The Trade Show - Halloween for Realtors®

If you noticed me missing after Day 4, it was because I ended up sick.  I rarely get sick so I'm calling it the New Orleans Flu. I spent Saturday Nite multi-tasking in the bathroom.  Returning home, I was thrilled to walk out of the Airport in Providence and breathe the fresh air.  Ahhhhhh.   I hate hotels with windows that don't open.  (Since my room also had a mouse, you can probably get the idea, I didn't like the hotel.)  But that's all the complaining, I'm going to do.  The people of New Orleans were thrilled to see us and they all had amazing stories to tell. 

The good news is that I didn't get sick until Saturday Nite after the Trade Show.  A number of Active Rainers met at 8:00AM.  I think others have told the story but it was great seeing some of our most active bloggers including Bill French, Mary McKnight, Sharon Simms, Angus Woodbury and Teri Isner as well as some potential new members like Bunny Mostad, Les Sulgrove, and Deb Alderson.  King Matt (In the blue shirt) of Active Rain was even younger than I thought!  A very soft spoken and impressive young man!  

Then it was off to the Trade Show. I think there were fewer vendors than normal but I'm not quite sure of that. I do know that the giveaways were quite impressive including this cool little thing from Google which looked like a mini lava lamp.  Unfortunately, the cool thing from google had liquid in it and when we arrived at the airport on Sunday, they had already confiscated one and had it on display.  Something tells me they will have a whole collection of them by the time the show is over!   We also got tons of cool pens, calculators, rulers, toys. pads, key chains, tool kits and gizmos - things that blink, light up and make noises too!  I ended up shipping home a box of stuff.  My agents always love getting this crap (a common term for it) when I return from the convention.   Everyone was giving out beads so we were all decked out with bead bling as well as blinking lights before the end of the day.  Here is my convention tip:   If you like the coolest giveaways check out the Title Companies.  They give out the best stuff.  Some of the bigger companies like Avery and Google also hand out impressive junk. Blackberry gave away the most clever pen.....it opened up to display a billboard of Blackberry products.  Can you tell I love the Trade Show???? - It really is like Halloween!!!

My winner of most interactive booth had to be Wells Fargo as they had several contests going on and seemed to attract a great following.  Their party is always a big event as agents scramble to find tickets.  One thing that surprised me was the large number of 1031 Exchange booths.  They seemed to be everywhere.  Overall, I didn't think there was much new stuff.  The one new product I found (and bought) was Announce My Move.   It's a little hard to explain so you can visit there and they can explain it for you.  It was featured as a Cool Tool by Realtor Magazine.  It was my largest purchase of the day.    I did also buy "Realty Blogging" by Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney.   I'm about 1/2 way through and enjoying it a lot - an easy read with plenty of good advice!!!  

There were some obnoxious booth vendors, most notably a couple of pen guys who I won't name even if Bill French said it was ok to call someone a moron if it was true.  (He might not have said that exactly but that is what I heard anyway.)   Les Sulgrove was looking for a business card scanner but the one being demo'd there was unimpressive.  If you have a recommendation for a business card scanner be sure to comment. 

Besides the Halloween aspect, the NAR Trade Show really is the place to see all the current technology and new real estate products all under one roof.  It is also fun to meet the people behind the products I use.  I was able to meet the great folks of Custom House Publishing, Howard Brinton Systems, Ron from HomeFeedback.com, Agency Logic,  ToolKitCMA, Melco Marketing and more! 

I had a great time despite the mouse in my room and the New Orleans Flu.  I'll be there in Las Vegas next year, for sure!