I went to the NorCal Real Estate Expo yesterday. It was a fantastic event attended by well over 700 local real estate professionals (mostly Realtors). Here are ten highlights from my day at the Expo:
1. The best part of the NorCal Expo was running into so many familiar faces. It was great to mingle with Realtors, loan officers and title reps I know. I probably had 100 little conversations and 20 or more in-depth connections.
2. It was so nice to meet others in person like Meghan Wood & Jennifer Klein, who I had only previously connected with on both Facebook and Twitter.
3. Jim Pelley gave an outstanding talk. He really connected well with the audience and catered his stories to the real estate world. I wish he would have spoken twice actually.
4. I met Frank & Brian from Think Big Work Small and sat in on their talk. I honestly thought they would discuss video marketing, which I was excited about, but their presentation was still very good as they shared about B2B marketing. I also met Mike Mueller who taught a great class on advanced blogging (though 45 minutes is really short to cover a good amount of material).
5. I received two appraisal orders during the day.
6. I had an investor in the Bay Area give me a call while at the Expo after he found me online. He wanted to discuss duplexes in the local market, zip codes to avoid, rent, etc… After talking for 10 minutes or so, I was able to refer him to a trustworthy broker to help him find the right property. Hopefully this will turn into business for both parties.
7. Alyssa Lozano did a wonderful job with the fashion show. I am by no means an authority on fashion by any mild stretch of the imagination, but it was so fun to see Realtors Heather Pearce and Chris Little among others strut their stuff on the runway. Rob McQuade did a fantastic job as the emcee too. Alyssa and her real estate models worked very hard on this production.
8. The Twitter hashtag for the conference was #norcalexpo. Following conversations on Twitter during a convention is a really great techie way to connect with others. I found some new people to follow, gained new followers and had fun and helpful interactions too. If you go to a conference, find out what the hashtag is so you can be a part of the conversation. Have you done this before?
9. I saw two other appraisers at the Expo, which was really great. It’s surprising though to not see many appraisers take advantage of networking with hundreds upon hundreds of local real estate agents.
10. On a superficial note, I brought home some girly pens from vendor booths for my wife (an author). She always likes when I do things like that when I go to conferences. It’s the small things, right?
If you were at the Expo, I’d love to hear about what you thought of the day.
If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook.
That’s great … I’m so glad you all had a great day. You guys rock. I might ask that guy out who’s wearing the orange back pack. How did no one zip up his backpack barn door? hahahaha
Thanks, Heather. I think that guy might be taken. 🙂
Ryan,
Sounds like you really got a lot out of the Expo! Thanks for the recap.
Thanks, Tom. I really did enjoy it. It was a fantastic event, and it’s always nice to break up the work week with something good in the middle.
After the attendance was totaled, there were 930 attendees, 200 vendors. This does not count SAR Staff and EXPO Committee members who were present. Great turnout. Re appraisers, I sent notices out to every one of my appraisal contacts and the only one that came as a result was Cynthia as far as I know and I did not see her, so the other appraiser that you ran into may have been someone else.
Thanks for the numbers, Bill. I just knew it was somewhere north of 700. It’s good to know the exact figures. What a good event. I actually did see Cynthia. You and Cynthia were the only two appraisers I saw.
930 attendees PLUS 200 vendors, I meant.