Welcome to Vendor Alley

WTF? The new lounge/euro vibe of the lobby bar at the Wardman Park sucks. It reminded me of the SNL sketch of “The Schoeners” with their weird furniture. The seats are very uncomfortable and, to be honest, the layout makes it almost impossible to cruise the area and stop for a quick chat. Patrons I talked to kept sliding off the plastic cushions that were velcroed on to the seat backs, not cool.

While I did like the new placement of the longer bar the seating area was just plain a disaster area.

Calling all vendors! Calling all vendors!!

New product? After-party location? Inside tip? Shameless plug?

If you got something to announce send it us and we’ll will post it.

Vendor.Alley@gmail.com

Let’s make this the “BEST NAR EVER!!”

We’re here covering all the sites and sounds of thousands of RE/MAX agents decending upon Las Vegas. It’s a big show so check here for regular updates.

Brad has put together another great show and huge networking op for everyone in the industry. One of my favorite sessions was the “Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 - Bull vs. Bear”

Check out the video here.

It’s worth watching although they paint a pretty bleak picture of the market. My favorite panelist on the session was a guy I call “Professor Doom” , real name Professor Nouriel Roubini from New York University.

“Professor Doom”

After listening to this guy you might want to go home and hug your kids.

Vegas Baby! Only 5 days left. Is your liver ready????

We land in Vegas on Monday so that’s when all the fun begins.

Vendor Alley will be giving all the sights, sounds, and smells that is NAR EXPO 2007.

What big announcements will be made? I know one, but I can’t tell you now! You’ll have to wait until Monday (heehee). Any big deals? Anyone getting fired or hired? Are ______ and ________ still a couple?

Vendor Alley will be your resource to find out what’s what at the show. If you have any news to share please feel free to post or email us at vendor.alley@gmail.com.

And remember the first rule of trade shows… Never go big on the first night!

Got here Tuesday night. Downtown Seattle, nice hotel…old school. The first thing I want to report is that I was “cut-off” at the lobby bar. First time this has ever happen to me. The waitress comes over puts down my drink and tells me that per their policy this will have to be my last drink. I asked her why, she told me that it was my Xth (actual number withheld to protect the author) Tanqueray and tonic.

Dumbfounded and still feeling parched, we left for a friendlier atmosphere.

We just wanted to send another plug out there for this upcomming conference, CMLS. It’s being hosted in Seattle this year by NWMLS, October 10-12. Check out this website for details. Always a great time where vendors and treated like the business partners instead of being banned like lepers.

First off, kudos to Brad for putting together another great show. Yeah, I know Connect can be full of fringe companies and topics but you gotta love the amount of respect Brad gives these entrepreneurs. Coming from a guy who started his business in a garage I can appreciate it.

You also gotta love the city of San Francisco. The restaurants, the bars, the bums, the people, the everything. I grew up in the Mission District on 21st Street and it always feels like coming home when I drive in to the city.

The Palace Hotel, decent. The ballroom has a great vibe but the service wasn’t the greatest. The lobby bar, with its picture of the “The Pied Piper”, has a great vibe too, it was a shame someone reserved half the bar seats one night- the place is small enough already! Rooms were small but nice. Wish they had more private meeting space just too sit down. It was hard to sit down with someone without being in the open and everyone saying hi or waving.

But all the heavies were there. I caught Errol Samuelson, President of Realtor.com, and Move’s skunk works developer Curt Beardsley and the House of Shields one night. (Gotta love House of Shields, a vendor’s dream, a bar within stumbling distance when the lobby bar closes) Alan Dalton was nowhere to be seen and assumed to be in his basement with his soldering gun building the new super secret weapon for MOVE.

The Clareity boys were in full force. Someone told me that they all got black matching tailored suits from a clothing story next door to The Palace- So my nickname for Gregg (Mr. Brown), Troy (Mr. White) and Kevin (Mr. Pink) is going to be The New Reservoir Dogs.

I did see Marty Frame and John Hensley from FRNRES, along with Larry “fingers” Ross, but oddly nobody from FNRES’ MLS group. Word is that management scheduled a sales training session the same days as the conference. Must be contagious for MLS vendors because Wurzer from FBS was busy “…working on stuff our clients need”. Way to go Mike!

Jim Secord from MostHome showed up, hope he didn’t use his personal credit card to get there. And of course all the heavies from Dominion Enterprises, Andy Woolley (eN), Bob Morse (eN), Michael Hayes (eN), Jamie Clymer (Homes.com) and Dave Meyer (eN). What a bar bill!

Speaking of bar bills, for those of you who made it to the eNeighborhoods Inman After Party at Black Magic Voodoo Lounge you know what I mean when I say “OFFFF DA HOOOK!” Michael was slinging drinks like Tom Cruise in Cocktails, only without the spinning bottles and weird grin. Later even Andy “Elephant Hunter” Woolley got it to the act, mixing one of the best Tanqueray and Tonics in the city. Way to grab the right bottle Andy!

The bar was even graced by Inman’s very own Alice Myerhoff. Alice is the Sales Director for Inman News and sells advertising and conference sponsorships. Even more lovely ladies showed up as the RE/MAX International’s very own Fatima and Amy came and showed us all how RE/MAX rolls.

Plus I gotta give a big shout out to Brad Tertell from MLSNI, he loaded the jukebox with serious coin and picked out an awesome mix of tunes for the evening- Brad you might have a career as DJ if this MLSNI thing doesn’t work out!

Most of the other stories I can’t mention or don’t remember.

Even with all this we did manage to get some work done, that’s the great thing about Inman Connect, just mix and stir.

So I’m taking the lead from Joel Burslem of Inman and signed up for a Twitter account. According to Joel…

“Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to answer the question “What are you doing?” online in 140 characters or less.

Over the last few months it has been adopted by thousands of users worldwide to let their friends know what they are up to. Check out Twittervision to see just some of the activity that is happening on the network right now.

Twitter is also a great way for you to keep in touch with colleagues, business contacts and friends at a conference like Connect.

Using your mobile phone you can SMS (text message) your location (iPhone users can use the fantastic application PocketTweets), so people can locate you in the Palace. Using Twitter, you can narrowcast your location to followers and friends so they will always be able to find you.”

So if you want to follow us at Inman Connect Conference check out our profile VendorAlley and add us a friend.

Of course we might not let you know to all the places we’ll be going….

Look for live coverage next week at the Inman Conference in San Francisco. We will be there to give the sights, the smells, and the schmooze that is Inman Connect.