Thank You From the “Staff”

This wouldn’t have been a successful event without attendees, facilitators, and sponsors. We thank you for the kind things you have said on the tweets and Facebook comments and on this blog, but we’d like to turn it back toward you now. Y’all were great to hang with for the day.

We had about 200 pop in throughout the day, which is not too shabby given it’s our first RE BarCamp in the Twin Cities.

This also makes the owner of the rented space happy. He was worried about the fact that 400 registered (actually it was more like 430, but sshhh) for a floor that is really meant for 200. We did our research, and it seems that free events tend to have a 50% turnout.

I’m not sure what that says about our noncommital society, but whatever the case, it worked in the favor of RE BarCamp – Minneapolis-Saint Paul. We were thrilled with the turnout, and we anticipate that we’ll need a bigger boat for the next one.

Try not to forget about us over the next month. We’ll be posting material from presenters here. We have already posted several photos over on our Facebook Fan Page.

Cheggitout: http://www.facebook.com/#!/REBCMN

PreBarCamp Tweetup at Maxwell’s

There will be a pre-event gathering the night before at Maxwell’s, located at 1201 Washington Ave S, just down the street from Spill the Wine. Typically, this event is called “Beer with Bloggers,” but you don’t have to blog or even microblog (i.e., tweet) to hang out. Just be nice.

We’ll call this event a PreBarCamp Tweetup. Spread the word.

Location: Maxwell’s
Address: 1201 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Date: Monday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Until: We’re tired and nervous about waking up early for RE BarCamp the next day!

What to Bring to BarCamp

Real Estate BarCamp – Minneapolis-St. Paul is almost here, and many of you still don’t quite understand what you’ve signed up for.

Where’s the itinerary? Who are the speakers? Do I have to stay the whole day? Is this just for bloggers who tweet about their bookfaces?

There will definitely be elements of social media and technology in the day’s proceedings. Technology tools that empower individuals inexpensively are interesting to talk about in an industry driven by individuals who rely on technology to do their work.

And among real estate professionals, things like RPR, VOWs, mobile real estate, market data, photography, branding, and more have proven to be popular topics at BarCamps and more traditional conferences across the country.

Your BarCamp volunteers have been paying attention to what people are talking about, both away and at home, and we are prepared to set the table of conversation topics. But we hope you’ll do it for us when you arrive on Tuesday.

You will be encouraged to both submit topics AND facilitate sessions. The desire is to have six concurrent sessions going in six different time slots throughout the day. But we didn’t establish 36 topics ahead of time, so we’re expecting you to make your mark.

Bring fresh ideas, bring an open mind, bring a laptop (or netbook), bring a fully charged mobile device, bring a digital camera, or, heck, show off your new iPad if you got one.

Whoever comes and whatever we decide to talk about and whatever it is we bring will contribute to exactly what the day was meant to provide.

Sounds a little goofy, doesn’t it? But it’s working. From Orange County to Atlantic City, it’s working. And we’re excited to be adding to the conversation on Tuesday.

We’ll Do It Live! We’ll Do It Live!

Great news! Huge thanks to Brian Stemmler from Stemmler Productions, a local video broadcast media production company. RE Barcamp Minneapolis-St. Paul will now have portions of event streamed live for those that can’t attend.

Brian has plenty of experience in the video production industry. Don’t trust me? Just check out a snippet from his bio on his website:

I have worn a lot of hats in the Television/Film Industries since 1983, when I won an Emmy Award as an 11 year old actor in St. Louis.  Since then I have had numerous exciting experiences in front of and behind the camera, working with the famous, the infamous and many interesting characters in between.  22 years later I get to enjoy another Emmy nomination, this time as a Writer/Co-Producer!

We are excited to have Brian on board and want to thank him for everything in advance for everything that he is doing. He also plans on participating/leading sessions based around video and how it can help connect with consumers. A session not to be missed.

400 and out!

We smashed our original goal of 300 and Greg Sax opened the door for more attendees to the event. There has been a lot buzz about the event and I’m excited to announce that we have reached our 400 limit. Thanks to all that are going to attend, you will not want to miss out.

Already taking dibs on a location for the next one:

I have set up a waiting list here so sign up and you will be notified if we have anybody back out at the last moment. It will be set up on a first come, first serve basis. If you have already signed up but don’t think you can attend, please make sure to notify us through Twitter or Facebook.

Sponsors! Woo Hoo!

We are humbled by the number of sponsors that have come through for the first RE BarCamp in the Twin Cities. We strongly encourage all visitors to this site to whirl your eyes over to the right side of the screen to see the array of both private and administrative organizations that are backing this baby.

In the end, the benefactors of all this moneymouth (my shorthand for “putting your money where your mouth is”) are the people attending and hopefully the sponsors for being able to interact with (but not sell hard to!) the people attending and definitely our notable cause, LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation).

We posted a deadline for sponsorship, but that deadline only means your logo won’t make it on to the official t-shirt for this event. We have to get the final artwork to the shirtmaker (one of the sponsors!). If you don’t care so much about t-shirts, climb aboard the BarCamp train. We’re taking all passengers right up until Monday, April 5. The more sponsors, the more we can give back to the community! Click the image below to learn more about LISC.

*Hiccup*

We had some issues yesterday (and prior?) with the blog. It wasn’t able to accept comments. Which, um, kind of defeats the purpose of keeping a blog.

As with everything related to RE BarCamp, volunteer effort helped resolve the problem. Thanks to @ladinventures for alerting us to the problem. Thanks to @JasonSandquist and @AndyKaufman for further verification and noodling. And thanks to @PhxREGuy for helping me get over the hump.

It takes a village. Or a camp.

Isn’t That Place Kinda Small?

So now that we’ve topped 300 RSVPs, folks are starting to ask where we’re going to put everyone.

“Isn’t Spill the Wine a small restaurant?”

“Are we going to upset the patrons?”

“What have I gotten myself into?”

Don’t worry, folks, we already know that not everyone will come tromping in at once. First off, it’s a Tuesday and we know that tons of real estate offices around the Twin Cities will be having their weekly meetings that morning. Although we think RE BarCamp would be a great place to start your meeting, we can’t make you do that (but our coffee will taste better).

As regards the hundreds we expect to pop in and out at RE BarCamp, the event takes place on the SECOND FLOOR of Spill the Wine. There is a HUGE space up there for us to fill in and make noisy.

Check out this awesome shot of @ChelsieFoty (coffee cup and headache), @NobuHata (strike a pose), and @tboard (over-the-shoulder suave and laden with bags). Click any of the following images to enlarge.

They’ll probably all hate me (@gsax) for posting this photo, but they can take that up with me. I post it and the next two images for the greater good.

We have space, people. Yes, it might get noisy, but so what? Let’s be excited about what we’re doing. Let’s get into it, raise our voices, finish the day amped and ready for what’s next.

We have some quiet spots, too, in case you feel overwhelmed with joy.

Lets Explore the Box Together

I figured I would bring a few things over to the RE BarCamp blog and start to unpack them.  The real estate business and the rest of the world have changed over the last few years and there is always so much to learn, and it isn’t enough to keep up, we need to stay ahead.

We used to have web pages on the internet and that was considered pretty high tech.  These days it isn’t about web sites or about technology it is about what we do best, meeting people and selling real estate.  We are more likely to meet people on the internet than ever before because that is where they go to look for homes to buy and for Realtors.

What we need to learn is how to exploit the tools that are out there and are free for us to use. They don’t require technical skills but they do require some time and imagination.

RE BarCamps present a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other.  All to often we learn ‘technology’ from people who are trying to sell us a product or service.  Most of what we learn about at RE BarCamps is free and so is the RE BarCamp.   We can learn how to use what is out there in new and creative ways so that we can help the people who live in our computers and who are looking for us to find us.

If none of the icons in the graphic look familiar or only some of them do this event will be a great way to learn more.  Maybe the best opportunity you will have to get started.  For those who have some experience this is a great opportunity to share it with the rest of us. There isn’t any better way to really learn a topic than to teach it.

I have attended RE BarCamps all over the country.  The topics and the sessions go way beyond anything I have seen in a CEU class or at an office meeting, or even at most conferences.  That is why these events have become so popular.  They are free and an excellent educational opportunity.  They are often interactive more like a conversation than a class and the topics are generally not found any place else.  There is a lot of value from learning from each other.  The RE  BarCamp experience is also a chance to socialize and have a little fun.

Oh and I kind of ran out of space on my graphic or I would have added more.

By Teresa Boardman

Topics of Conversation?

Topics of conversation? Facebook How-To’s * RPR * Houselogic * Blogging How-To’s * Online Brand Management * Trulia/Zillow * Twitter Do’s & Don’ts * Real-time Real Estate * Mobile Tech * Linkedin Poweruse * What the heck is Posterous? * Wordpress * Website Trends * Generation Buy * Digital Photography from a Pro… Suggestions? Give us a post whydontcha?