Attention your real estate tech conference has been hacked. RealTech SF 2013

I got a call from Mark Thomas, CEO of Reesio, a new startup focused on the transaction management space. “I would like Vendor Alley to cover my real estate conference, if you do a write up I’ll give you a free pass to the show.” At first I was bit surprised he wasn’t asking me to exhibit (Cloud CMA). But, Mark didn’t know about Cloud CMA, he was just reaching out to real estate technology blogs for coverage. After learning more I told Mark that I also ran a real estate software company and thought it would be a good idea to exhibit. “Cool!” was his reply.

I was intrigued. Why would a vendor would host a conference? Sure many real estate vendors host a seminars, like the Max Pigman show at Realtor.com, but a conference with other vendors, speakers, the whole she-bang? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.

What Mark came to realize is that instead of coughing up a big check to Inman or someone else to become the “platinum sponsor”, if he put on the show himself, he could in effect control the event and become the platinum sponsor himself. In developer parlance, he “hacked” the whole notion of how and why you put on a real estate conference. Crazy? Crazy like a fox!

I’m told they sold 300 tickets, I think the average I heard was above $100 each. He had some great speakers including Paul Levine, COO of Trulia, Drew Uher of Homelight, and a “Start-Up Alley” with over 20 different new startups in the real estate tech space: Storefront, Cozy, Wigwamm, iManagerRent, GoREFI, just to name a few. Where the hell did they find these companies? I hadn’t heard of over half them. And some of them were super impressive!

Did I sell a lot of Cloud CMA? Not really. But I was super impressed by Mark and how he almost singlely handily put on a quality conference. And I was inspired by talking to some fresh new entreprenuers in the space.

Mark’s DIY work ethic was incredible and if he can bring that type of energy to Ressio, they might just have a shot.