I am fortunate to live in an area that creates a Triangle between NC State University, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill (Go Pack!).  Right in the "heart" of that Triangle is a Research Park, with HUNDREDS of high tech companies, including RedHat!  We have "tweet ups" here with over 200 people on a regular basis, and a couple of nights ago, over 200 people who are "LinkedIn" met at the Lincoln Theater!

Bottomline, there have been BarCamps, WordCamps (I want to go to the next one 8o), CodeCamps in this part of North Carolina for YEARS!

NOW... we're having a Real Estate BarCamp, and the Realtors we are talking to are all scratching their heads! 

"Camps" are the "New" Conference format.  Instead of having one person stand in front of 300 people with varying degrees of understanding on the subject, you break the group up into smaller discussions.  There's not "ONE" topic covered - the topics are based upon what the people who come want to talk about! 

Let's say one session is on, "I won't be your Friend on Facebook."  (There are lots of reasons...) so the "Thought Leader" will talk about using Facebook for keeping your database, or whatever for like 20 or 25 minutes.  They "set up" the conversation.  THEN, for the remaining time in the session (they normally run for like 50 minutes to an hour) you ask questions and discuss how this might work for you.  "How much time do you spend each week on this activity... Don't you really want TWO profiles as a Real Estate Agent (I don't think so)... Do you put your listings on there?" 

While you are in your group talking about "To Be or Not To Be" another group could be talking about Fan Pages vs Groups on Facebook.  Yet ANOTHER group could be talking about PodCasts!  It's not a one size fits all kinda' day.

So, I was talking to a friend about #REBCRDU, and telling her kinda' how it was run, and about Facebook, and some of the applications... and she said, "So, when I go on a listin' appointment, I'm gonna' find out if she's on it.. and then when I get home, I'm gonna' FACEBOOK 'ER?!?!"  "Ughhh, yeah," I said.  "Well what's that got to do with sellin' Real Estate?"  EVERYTHING!

We hope you decide to come!  Registration is here, and the event is 11/6/09! 

DISCLAIMER:  Lots of people take things literally, so I want to be clear... This is NOT an advanced Facebook Conference... I was just using that as an example 8o))

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