Real Estate Technology Coach

So I just got into my hotel in San Francisco looking forward to attending REBarCamp and Inman Connect.  Since I’ve had a few friends confused about what REBarCamp is, let me provide my overly-simplified explanation:

“RE Bar Camp is short for Real Estate BarCamp.  The concept of a BarCamp is to have a bunch of tech nerds and like-minded people getting together in a bar to discuss topics of interest.  No, it has nothing to do with rebar or Burning Man (rebar is a favorite tent/dome stake out on the playa).

Thanks to the likes of Andy Kaufman and Brad Coy (and many others), the REBarCamp looks to be an incredible event.  Inman completely supports it, so there’s been a lot of mutual publicity.  Since it hasn’t happened, these aren’t reviews, simply predictions.

REBarCamp will be more of the people who are actually DOING.  DOING blogs, DOING Twitter, DOING online social networking, DOING video…you get my drift.  I am looking very forward to this because I tend to think of myself as a DOER also, so getting to pick the brains of the pro’s around the country (and world) who are also DOING sounds like a great opportunity to me.

Inman Bloggers Connect is Wednesday and I have very high hopes (and expectations) for this one as well.  I attended the last Bloggers Connect in New York and it was great, but definitely geared towards the people who are looking to get into blogging, not the people who are DOING.  The panelists are all well-respected DOERS, but it felt like they were trying to talk people into trying it out.  From what I understand, this Bloggers Connect event is supposed to be something of a “intermediate” session.  My impression is you should know what a blog is and how powerful they can be, now it’s really time to learn how to start DOING.  I think it’s going to be great.

The full Inman conference is Thursday and Friday.  The general sessions so far have always left my mind reeling at the great information and incredible insight shared.  So those will be great, but get to the conference hall early for a seat so you’re not stuck standing around the walls (although having people standing is a great marketing gimmick).

As for the break-out sessions, I only have one expectation/complaint in looking at the online program: I want to attend too many and they overlap each other.  This has happened at the previous Inman conferences and it’s so frustrating (even more so than not having time to eat lunch!).  They will be great, if not a little “sponsored”.  Many of the sessions are sponsored by a vendor and I’d say of the other conferences I’ve been to, about 10% have been very sales-oriented.  So definitely not bad and I look to learn a lot.

Between sessions, I’ll be busting me arse to check out a few key vendors I have questions for, so if you have any requests, let me know.

I will be live-twitting a bit and trying to do a recap each night here, on Agent Genius (probably not so much since so many other contributors will be attending/speaking) and on PortlandRealEstateNetwork.

Then there’s the terrible after parties hosted by the likes of Zillow, Trulia and ActiveRain…egads!  To all my coworkers who think I’m on vacation: you’re wrong, I’m going to be working longer days and walking more during this week than all of you!

It’s the sacrifice I’m willing to make for all of you as Portland’s foremost real estate technology coach

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