You know when you start something new, you just don't know how its gonna work out. Well, I have to say that this TechTalk Thursday forum has seemed to dig it's heels into the ground and ignited the blogger in more than a few people in my office.

I went onto the Delaware County PA page to check and see if there were any new faces and boy was I surprised to find that seven of the top 25 were people in our office and most of those joined after attending or because of our TechTalk Thursday conversations on Active Rain.

Congrats to Deb Greto, John Estheimer, Barbara Berue, Dyan Nelson Blass, Pamela Cloud, Anne Marie and Megan Kerezsi, Gay Murray, Kelli Harris, Tom Feely and John Herried who have all joined the AR community and to all those who are continuing to participate, contribute and build such a great forum. Makes me proud!

What is TechTalk Thursday...
TechTalk Thursdayis and informal session/conversation held once a month on the third Thursday. It is not marked as a class or training session, that may scare the technophobes off from attending. We want to keep it informal and open. Agents are encouraged to bring topics, questions, recommendations and their lunch to sit and chat. And we do just that, talk about whatever is on the minds of the attendees. Once the session is complete I compile a TechTalk REwind newsletter outlining the sessions topics and distribute to the entire office in hopes of peaking future interest. 

It has been a very successful session with great feedback and participation. I love it and I would encourage you to introduce this type of forum in your office, if you are in the area I'll even come by your office and help you start your own group regardless of any affiliations, I want Realtors to embrace technology!

People will learn, although it is not a training session, and people will actively participate. For each of the sessions, have a few bullet points to talk about, such as what is the best phone for Realtors, website providers, what is a blog, to get the conversations rolling and sit back and have fun with it. The conversations will vary and need to be monitored as to not go too technical for the bunch. Balance it out the conversations for all attending, put it in print and follow up with the next month. It serves as a great learning tool and will help build relationships, tech knowledge, marketing efforts and most of all comfort levels with technology.

Give the session a try and let me know how it works for your office! Oh yeah, don't forget to mention at your first meeting, that the reason you are there was because Active Rain , a technology tool, and its members are helping you increase your business everyday!  Would love to hear from your sessions.

All the best

David Joslin