Now "I’m Seein’ Why" People Always Talk About ICNY

Last week I was honored to be invited to attend the Inman Real Estate Connect event in New York City (also known as ICNY). Real Estate Connect® is a must-attend conference that brings together the biggest names in the real estate and technology industries.
 Each year, thousands of influential leaders gather at Real Estate Connect to discover emerging trends and technology, to network and make deals and to learn how to leverage the change that surrounds the real estate industry. The theme for Real Estate Connect NYC 2012 was Leading the Way: Innovation in Action and the program featured top thinkers and innovators from around the world.


It also featured 10 of my newest “close friends” in real estate – The Inman Connect Ambassador Team.

Katie Lance, Director of Social Media for Inman wanted to bring in some people from around the real estate industry who could help share, capture and enhance the experiences of ICNY with real estate agents, brokers and owners and others in the real estate industry around the globe who couldn’t attend. Among the team of 11 Ambassadors, there were 4 live bloggers, 3 people capturing video, 2 live “tweeters,” a photographer and one person dedicated to sharing the experience via Instagram.


Katie was busy as the event Co-Emcee along with Chief Evangelist for Inman, Chris Smith so my fellow ambassadors and I were watching and listening for any idea, sound bite, tip or technique that might be shared by anyone who took the stage, the numerous vendors who were sharing their services and products or the 1000+ attendees from around the globe.


From the opening session of Agent Reboot (a one day fast-paced session of workshops and presentations that travels the country) on Tuesday to the last “curtain call” of the Inman Staff on Friday, we were all sitting front row with iPhones, Mac Books, Flip Videos and Steve Pacinelli’s awesome camera equipment in hand. (Click here to read my article from Agent Reboot Columbus to see what this event is all about)


After the general session of each day, there were four different “tracks” of workshops, panels and breakout sessions on various topics so it was impossible to attend them all. That’s where the beauty of the Ambassador team comes into play as well as the power of the #ICNY hash tag.


You could be enjoying one session while still keeping an “ear to the ground” in other sessions because of the fast fingers of those people who were tweeting the “nuggets of wisdom” by searching for any tweet sharing the #ICNY hash tag (basically keeping a “log” of all the comments) or people would look back later and see what was said and who said it.

Of course there was a lot of social fun as well as the jam-packed schedule of events and the Ambassadors did their best to capture that in spirit, tweets, texts and video as well. In the largest city in the world, it wasn’t easy to stick together but when we did, we certainly took the establishments by storm. From Stout NYC for the BCS Championship game to Tonic for karaoke, Junior’s or The Shake Shack for lunch or The Hourglass Tavern in Hell’s Kitchen or the R Lounge in Times Square for parties, it was a memorable event.

If you’re looking for some really smart people to connect with, friend or follow in the real estate space, you might want to start here:

• Lisa Archer (@LisaArcherRE)
• Teri Conrad (@TeriConrad)
• Janie Coffey (JanieC)
• Laurie Davis (@LaurieWDavis)
• Maura Neill (@MauraNeill)
• Chris Nichols (@UtahREPro)
• Steve Pacinelli (@StevePacinelli)
· Debra Trappen (@Debra11)
• Tucker Wannamaker (@TuckerWanna)
• Julie Ziemelis (@JulieZemelis)

Of course there are way more people who attended the event and texted, tweeted, Facebooked, captured video and contributed to the awesomeness of ICNY. There’s no way I would attempt to name even one because it wouldn’t be fair to the one’s I left off. Just know that I am honored and proud to be in the same industry as you all. Your skills, passion and pride to be the best you can be makes our industry better.

Thanks to Brad Inman and his incredible team. Your hard work and vision for this event was all worth the tremendous effort you put forth.

Thanks to all attendees and vendors because through your technology skills and dedication to the event and industry, the ideas, concepts and sound bites will last a while longer.

Thanks to the team of Ambassadors and all of the other great attendees and people who made this event happen, the memories will last a lifetime.

Until the next time we may “connect,” continue to build relationships, solve problems and have fun.

What the "Eff" Are You Doing?

I spent the day today at a really cool event called Agent ReBoot. It was a pleasant mix between harnessing technology to better adapt to today's changing landscape in real estate and how to better utilize all the tools, systems and people that are out there that can provide some help, guidance or assistance.

The event was brought to Columbus by Inman News and featured some of the best speakers in real estate today including Chris Smith (Chief Evangelist for Inman News), Darin Persinger (Productivity Junkies), Steve Pacinelli (Tech Savvy Agent and Move Inc.), Sherry Chris (Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate) and Tracy Weir (Chief Marketing Officer of Inman News).

I was honored to have been invited to join a panel discussion - Social Media Insights - Making the Smartest Investment of Your Time along with fellow Central Ohio Realtor Toby Boyce where we shared our thoughts on how, when, where and why real estate agents may want to utilize social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to build better relationships and possibly increase their success and their income.

If You're Going to "Eff Up" Your Business, Choose Wisely

While all of today's guests shared tips, tricks and tools to help today's agents become better at what they do, I think everyone who attended today (or any other event like this at their local branch, board or association) needs to move forward with one main question in mind.

The question is, "are you aiming to become more efficient or more effective?"

They are definitely not the same.

Efficiency sounds great because most people think if we become more efficient, we can get more done and if we can get more done, we'll close more deals and if we close more deals, we'll make more money. Sure, that might be true, but I could be really fast at entering data incorrectly or I might only take ten minutes to deliver a poor listing presentation to potential clients but have I necessarily gained anything from inaccurate data or business I didn't get?

Efficient, yes. Effective, no.

Effectiveness also sounds wonderful. Effective seems to be when the activity we are doing delivers the end result we were hoping for. We all love to find tools and systems that are effective but if these tools and systems take us an extraordinarily long time to get from start to finish, how did that help us build our business in the long run? Could we capture more (or better) leads in the time it might take us to effectively meet a customer using passive forms or business development? Would you feel successful if you helped 100% of the clients you worked with get to the closing table if you only got to the "promised land" 4-5 times this year? How much time would be spent doing redundant tasks just to insure no fall through occurred?

Effective, perhaps? Efficient...probably not.

I don't have any specific answers and my guess is you don't either, but I do think it is sometimes good to slow down and re-evaluate what we are doing before we just keep going down the road because "that's how we got there last time."

Perhaps as you begin to analyze what you've done this year and start to draft out some 2012 plans in your head, you should start to look at where you can improve efficiencies and where you can deliver more results.

What would you say if you could develop a system that allowed you to build relationships, solve problems and have fun quicker and better than you ever have?

My guess is you'd smile and say "Eff yeah! Sign me up!"