@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.