pay up and come to the ATL this year.
And BTW, one of my favorite conversations last year was with a vendor, Mary McKnight gave me the motivation to do things differently this year!