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Recipe for an Active Rain Celebration...Chicago Land Style!

recipie for a celebration First of All Gather Together all the Necessary Ingredients:

1- Terrific Italian Style Restauraunt In Oak Brook, Illinois...just outside of Chicago

25 or so - Active Rain Bloggers from: Iowa, Michigan, Indiana & Illiniois...Yeah Midwest!!!

2- Special Active Rain Founders: Matt & Lydia Heaton

2- Great Organizers & Hosts: Craig Schiller & Eileen Landau

Tons- of Warm Smiles and Great Conversation

MIX TOGETHER WITH LOTS OF FUN and Voila...

You Have what we experienced in Chicago Today!

Active Rain Birthday This was a wonderful opportunity to meet people and get to know them in real life...fleshing out the blogging experience so to speak. Maggianos Restaurant in Oak Brook, Illinois provided a warmly intimate setting for this Midwest Connection of the Active Rain Celebration.

Lydia Heaton, hostess extraordinaire arrived with name tags & the birthday cake! She even sent us home with extra food!

Inquiring minds enjoyed talking to Matt to see if we could get revelations for the future! Zillow blogger & Representative, Sara Bonert also fielded many questions. It was good to be able to talk to Sara about some of the innovations Zillow is continuing to work on.

I met Justyna, a real estate agent from the Chicago area and also Laurie Dunnmire,a Realtor and stager. Lucky Lang talked about the incredible MEME blog that he put together. Enjoyed meeting Julie Firenzi (Project Blogger) & her husband. Craig Schiller (Stager & Founder of Stage if Forward) stimulated my mind and imagination. As much as I enjoy his blogs...it was great to share ideas in person. It was also a lot of fun to talk with Eileen Landau. Time flew by very quickly!

Today, was a wonderful demonstration of what makes the Active Rain experience so empowering.

I express special thanks my husband, Clement who drove 3 hours to this gathering and made it possible for me to attend. Several other spouses also showed up to support their Blogging Partners!

Active Rain- Chicago Birthday Celebration

Conversation naturally turned towards the real estate industry as everyone compared notes. More than once, blogs that had been written were referred to.

TO COMPLETE THE RECIPE...

BAKE FOR 12 MONTHS, COOL DOWN & LOOK at the MIX AGAIN....

According to Matt Heaton he predicts:

Active Rain will continue to grow at it's current steady rate and have a total of 100,000 MEMBERS in a Year!

AND

GROUPS to be increasingly important in maintaining Community!

Happy Birthday Active Rain and May You ENJOY many, many more! Thank You for providing a Generous Platform to share and to grow professionally.

Links to other posts about the Chicago Active Rain B-Day Celebration...

Active Rain Birthday Party Chicago Style...by Lucky Lang

How Does Active Rain Make Money? Chicago Wanted Answers...by Craig Schiller

Happy Birthday Active Rain...by Eileen Landau

Thank You Active Rain for the Chicago Birthday Party...by Sara Bonert

Lola Audu, CRS, GRI e-Pro ~ Audu Real Estate

Lola Audu, is the Designated Broker & Owner of Audu Real Estate. Our company specializes in helping people buy and sell homes in the greater Grand Rapids, West Michigan area. We've had the privilege of helping hundreds of clients succeed in their goals of purchasing and selling property including demonstrated success in the negotiation of Short Sale Transactions. You can contact us via e-mail @ info@auduhomes.com or by phone at 616-791-0511.

Posted by Lola Audu~Real Estate Broker/Owner Grand Rapids, Michigan Real Estate on 06/17/2007 05:23 AM

Comments (44)

active rain

44 Comments on Recipe for an Active Rain Celebration...Chicago Land Style!

JUN

2007

If you have the opportunity to attend one of these celebrations, I'd encourage you to do so. This was a wonderful time of connecting and networking! Highly recommended!

Lola - thanks for sharing a great recipe for fun - love the pics and love the post. This is what's good about Active rain - the great people connections. What a sweet hubby you have to support you like that! Wish him a special Happy Father's Day!!

Nice posting - looks like fun :o)

Lola,

WOW! You are all over this! This was fast and very nicely done. What program do you use to edit your photos? It was great to finally meet the famous LOLA!

Glad you made it home alright. I'm up in the middle of the night at the Marriott still in Chicago!

Take care!

Lucky :)

Oh my God. I feel bad for the spouses... I think they think we all have joined a cult.

BUT many did came along (and snapped the picture)... to be with us and enjoy the good company.

WHAT FUN it was to meet and LAUGH and take home the leftovers.... I GOT THE CAKE!

I am impressed that you went Lola! Thanks for sharing the photos and the recipe.

Hi Lola - thanks for sharing this Gathering with us. Sounds like all had a great time being together and celebrating AR's first birthday. I had hoped to make the Florida Gathering next weekend, but just can't pull it off, and I know I am gonna be so bummed when I see those posts and pictures.....

Thanks for sharing! Love your recipe!
Ann

Lola, looks like you guys had a great time. Thanks for getting this out so quickly, I woke up wondering if I would see a post today and BAM! there you are.

Lola, what fun you guys had! I do enjoy these types of posts very much, even more when it's AR's birthday. Clement deserves an extra special hug today for being such a dear. Please give him one from me!

THANK LOLA WHAT GREAT JOB YOU DID, WOULD LOVE TO MEET OTHERS ALSO...

Hi Lola...

These Birthday Gatherings are so cool. I love seeing the members connecting in person and enjoying each other's company. It is truly inspiring to know that any one of us here on AR have a friend in every state including Canada.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. Do me a favor though...Please place this post in...

"The Active Rain Gathering Group". Matt and Lydia opened the group so we could have the members who are connecting with each other all in one spot.

TLW...ROAR!

LOLA... this is 1 from 100!

I just noticed.

NO PRESSURE it just better be AWESOME!

Terrific post! Looks like loads of fun!

Thanks for sharing.

Lola, it was a pleasure meeting you and your husband!

The day went by much too quickly! I would have loved to have spent a little more time with everyone! I hope we have the pleasure of meeting again. (Hey, maybe when I take a trip to my old summer stomping grounds in White Cloud!)

This was a great summary of the event and I love your photos. None of mine turned out, except for the cake.... I didn't have my flash set for the dimly lit restaurant. :(

Nice update Lola, great photos and coverage.

Oh my gosh...what a revelation!!! I had NO idea that Julie Firenzi was married to Craig Schiller!!!!!!!! Not sure where this information was that I missed but I clearly missed it. And what a cute couple in my mind's eye they make!

My friend in Golden, Colorado will be sorely disappointed, though...she is madly in love with Craig so this will come as quite a shock.

OK, are there any children? Have I missed that, too?????

Now, that I am over the shock, it sounds like you guys had a good time and would love to see some more pics from your event.

Thank you for sharing!

Lol! Gena! I did a double-take on that one! Had to go back and try to figure that one out. Looks like a great time for everyone. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

Lola, I wish you had handed the camera to somebody else. Where are you in these pictures?

Lola - It was nice to meet you and all the others. Great people, great food, great afternoon. . .let's not wait another year, I could get very used to gatherings like this!

Thanks to everyone for attending, I had a fun time meeting everyone. Florida is up next weekend...

I am still basking in the fun we had at the AR celebration in Long Beach. Wish I was there....

"Florida is up next weekend..."

Yup. It most certainly is and boy are we ready :)

TLW...ROAR!

Lola, you did it !! So glad........the pictures are great.

I just love Maggianos. We have one here...You went all the way to Chicago to network...

Traditional networking vs. virtual...much more effective..great post!

It looks like another wonderful Active Rain Brithday! Congrats to all!

I am in the Chicago area, I wish I was there at AR birthday party. Looks like you all had lots of fun!!!

Lola: Looks like great fun for all! Thanks for sharing.

Lola,

I finally got my post of this event done:

Active Rain Birthday Party Chicago Style!!!

The link to your post here is in it!

Take care,

Lucky :)

You had a great mix of attendees -- AR Team. agents, stagers, Zillow, and people from three or four states! Thanks for sharing the pics!

JUN

2007

Lola - way to document the event! I'm so glad you put this together and so glad you had fun.

Thanks to all who have stopped by to comment! I took the day off on Sunday and enjoyed some rest and a wonderful Father's Day. It has been fun to read all the comments this Monday. It has been pointed out the RECIPIE should be spelt RECIPE! Ooops! This is what happens when you post late at night and forget to run your spell checker just one more time...I'm going to leave the picture up with the headline (Recipie for a Celebration) as a reminder that our little imperfections are what make us most interesting at times!

Cyndee, Thanks for your comment! We did enjoy a wonderful Father's Day! My 2 teenagers put together quite a spread to honor & Celebrate a great dad!

Michael, it was a lot of fun! Try to get to one of these if you have opportunity!

Hi Lucky, Just read your post too. It was good to meet you and your wife. It turned out to be a very long day for us as we hit some traffic heading out, but I decided to post that night because I knew I would not be touching a computer again until Monday! For this post, I used Printshop to create the graphics.

Craig, Great Food, Great Location & Great Company...all the necessary ingredients for a swell event! And...all with folks with whom we were meeting face to face for the first time! Amazing! Thanks for sharing some really helpful insights about blogging & groups...I'm still processing. :)

Maureen, I'm glad that I went. It was an intriguing & interesting event on many levels & also fun to boot! I'd love to meet you at an event like this if we ever had another one for the Midwest.

Ann, The Florida event is going to be Terrific...I just know it! Well, perhaps next time you'll have an opportunity to go. I'd love to meet you too as I've read several of your blog posts. Thanks for commenting.

Hi Bryant, I knew that if I didn't post...it wasn't going to happen until late Monday...stale news you know. I felt like a bonafide reporter! :) Hope you had a Terrific Father's Day!

Susan, if you you can get to one of these...DO GO!

Hi TLW, It is Amazing...the Friendships! Here we are...many meeting for the first time and there are instant connections. Conversation is not stilted, but engages right away. If this is even just a small part of what is happening when members of the public connect with a blogger on Active Rain...then this is far more powerful that I think most of us ever imagined! Thanks for the top to post this blog in the Active Rain Gatherings group.

Carol, Thanks for your visit and comment.

Maggie, Almost missed your comment. Thanks for stopping by. It would be fun to catch up with you at one of these type of events! I will let Clement know how much he is appreciated by my fellow bloggers at Active Rain. :)

Hi Julie, It was great to see you! I wished that we had more opportunity to talk...the time did fly by amazingly quickly. I have enjoyed reading several of your blog posts and I'm so impressed by how you do it all so well with little kids! Keep it up. You're inspiring!

Hi Gary, Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Gena, You made me a do a double take with your comment! :) I think you missed the punctuation mark of the period when you were reading. For the record...Julie Firenzi is NOT married to Craig Schiller. I met her husband who was along to support her at the event, like mine was to support me. We all had a great time & were truly grateful to Craig & Eileen for their work in putting this event together. Hope you'll have an opportunity to attend one of these.

Kelly...read comment to Gena. :) Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Dena, I DID hand over the camera at one point, but those pictures didn't come out well and in the one that was usable, I wasn't visible. Thankfully, Lucky has captured some pictures on his blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Lori, it was great to meet you everyone else. Events like this give real meaning to the contribution that Active Rain is making in the real estate community.

Matt, It was truly a pleasure to meet you & Lydia in Chicago. I know that you're as amazed at this phenomenon as many of us are. Thank you utilizing your creativity & skills to create a place of community which is truly benefiting the real estate industry. Kudos to you!

Terri, I can certainly understand...

TLW...we're all waiting to see how Florida tops it off next weekend!! :)

Missy, you would have absolutely enjoyed it! I would have loved to touch base with you...hopefully, we'll be able to do that soon. :)

Tracy, interesting point..."traditional networking vs. virtual...much more effective." Very true...have been to many traditional networking events and they are very different than this was.

Hi Christy, Thanks for your comment

Sorry that you missed this event, Joe.

Long day...but It was a lot of fun, Therese.

Thanks for the link Lucky...I'm going to edit this post to include the other's posts as well.

Hi John, It was a great mix of people and sparked some interesting discussions!

Hi Ines, Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Glad you enjoyed the post!

Ah Lola,

We had a ball. As Craig commented, "What happens in Oak Brook...ends up on Active Rain!" We enjoyed figuring out a 'cool' place that was easy to get to. And, the food! Yum!

Craig, should put the cake in the freezer and we can bring it out next year when we have our 2nd birthday party. And, yes, the figure of 100,000 that Matt threw out when I asked him where he saw AR in a year, is just mind blowing.

And we were here at the birth!

Lola, looks like all of you had a great time. The one in New York is at the end of the month and I hope to be able to set aside time to go there. I am sure that those who are planning that get together will do an equally great job.

JUN

2007

Lola:

It was great meeting you on Saturday. You took some great pictures.

Greg Zaccagni

JUN

2007

Lola, what a wonderful post! Active Rain is coming to NY soon and I can't wait to attend and meet everyone---I'm looking forward to having a wonderful time and meeting many people on AR.

JUN

2007

Lola, What a great thing. I have to call my friend and tell her that I missed the period! I was so shocked and now you have solved it...it was a period. Amazing the difference a period, makes. Thank you.

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