Things to Learn and Do at RE BarCamp

RE BarCamp sessions are often geared to technology usage in real estate, but they can cover any topic a majority of attendees feel like talking about, from mortgages to photography to staging to data.

Whether you want to facilitate or learn about specific topics, let us know what’s on your mind now, so we have some ideas going in. And when you arrive at the event, be prepared to facilitate a session. No promises though. Attendees determine what topics are of interest to them.

We want to get a head start on the conversation, so here are some ideas that have been floating around the industry. Tell us what you want to learn! BarCamp is not about limitations, so know that we ARE NOT LIMITED TO THESE IDEAS!

• Photography for real estate (new tools, iPhone gadgets, best practices)
• Shooting and sharing simple, high-quality real estate videos
• Appyhour: Best smartphone / tablet apps
• Syndication
• Intellectual property law and copyright
• Pinterest (For real estate?)
• Realist (through NorthstarMLS)
• Privacy
• NorthstarMLS (new tools, apps)
• How not to be a sales “tool” on the Internet
• Better business practices for brokers
• What does a good website really look like?

RE BarCamp 2012 Takes Center Stage at the Guthrie

Scene: It is an afternoon of fun learning with the sweet smell of spring in the air and a warming sun leading the way to an afternoon of learning. Enter from stage left: Forward-thinking real estate professionals ready and eager to remain ahead of the status quo.

Last year we sold out weeks before the event. We recommend that you register early for this very popular opportunity to learn and play!

This year, BarCamp is part of a 2-day event at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. BarCamp will be on the afternoon of May 2. It will be immediately followed by an entertaining happy hour at the theater. The curtains will rise on the morning of May 3 with The REALTOR® Summit, featuring Lawrence Yun, Rob Hahn and Stefan Swanepoel, an event that we are affectionately calling the Yun Hahn Swan Con. For you Twitterers, #yunhahnswancon.

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.

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.

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.