The convention opened up with the awards ceremony and an address from the Laurie Keenan - President Prudential Real Estate Affiliates then Mark Burnett. She took the stage dancing. Laurie is a forward thinker focused on technology and aligning Prudential affiliates with top technology companies around the world. She made it very clear to thousands of real estate agents that agents may be able to survive today without technology as a primary focus, but in the next few years it will not be possible. "Success in the current market [and market of tomorrow] requires new thinking, new strategies and new tools." She encouraged real estate agents that were doing business the old way to "re-invent themselves or start thinking of a new line of business." She went on about some new relationships Prudential is making with some technology companies as the one with Yahoo is coming to an end (end of year). She also talked about the importance of listing syndication and utilizing our relationships to achieve maximum success. Listing syndication? Why didn't I think of that? :)
Mark Burnett (Survivor creator) was absolutely fantastic. Before hearing him talk, I thought to myself, what can this guy say to a bunch of real estate agents? Boy did he have something to say! His speaking style was very plain with an almost Americanized English accent. He spoke as though you were having a conversation in a bar and got right to the point with every sentence. He told a story of overcoming adversity and how he started Survivor. He went on to tell a story about pitching the Apprentice idea to Donald Trump. Each story focused on his ability to sell himself and his ideas. He also talked very passionately about team building and surrounding yourself with only high energy people and to cut dead weight (non-energized people) loose at EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY when it comes to business. People who are not high energy can only suck the energy out of you. How to Jump Start
Your Company's Online Marketing. This seminar was given by the the Trulia guy. He was a young guy, very smart and very articulate. His message was also on the new way of doing real estate (right in line with Laurie Keenan). He talked a lot about generation Y and how they make up the majority of home buyers now. His company is very in touch with this new group of home buyers and know exactly how to market to them (hence the success of Trulia). He is convinced that real estate has shifted to a place where you can no longer reach your customers through old real estate methods i.e. cold calling, door knocking, newspaper ads, etc. According to him (and I agree) the new way of meeting your customers (Generation Y) is social networking. Using tools like ActiveRain, Trulia Voices and other social networking tools is the way to connect. Hmmmm where have I hear that before? Am I on top of shit or what? Toot, toot. That session ended early so I tried to sneak over to the Online Buyers Advantage (Platform) because I knew my friend Andrew Boyd was speaking.
Platform (OBA)- Andrew spoke about the success of the platform and how agents are now averaging 4 to 5 deals a month as a result of using it effectively. To use it effectively, he thought it was important to staff it with the right type of agents and to not force it on anyone that is only partially committed. The primary focus of the seminar was to show agents the five things to do with a buyer that comes in on the platform and was very similar to the talk he gave at our office. Seminar with Bob Woodruff - The ABC news correspondent, I caught a few minutes of this and skipped out. Soul2Soul Party in the French Quarter. This is thrown by the Merrill Corp. (the people who do our biz card). Local band free drinks yada, yada, yada.
