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Does anyone who attended the original RE BarCamp in San Francisco remember these really cool trading cards?

I don’t remember anyone actually complaining about them. This is good, because it marks the first time the RSVP list was shared with a vendor. Yep, since day one, venders who sell stuff to the real estate industry have occasionally asked for and received access to data collected on rebarcamp.com.

There’s been some lively conversation on Twitter about the sponsor page on REBC New York. One benefit of sponsorship is access to the RSVP list. People seem to be upset that sponsors will have access to this data. Visions of a spam filled inbox creeping into their heads. The organizers have amended the page and will only include a list of attendees who have opted in to being marketed to. Those people who were upset, now seem satisfied.

Great, except that’s a promise that the New York organizers can’t make because I host this data, and I have no intention of honoring this deal. Want a privacy policy? You’ll need to host your site some other place than here.

I have used, and continue to use this data as I see fit. By giving event organizers access to the admin functions without any sort of privacy policy in place, I’m extending this discretion to them as well.

Here are some examples of how I’ve used it in the past.

• I gave the RSVP list from the 09 New York event to the organizers of this year’s event.
• I used the data to market RE BlogWorld in 2008.
• I gave date from various events to at least half a dozen various sponsors who asked for it.
• I supported another organizer in their decision to supply this data to a sponsor.
• I used this data to help NAR nominate several RE BarCamp attendees to national committee positions.
• I used this data to build a list of people who were invited to a sneak preview webinar of HouseLogic and RPR

I also intend to use some of this data to market Real Estate WordCamp.

Nobody wants to receive mindless spam. I get that. So do the sponsors who have leveraged this data in the past. Think about it. Have you attended an RE BarCamp event in the past? Do you feel like you’ve been overrun with sponsor driven spam as a result? My bet is no. In one and a half years, the first hubub about sponsors using this data is a result of the revelation that this was happening, not because attendees are being spammed.

If this still worries you, then host is some place else. Several event organizers have done so in the past, and I’ve always been willing to help promote their sites. Or don’t come to the event. I mean really, if an occasional sponsor has your email address, so what? Is that really such a big deal?

RE BarCamp Goes virtual on November 17th

Leave it to Jim Cronin to try something new. A Virtual RE BarCamp with local tweetups across the country. Here’s the details.

REBarCamp.com site redesign in the works

One of the great things about attending REBlogWorld in Vegas this weekend was a meeting I had that should give this site the ability to grow faster. Right now, I build every new event blog from the ground up. Also, while I like the way the theme looks, it adds lots of extra steps to creating a new blog.

We’re rebuilding REBarCamp.com on the WordPress Multi-User platform. This will allow us to add sites at the click of a button. Okay, maybe two buttons.This will take a while, but once it’s ready, we’ll be able to offer event sites again.

If you need an event site for your REBarCamp done right away, I suggest building it yourself. We’ll still link to it. Otherwise, hold tight. I’ll share more details when I have them.

Changes for REBarCamp.com

I don’t have time to keep up with RE BarCamp’s expansion. I won’t be building any new event blogs, or promising any sort of online support. I will do my best to link to anyone who builds their own site for one of these events.

Do you want to help? Have any ideas? Please comment. I’d love to continue to make this work.

edit – please understand that the effort to do this is overwhelming me. I can’t keep up anymore. I don’t want to promise on things I can’t deliver on. I’m very sorry to have to write this post.

whatEVAH

I’m not going to explain what the “BarCamp” in RE BarCamp stands for because it doesn’t really matter. Even if it was based on going to a bar, and it’s NOT, whatEVAH. It’s the name of this event. Don’t like the name? Organize an RE Tech Day or a Real Estate Unconference. Let me know about it and I’ll still promote it here. But our name is our name.

Would you change your name?

Last December, with two events completed, we sat in a conference call listening to a bunch of influential minds in real estate tell us that the name doesn’t work. We would need to change it for the event to grow.

We didn’t change it. We grew.

There have been RE BarCamp events that pushed 300 people in attendance. There have been events from one corner of the country to another. There will be three four (*see comments) in Virginia alone this year. They’re coming to Canada. There’s more than 30 events completed or in planning around the world.

Not every event is hosted on this website, but for those that are, I receive an email for every RSVP that is completed on one of the event sites. They all flow into a special folder now because they used to dominate my inbox.

Last week, the folder surpassed 3000 emails.

Look at the scoreboard and tell me again that we have a branding problem.

This really bums me out. REBarCamp turns one year old tomorrow and instead of thinking about how to make the event more meaningful in a real world way, we are still talking about how the name will never work.

Let’s make a difference.

This is a republished post from Ginger Wilcox off of the San Francisco blog. Ginger is spearheading what I consider the first significant accomplishment that the RE BarCamp movement get behind. A focused effort on effecting positive change in the battle against homelessness. It’s my hope  that the success of this first effort will encourage other RE BarCamp organizers to make similar efforts with local charities tasked with the noble effort of providing homes for those who don’t have one. I pay hundreds of dollars to go to conferences with less value than one RE BarCamp, so I took what the event was worth to me and applied it to this cause. You may simply decide the cause is good and worth $5.00 and two minutes of your time to help out. It all adds up. It’s all appreciated.  –Todd.

Over the last year, RE BarCamp has dramatically influenced the usage of technology in the real estate industry. We have created a community that filled with some of the brightest minds in real estate and technology.

For the one year anniversary of RE BarCamp, Brad, Andy and I sat around a table trying to figure out how to make REBC bigger and better, but we realized that it doesn’t need to be bigger. The size of the event doesn’t really make it better. So, how do we make it better? Does a shinier t-shirt make it better? No. What could make RE BarCamp better?

Using the power of our community to create change

For RE BarCamp San Francisco, we would like to take the power of our community and make meaningful change. As real estate professionals, our occupations revolve around housing. Unfortunately, not everyone in our society is blessed with the ability to have a place to call home. Consider these statistics:

• Right now there are more homeless children in the United States than at any other time since the Great Depression.
• One in four San Francisco Bay Area families can’t afford the basics of housing, food, healthcare and childcare without some kind of public assistance. (United Way of the Bay Area report)
• The average income for the poorest fifth of San Francisco households is just $10,019 a year. (Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty)
• There is virtually no affordable housing in San Francisco. Applicants for Section 8 federal housing typically spend 5-8 years on the waiting list. (San Francisco Chronicle report

So, how can we individuals and companies in the real estate community impart change on the problem of homelessness?

Introducing…

“Housing for Homeless” is a new ReBarcamp initiative. We hope this idea takes off and is implemented at the RE BarCamp events taking place across the country.

What is Housing for the Homeless?

1. At RE Barcamp San Francisco, I plan to lead a section that discusses just this problem. Through RE BarCamp events, we have developed a tremendously powerful community. Let’s put our collective brainpower together to take a stab at aiding this huge problem that impacts people around the globe. We have an opportunity to create change and make meaningful improvements to peoples lives.
2. RE BarCamp is free. You even get a free lunch thanks to Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate. If you have ever attended an RE BarCamp, you probably know that the value of the conference is almost priceless. We would like to ask that each consider making a donation to the charity that we have selected for Housing for the Homeless/ RE BarCamp San Francisco. Whether your donation is $10 (the cost of your free lunch) or more, any donation will help.

So, who does your donation benefit?

Compass Community Services

Compass opened the Tenderloin Childcare Center (TLC) in 1976, which in 1990 became the first licensed childcare program in San Francisco to reserve slots for children from homeless families. In 1990, the agency opened Compass Family Center, their homeless shelter for families. Their transitional housing program, Clara House, opened in 1994. And in 1995, under a grant from the San Francisco Department of Human Services, Compass began Connecting Point, the citywide entry point into San Francisco’s family shelter system.

Today Compass is a leader in its field, recognized citywide for their expertise in helping families surmount homelessness and extreme poverty. By providing intensive, personalized and long-term services, they not only stabilize families in crisis and meet their immediate needs, but they give clients the tools and resources to obtain permanent housing, earn a living wage, and maintain lasting stability and self-sufficiency. They also work closely with the Mayor’s office, city officials and other agencies to identify the barriers families face in obtaining housing and employment, and to facilitate access to the services that are most critical to families’ success.

Please help us use the power of our community to create change.

100% of your donation (less the paypal credit card charge) will be distributed to Compass Community Services, a not-for profit organization. Please provide your mailing address in the shipping address field. This information will be provided to Compass Community Services for tax purposes.

REBarCamp.com goes mobile

I’m still working out the kinks, but REBarCamp.com for smart phones is pretty much ready.

Just navigate your phone to http://rebarcamp.com/m/

It works great on iPhones, Android and Palm phones, but I’ve had one beta tester tell me it gets hung up on Blackberries.  I continue to work on the bugs, and to add more features. But already, REBC M has two very cool features.

All your Blogs R Belong to Us

The mobile site pulls blog posts from upcoming event blogs and resyndicates them into one feed. This is great for RE BarCamp Ho’s who want to see the latest post from any of the blogs.

Mobile RSVP & Who’s Coming

RSVP for an event right from your phone. This is great when you’re at lunch with a friend, telling them about how great RE BarCamp is going to be, and want to sign them up right then and there. The Who’s coming pages also work so you can see who else is coming, or use that page to quickly find and follow their twitter accounts from your phone while you are at the event.

Going forward, upcoming event blogs should be able to sense you are visiting from a mobile phone, and render this mobile format as well!

What do you think? Let me know what features you might find useful, or you see any bugs. Like everything on this site, it’s a work in progress.

RE BarCamp San Diego planning call

The latest planning call for RE BarCamp San Diego is online. I like sharing these for the sake of anyone with to much time on their hands. :p

A conversation about RE BarCamp about RE:RnD

I spent an hour with Rob Hahn and Dustin Luther on their Real Estate RnD show speaking about the pros and cons of RE BarCamp. Stacey Harmon and Matt Fagioli joined in for a great conversation. Part of the hour was spent talking about the difference between unconferences like RE BarCamp and more traditional formats like how RE TechSouth is structured. Listen to it here!

A brief history of Re BarCamp

As soon as I hit “publish” on this post, I’ll be emailing many of the other volunteers on the RE BarCamp movement to solicit their experiences, news, and opinions as well. Hopefully they will speak up in the comments.

A year ago, I was just hoping our San Fransisco event would go off well enough to do it again in 2009.  By the time it was over, we had a movement on our hands.

How RE BarCamp has evolved:

San Francisco, 2008 – Andy Kaufman thought this whole thing up. Our first event went off at the end of July, 2008. We initially were hoping for at least 50 people, and ended up getting closer to 200. The attendance, buzz and feedback from this event gave us the momentum to spread the RE BarCamp movement beyond the bay area.

Houston, 2008 – Mike Price took over the reigns and oganized a camp in Houston in late October. This event proved not only that this event can stand alone, but also that it does not have to be completely tech focused. Innovative real estate topics were covered, tech and non-tech related.

New York 2009 – Inman News was so impressed by the San Francisco event that they offered up space to host RE BarCamp onsite at Inman Connect NY. Daniel Rothamel organized the event in a short amount of time and the first of many RE BarCamps for 2009 were launched.

Seattle 2009 – Zillow not only hosted the Seattle camp, they marketed it heavily to local Seattle Realtors. Active Rain took a large role in organizing this event as well. With over 200 attendees, I think we all could see that these events were going to be just as huge at the local level as they are nationally.

Virgina 2009 – The Virginia Association of REALTORS adopted RE BarCamp in creating this event. The Virginia association has long been bloging focused thanks largely to REBC organizor, Ben Martin, and an active base of blogging agents within the state.

Los Angeles 2009 – I think the unique aspect of this event is that it was the first of 2009 that reflected the independent organization of the Houston event. No associations or commercial interests hosting the event. No Inman to piggy back on. Yet, over 200 people showed up. This event proved RE BarCamp is viable as a stand alone event without third party backing.

All of this sets the sets the stage for the rest of 2009.

This week, two more independent events will go off on the same day. Portland and Phoenix are running simultaneously on the 23rd. Charlotte, Denver and Philadelphia are on deck for May. Chicago, Salt Lake and Boston are set for June. Virginia Beach is set for mid-July.

As San Fransisco kicks off on Aug 4th, we will have organized 15 RE BarCamps! But that’s not the end of it. Events are in the works for Columbus, Lynchburg, Miami, Washington DC, Vancouver, and Cancun. Yes, I really did say Cancun. RE BarCamp is going international. In November, NAR will host RE BarCamp at the San Diego Convention Center during it’s annual convention.

So what does it all mean?

You tell me. I’m hoping this post will start a discussion on where you think Re BarCamp is headed. Give you ideas on how we can all make it better. Tell us what you’ve like or disliked about it to date.

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