RE Barcamp Logos

Over the past couple of years I have had the privilege to design quite a few logos for RE Barcamps across the country. Even though it’s not our primary “stock-in-trade” to do design work, I’ve really enjoyed helping give an identity to the events.  Those I’ve designed logos for have been nice enough to give “in-kind” consideration to one of my companies in exchange for the work but that’s not why I’ve done them. Having been involved with REBC from the very first event, I wanted to do what I could to be a good steward to the brand. I’ve got too many irons in the fire to keep up with it.

If you’re planning an upcoming RE Barcamp I would suggest finding a good local designer that would consider the in-kind sponsorship trade. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Colors
Keep the number of colors to a minimum and try not to use gradients or complex fills for the layout. Your printing costs will stay low and the ability to re-size the image for avatars etc. will be easier. You will be using several types of printing including screen printing for t-shirts and badges, so if you keep the registration of colors simple it will be easier in the long run.

Flame On
The constants in a Barcamp logo are the flame and the typeface (Century Gothic). There are no rules for the way you can use it and there have been some really creative implementations. Take a look at Barcamp.org and click through to the 1,000’s of barcamps that have taken place across the world.

Formats
Your designer will need to design a 300 x 150 transparent .png file for the RE Barcamp web site. Send it to Andy Kaufman to get it added. ( andy AT myeastbayagent DOT com. ) If you’re doing BandPass event badges, keep in mind they are typically black and will require a design that works well on a black background. Have the logo designed in a vector illustration program and save your high resolution file as either Adboe Illustrator or .EPS format.

Sizes
Have your designer layout the standard logo design and an alternative format that is square and scales down well. This makes creating avatars for Twitter, Facebook etc. easier.

Working With Your Designer
If you use the same logo for subsequent events, please give your designer the same consideration of sponsorship you did for the initial event. Try not to use committees or large groups to decide on a design. Keep it to 3 people and the process will be easy for selection.

Files
The original Barcamp files to give to your designer are located here. Century Gothic by Monotype is the tyepface used for all Barcamp logos. Most designers will have it in their type library. If not it can be purchased at Fonts.com.

I hope this helps out anyone planning a new REBC and I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can at upcoming events. Cheers!

RE Barcamp Los Angeles – April 2

Ricardo Bueno and the volunteers for RE Barcamp LA are hard at work getting things squared away for their April 2nd event. The location has been established but they still need some help getting the word out and getting some more sponsors on board. If you’re planning on attending please be sure to complete the RSVP form.

Thanks for helping spread the word!

Here are some ways to help out:
Bloggers, please write a post about the event.
Tweeple, please tweet about the event on Twitter, use the hashtag #rebcla
Facebook, join the group page on facebook and invite others
Brokers/Agents: Share the information at your meetings. Ricardo and his volunteers will send people to your office at your request
Sponsor: Get with Ricardo if you can help by sponsoring the event – at (323) 572-8322 or [email protected]
Badge: Please put a badge on your site and link to http://www.rebarcamp.com/losangeles

@tcar Joins NAR as Social Media Manager

A couple of days ago a big announcement hit the RE.net. One of our founding organizers, Todd Carpenter, has joined the National Association of Realtors in the newly created position of Social Media Manager. Todd’s new position will make him the point person for NAR and their individual involvement as one of the many local and national sponsors/volunteers in upcoming RE BarCamp events. NAR will be host to the San Diego RE BarCamp coming up in November and Todd will be looking for a group of local volunteers to help pull together that event.

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the winter you probably have seen that the RE BarCamp concept has become a rapidly expanding movement. There have been four successful events in San Francisco, Houston, New York and Seattle. As we speak there are events with firm plans in Virginia, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego and Boston. We’ve heard from several other cities, large and small, that are under way with plans of their own.

The core group of organizers from the initial RE BarCamp have gone to great lengths to help ensure that each event learns something from the previous one. The local organizers that are planning current events are doing a tremendous job of spreading the word and doing all possible to get people of all technical and business acumen levels to participate.

The latest event in Seattle had over 220 attendees, many of which were learning about new technologies and business models for the first time. If you’ve thought of RE BarCamp as traveling RE.net meet-ups, think again. The concept is evolving and will be different from one city to the next as they take the shape of the local market and the local organizers burn up shoe leather and the phone lines to bring in people who are passionate about learning and sharing.

By and large the success of RE BarCamp can be attributed to the fact that it isn’t owned or controlled by any single person, group or entity. There is no core agenda for the concept. The agenda is owned by the attendees, both figuratively and literally.

Good luck with your local RE BarCamp efforts and welcome us in congratulating one of our own, Todd Carpenter, on his new gig with NAR.

Start Spreading The News – REBarcamp NYC Is A Go

Thanks to the folks at Inman along with The Real Estate Zebra and Trulia’s Social Media Guru – NYC will be rocking a Real Estate BarCamp! The event is being held in conjunction with Inman Connect. Details are still in the works. If you plan to attend Connect this year, you dok not want to miss this event.

Facebook group and event pages have been established. They are a little redundant. Dan and Rudy are your “go to” guys, so if you’re interested in volunteering, attending or sponsoring, leave a comment here or on Facebook.

NAR & The REBarcamp “Movement”

Hilary Marsh of the National Association of Realtors recently expressed some interest in helping with REBarcamp. As has been discussed, it’s important that we demystify what the structure of a BarCamp is. We need to do everything we can to bring into the mix the real estate professionals that need to be in the flow of the conversation the most.

I have pulled together a group of the initial organizers of REBarcamps in SF, Houston and the upcoming LA event to conduct a conference call with Hilary next week. What I think would be helpful would be input from attendees along with those who have not attended and want to know more.

How do you think NAR can be most beneficial in concert with the REBarcamp effort to expose and explain the concept to agents of all technical and business acumen levels?

Leave your comments here and we will share them with Hilary during our discussion.

Thanks!

Mike Price

REBarcamp Texas is a Go!

We’re not going to let any grass grow under the succcess of REBarcamp! After conferring with a few initial volunteers, we have decided to hold REBarcamp in Houston Texas on Oct 22nd the day before the Houston Association of Realtors annual Trade Show, to be held at Reliant Stadium. HAR does a great job every year of putting together one of the largest association events in the country. If you’re planning on exhibiting, make sure you come in a day early for the event, you won’t want to miss this! If you’re interested in exhibiting, send me a DM on twitter ( @mlbroadcast ) or email me at mprice AT mlbroadcast dot com and I will get you in contact with the right people at HAR. The next annoucement will be confirming a SWEET location for the event I am working on. So, get ready Ya’ll!

Help Promote REBarcamp

The first organizational meeting for REBarcamp was held via a Yugma conference call this past Friday. The energy was palpable, and the ideas flowed like cold beer from a tap (that was a topic of discussion that was mentioned by certain volunteer more than once. Hint his initials are MP .

July will be upon us pretty quick, so we would like to appeal to the volunteers and organizers of REBarcamp to do their part by blogging about the event and placing link badges on their sites and blogs as well. I have uploaded a zip file to the files directory in the wiki with several formats. In keeping with the spirit of a user generated conference, you’re free to create whatever kind of link badge or graphic you wish. Upload it to the wiki if you want to share it with the group. Several of the participants have already created some cool graphics. It was agreed that the official link destination should be this blog (rebarcamp.com). There’s also a press release on the wiki that you can use to craft your posts with.

The next conference call is set for 3/22, stay tuned to the blog for more details. Please join us! Until then, help spread the word!

Cheers,

Mike Price – MLBroadcast.Com