Trade Shows & Events Archives - Page 19 of 26

The Best CMLS Ever!

October 3rd, 2009

“Do we know how to throw a party or what?” Shelley Specchio told the audience on Friday afternoon.

Well, the reviews are in and everyone agrees this was one of the best, if not THE BEST, CMLS ever. Early reports were that this CMLS was going to be something special and Shelley, CEO of Northern Nevada Regional MLS (NNRMLS) and her team didn’t disappoint. With the support of Merri Jo Cowen CMLS 2009 set a new bar that is going to be hard to beat.

Here are some of the highlights….

Brad Inman gave the keynote. He had just launched his latest enterprise, Vook.com, in New York the day before. He spoke about innovation. Despite his busy schedule he gave a memorable presentation that many speakers referenced later. Brad chided the industry for supporting legacy “people”/systems/thinking and not being more innovative and to push to “create a vibrant marketplace”, and how innovation is “young person’s sport” and encouraged MLS providers to recruit as many young people to board positions. Some comments were a bit controversial but resonated for the rest of the conference.

Each presentation was given a TV Show theme. This added a bit of fun for both the presenters/panelists and the audience.

The content. There was furious note taking during all the sessions.

The voting keypads. Very cool interative tech for this kind of conference.

The Fannie Mae ~~girls~~ ladies. Interesting perspective.

Two words. Bud Fogel. Hilarious!

Jeopardy and Family Feud. (You knew I was going to say that!)

Opal- If you don’t know, then don’t ask.

Sports Center with Brian Larson and Kevin McQueen. This was scheduled as a two hour open forum on topics selected by CMLS attendees earlier in the conference. To me this was a high-risk program that could really have really gone bad. But CMLS attendees made the 2 hours fly by. Brian Larson did his normal fantastic job as he and Kevin kept things going giving great insight and audience participation.

CMLS Crossfire-Marilyn Wilson from The WAV Group, as classy and elegant as ever, played a perfect “straight man” to Larry Lomito as the CMLS crowd howled with laughter!

Speaking of The WAV Group, Victor Lund on Friday night dancing with his daughter was too precious and brought a smile to everyone’s face.

Speaking of Friday night, one word. Jam Sandwich!

Ice cream at the end of the last session on Friday. Nice touch!

I’m sure I’m leaving many things out so fill the comments with your favorites moments of CMLS 2009!

Tahoe, Baby! Tahoe!

September 22nd, 2009

Lake Tahoe road wpb

Is it just me or is everyone getting psyched about CMLS this year? Maybe it’s because, as usual, I know something you don’t know ; )

Merri Jo Cowen committed to host the event back when she was the CEO of Northern Nevada MLS. As many of you know Merri Jo has since left NNRMLS and is now the CEO of MyFloridaMLS.

Enter freshly the freshly minted new CEO of NNRMLS, Shelley Specchio.

So now we get two conference hosts for the price of one! Both Shelley and Merri Jo have been working very hard to make this event a memorable success. Just check out the Agenda page and see why!

Brad Inman is doing the keynote. I hear rumors of interactive screens with audience participation, game shows (with yours truly as the host!), and golf, at Edgewood Tahoe, and did someone say casinos!

When are we gonna have time to talk MLS???

So if you haven’t already registered get your groove on! The fun begins next week.

CMLS 2009

See you there!

Real Estate Technology All-Stars!

August 10th, 2009

I’m not quite recovered from Inman Connect but wanted to post a few things while they are fresh in my mind.

Once again, Brad Inman and his team put on an incredible conference. I’m not sure if you caught this but Brad was in Vegas, at a family event, the day before the conference got started. Imagine that, your in Vegas partying your butt off while one of your company’s biggest events is about to start. Brad’s obviously got a talented group of dedicated people working with him to have that kind of confidence and success (It was announced that attendance at the event was bigger than expected!) Show the love to your all-star team Brad; One word – “BONU$”

: )

I have to say that my favorite part of the event was the “Connect Create” reveal at the end of the conference. Glenn Kelman and Kevin Levent “Duet” were hilarious but you got to give it up to Diverse Solutions and Real Estate Webmasters.

Connect Create was an open challenge to see what a group of developers/designers could build in a 48 hour period. Diverse and REW were the two teams. I can’t imagine why more teams didn’t show up, but I’m sure after all the great feedback and publicity this will be a highlight of future Inman Connect conferences.

But let me be more specific about the teams that did show up, because to me this was about the effort of some great individuals:

Jonathan Mabe, Jennifer Orser, and Andrew Mattie from Diverse Solutions.

The Real Estate Webmasters (Wednesday night, North Beach, around midnight)

Morgan Carey, Philip Pond, and Mike Griffiths from Real Estate Webmasters.

From the time these group of people got on the stage to the time to the time they left I had a huge smile on my face. Both apps were incredible and the fact that they were built in less than 48 hours is even more amazing.

I have to give it up to Justin LaJoie from Diverse for a great idea and possible glimpse in to the future. I was even more amazed at Philip, Mike and Morgan from Real Estate Webmasters. These guys lived the “work hard/play hard” ethos at the event. Without even knowing it Dan Woolley and I shared a cab with them to the Beer for Bloggers event. Then they started popping up all over the place!

We caught them later Wednesday night at the “Secret After Party” at Tony Niks in North Beach, then the next night at The Black Magic Voodoo Lounge! When did they get a chance to program anything!

Glenn Roberts did a great write up about both teams and the challenge you can read it here.

Well done to both teams and remember you heard about these real estate all-stars here first on Vendor Alley!

UPDATE: Dan Woolley has written a few posts on his experiences at Inman Connect:

Inman Connect Wrap Up
Inman ConnectTech Wrap Up

Thursday night at Inman…..

August 6th, 2009

The super secret after party was a huge success! Many thanks to Kelly Roark for suggesting Tony Niks! I’m not sure they knew what hit them, we might have to give them warning next time! We had a great crowd of people who showed up and brought it! Kelly and I have some ideas for Inman in NYC, so get ready.

Several things going on tonight. Most of us will be at the Black Magic Voodoo Lounge where Sweet Michael Hayes will be guest bar tending. Don’t bother getting there till late, action starts around 11PM.

black magic 2

Other private parties are going on. Not sure if I’m going to make them all, but we are gonna do our best so that you, our loyal reader, will get the full scoop.

And remember the last call at House of Shields is at 1:45AM.

Inman Real Estate Connect Preview

August 3rd, 2009

drunk_girl_lead_wideweb__470x314,0

The Twitterati have been going crazy. The blogs are blowing up. Facebook fan pages are filling up. What’s the news? The news is that Brad Inman has certainly turned up the hype for this year’s Inman Real Estate Connect.

Hype or not I’ll be there!!

Vendor Alley hopes to be your official “un-official” guide for what happens at night in the lobby bars, the impromptu get togethers, hook-ups, and industry parties, across the city as the real estate technology industry descends upon the city by the bay!

Tuesday, August 4th.
9AM to 5PM
RE Barcamp -San Francisco
This will be held at Trulia’s headquarters this year. If you haven’t attended a barcamp before this would be a good one to go to. You must RSVP to attend this event.

6PM- 8PM
Beer for Bloggers at Mighty
The name says it all. Needless to say Vendor Alley will be in da house!

Wednesday, August 5th.

8:30AM – 12:30PM
ConnectTech
For all your geeks out there my partner in crime, Dan Woolley, will be moderating a special workshop called “ConnectTech”. ConnectTech will give CTO’s, developers, entrepreneurs and product managers an opportunity to explore innovation in a program tailored to geeks, not marketers. Show some love for Dan and come by and stretch your brain.

10PM – ?
“The After Party”
Dan Woolley, Kelly Roark and I (Greg Robertson) are organizing a special get together for all you trouble makers out there. Just click on the link “Inman After Party” link on the upper right hand side of this page and enter the password to find out location and details. If you don’t know the password, ask someone (preferably someone using Twitter)

Thursday, August 6th
After, After Parties
There are numerous parties going on this night, but I don’t have permission to post any details yet. Check back later.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @gregrobertson to keep updated. And if you got something you want to get the word out just DM me or send an email to vendor dot alley at gmail dot com.

See you there!!!

*VABP*

Still not going to Inman Real Estate Connect? Read this…

July 9th, 2009

I got much love for all you Vendors out there.... — I got much love for you Vendors out there....

Alice from Inman News has the hook up for Vendor Alley readers today.

First up

“No Vendor left behind”
Everyone has that guy/girl in the office that wants to go to Inman this year but because of budget cuts can’t. Well not anymore. Vendor Alley readers who already purchased 2 conference passes can add a third for only $399. That’s over $500 in savings!

So bring them along! They’ve been working hard, and deserve a business trip to San Francisco. They will come back energized and ready to continue to do the work of the 3 other people you laid off last year!!

Contact Madelyn at 510-658-9252 x122 or madelyn at inman dot com to get the deal, make sure you mention Vendor Alley.

Next

“Vendor Cocktail Tables.”
Alice also informs me that they only have 4 demo stations left. Demo stations are cool, just enough room to have a sign, a laptop and still have space for your glass of gin and tonic.

She is going to give Vendor Alley readers first dibs on a super deal. But you have to contact her for details ( hmmmm secret pricing). These won’t last long, contact Alice at 510-658-9252 x124 or allice at inman dot com.

unsubscribe@rapattoni.com….click.

May 21st, 2009

Really Rapattoni? Really??

LionDrawing

Dan Woolley to lead new "ConnectTech" Workshop at Inman Connect in San Francisco!

May 14th, 2009

This is very cool, and I’m sure he is going to hate me for posting this, but my partner in crime, Dan Woolley, will be moderating a special workshop for all the real estate geeks out there.

We were very flattered when the folks at Inman called us about the idea. And (I might be a bit biased) but think Dan is the perfect choice to moderate this event.

The special workshop, at Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, is called “ConnectTech”.

“ConnectTech will give CTO’s, developers, entrepreneurs and product managers an opportunity to explore innovation in a program tailored to geeks, not marketers”

Inman News also profiled Dan, where he was asked several questions about his company and new product Dwellicious. You can read the article here.

The agenda has been posted.

The workshop will be held on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, from 8AM to 3PM.

So get your geek on and join Dan for what I’m sure will be a great day!!

5 Comments

NAR Midyear – Don't have too much fun without me!
May 11th, 2009

My wife and I are expecting our third child in a couple of weeks. So needless to say I’m not going to to make NAR Midyear this year.

We have two boys, Cole and Toby, and this will be our first baby girl : )

So don’t have too much fun without me…

But I do have some predictions:

Realtor.com/Move.com
With a new CEO, Steve Berkowitz, and the departure of Lorna “MSDS” Borenstein look for these guys to have a brand new vibe.

ListingBook
When I first heard about this a few years back I was a bit skeptical. But these guys are for real and it seems agents and consumers really love this service. Todd “Obi Wan Kenobi” Colthorp has secured most of the largest MLS providers in the country. I’m still not sure about their business model, but it looks like they have a hit on their hands.

FBS/FLEXMLS
Q. What do you get when you mix a successful MLS conversion (ARMLS), new sales leadership Dave Rifkin, a team of employee owners, and one of the most well respected voices, Mike Wurzer, in the MLS industry leading the charge?

A. A company that is on a lot of MLS Providers’ short list and poised for some big moves.

Midyear MLS meetings
If you want to see a shit storm then don’t miss this year’s MLS meetings. With short sale issues burning and some MLS providers wanting to classify Google as a “scraper” this all adds up to nothing but fun!

That’s all for now….

And please remember, never and I mean NEVER, go big on the first night!!!

gr

8 Comments

Rapattoni starts NAR Mid-year booth "schwag war"!
April 30th, 2009

Just in case you didn’t get the email (yeah right!) Rapattoni is having a contest where the lucky winner could win a stuffed “Rapattoni lion”.

This has certainly raised the bar for booth give away items. Leaves me to wonder what will the competition do? Here’s my suggestions….

FNRES/Cyberhomes, LLC/LPS
Long known as the king of catchy booth-ware (who can forget the “I like BIG BUTTons” t-shirts?) might I suggest a giganto stuffed chameleon to match your ever changing persona?

FBS
The young upstarts from Fargo have been working all Winter filling sandbags to hold back the waters of the Red River. So how about replica sandbags? But instead of being stuffed with sand they will be stuffed with reprints from Mike Wurzer’s FlexMLS Blog! This would be great for the office. Every now and then you could reach in the bag and find a great article about “MLS standards” to read.

MarketLinx
I think you take advantage of having the cool letter “X” in your name and go for the co-marketing opportunity with the release of new “X-Man Origins” movie. You could hand out Wolverine back scratchers!

3 Comments

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