Répondez s’il vous plaît

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?

Registration is now open for Bar Camp at the Beach

Claim your spot for the beachiest Bar Camp yet!  RE BarCamp Orange County is June 25th and has a capacity limit of 150.   You can RSVP on the REBarCampOC website.  Come join some of the greatest minds in the RE.net for an outstanding day of conversation, learning, and debate.

Scheduling added to Upcoming

The entire RE Barcamp schedule going forward has now been added to the “events and things to do” website Upcoming.Yahoo.com.  Please add to your events if you already have a profile there, and if not, you really should get one.

Upcoming is a community for discovering and sharing events. It can help you find stuff to do, discover what your friends are doing, or let you keep private events online for your own reference.

The site is also a great way to reach out to the local communities surrounding our events.  You can also join the RE BarCamp group while you’re over there, add pictures, as well as create a badge to put in your website/blog to help promote the upcoming RE BarCamps.

From the site you can easily add to all types of personal calenders.  If you are a Google Calender user like I am, you can also add the public schedule found here.

Note:  Sharing on Upcoming does not take to place of registration for any of the Camps.   Just a place to cross promote and share with the Community service of Upcoming.   Every event has their very own ‘RSVP’ page for resistration.

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 Lives On!

This post is long overdue considering the gentleman that sent me these praises, did so WAY back in August.  At any rate it seems like a year has past since then and the wheels keep turning.  Mike Price had initiated the next REBarCamp in Houston and it happens just next Wednesday, Oct. 22nd.  From what I understand in talking to Mike, they are expecting this to be another stellar event of countless possibilities.

Here’s what a few happy campers had to say about San Francisco’s inaugural event back in July:

Jacob Morgan – I found out about the event through being involved in the social media space and knowing folks like you and Andy Kaufman (which by the way is a great enough case study, without social media, I would have never known about the event). If came to the event for several reasons.  First of all I am launching a company in the social media and real estate space and I wanted to see what challenges real estate professionals are facing and what tools they are using.  Social media has a lot of applications in virtually any industry, the challenge seems to be finding out how social media can be applied to YOUR particular industry.  In the case of real estate, which is an extremely relationship based field, social media, when used properly, can definitely help build relationships and leads.

I learned a few things, first of all there is no substituted for quality relationships, sure social media can help build those relationships but face time is also crucial, especially in real estate.  I also learned about how some of the real estate folks are (or aren’t) using social media.  It seems that the real estate industry, which has a very traditional approach, is changing.  Real Estate professionals are going to have to learn how to use the various social media tools out there, or they are going to have a very difficult time succeeding in the competitive landscape.  As I have said and continue to believe, social media is a way of life, it should not be treated as solely a marketing medium.  You have to be honest, original, transparent, and above all authentic, meaning be yourself.  There is no point in building a solid online relationship with someone with a fake persona, because once you meet in real life, the relationship will be shattered. Look forward to the next event Brad!

Andrew M. Isreal – I run a successful web-zine in Aspen, Colorado: www.AspenSpin.com as well as a niche Real Estate brokerage, www.AjaxRE.com .  I’m in SF for the summer to “tech up”.  I’m a little older (in fact I’m considered–the “world’s oldest intern”) than most of the tech geeks in town, and therefore i still like old fashioned face-to-face networking. REBarCamp confirmed for me that to succeed in a very crowded on-line market place—one STILL needs to employ fundamental business principals.  There is no “secret code” for success on-line.  Listening to my colleagues helped me clarify that tech–is just another tool–albeit a powerful one. The three most salient points that i took home from RE Bar Camp:

1. Content is King.  If it’s boring or uninformative—they will not come.

2. Be authentic.  If your content is real–people will relate to it and  hopefully engage you.

3. K.I.S.S.  Keep it simple stupid.  You don’t need to be the super-duper tech wiz to make the intenet work for you.  Provide ”value added content” for your customers and prospective customers and you’ll be successful.  But don’t only do tech—get out there and make some deals the old fashioned way, market knowledge, contacts and hard work.

Payam Soleymani – I found REBarCamp through facebook’s news feeds.  I checked out the official site, and I saw the number of real estate rock stars attending.  I knew this “unconference” was going to make history, and I had to be part of it.  Presentations were conversations, speakers were your new friends, and the audience were the panelists.  The side chats in the halls will produce some amazing mash-ups.  REBarCamp is like a hot start-up… it’s biggest hurdle will be how to scale its growth.

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!

RE Bar Camp is ROCKING!

RE Bar Camp got underway today, and is going on full force as I type.  There are 5 “sessions” happening at the moment, and countless “side bars”.

Looks like there are at least 120 people here, from all walks of life. Real estate agents, brokers, service providers, tech people, non-real estate folks and more.

My feet hurt, and my brain is full. And it’s not even lunch time…

There will be more, much more, to come.

RE BarCamp LIVE! is… umm, live!

Thank the sploggers for giving me the idea to scrape everyones content! RE BarCamp Live is an aggrigator of feeds from the folks who responded to my live blogging post. It’s a jumping off point for finding the latest content being written for REBarcamp and even on to Inman Connect. If you’re planning to cover the event on your own blog, please let me know and I’ll get you on this list! [email protected].

It just occured to me that there should be a session on mortgage stuff.

Looking over the who’s coming list, there’s quite a contingent of mortgage professionals coming to REBarCamp. Maybe the most mortgage bloggers ever assembled in one place. We need a session!

I’m thinking a Bar Camp within a Bar Camp. One to two hours in the afternoon. I want to do a round-table discussion. Everyone planning to attend needs to bring at least one question to ask everyone else. I want the questions to focus on technology and marketing online.

The lenderama crew will be reprizent’n. There’s plenty of other great Mortgage Bloggers coming as well. Let’s meet up.

I’ll be on Real Estate Radio USA Today

Just a quick note. I’ll be talking about RE Bar Camp on Real Estate Radio USA today at 4:00 Easter. That’s about 45 minutes from now. Tune in if you can!

Edit – here’s the recording in case you missed it.

Next Page »