CMLS 2011 – What a week!

It’s taking me a little longer to recover from CMLS last week. I think it mostly had to do with one of the best lobby bars I been to in recent blurry memory (open till 2AM!). You have all heard by now that is was the largest CMLS ever with over 500 people in attendance. Which is very impressive since it was a bit of the beaten path. Wes Wiggins had originally committed to hosting the conference prior to him taking the top spot at RMLS- Florida. Phil Tedesco is a class act and he and his team did an excellent job of putting together a great conference along with Sarah Carlton and the CMLS board of directors.

A few highlights:

I enjoyed the “What keeps me awake at night” segments. The lights dimmed, and a single spotlight shown upon the speaker. My favs were Curt Beardsley and Mark Lesswing. If anyone has video of either please forward to me so I can post. Just great stuff.

The send off of Peter Shuttleworth (who is retiring) was also fun and Peter is a good sport.

Congrats to Jim Harrison who was elected in to the CMLS Board of Directors.

I also enjoyed the videos shot of non-industry people who were asked questions like “What is an MLS?”

Brian Boero , of 1000watt Consulting gave a talk about implementing what he called an MLS “data socket”. This concept has been talked about before, but Brian put the idea in to focus.

The booth placement for vendors made for lively conversations and a few bumps as people made the gauntlet down “vendor alley”. Which brings me to my announcement of “Best Booth of CMLS 2011”. The honor goes to 10K Research. Great signage, marketing materials and spot on messaging made it my favorite. Great job to the 10K team!

I wasn’t too thrilled at the Old Tucson Studios “Hootenanny'”. After a 50 minutes bus ride you were treated to a park full of “killer clowns with chainsaws” sneaking up on you. But I digess…

The last session was also fun. Executive Trainer Brian Taylor asked for a “Lone Nut” to come up on stage and ask the audience to follow him on a big bold idea. It was no big surprise when Russ Bergeron stood up to applause and took the stage committing to supporting RESO‘s effort for real estate data standards. He then asked everyone to join him in this pledge. I have a video of what happened next below (sorry for the screen orientation issues):

You should also check out Matt Cohen’s blog post on the event here.

I’ve lost count on how many CMLS conferences I’ve attended ( I think it’s 12) and they just keep getting better. It’s the perfect blend of education, networking and a good time.

I took a few photos which you can check out at the Vendor Alley Flickr Photostream by clicking this link

Next stop Boston, where MLSPIN will be our host of CMLS 2012. See you there!