Attending Inman's Real Estate Connect conference in New York City last week was a fantastic experience. In my previous posts Stay Tuned for More from NYC, Inman Connect -- Day 2, and My Roommate Tom Plant, you had a chance to see the lighter side of the conference.
Meeting and hanging out with your friends from Active Rain is certainly one of the top reasons to attend this event. Oh yeah, and you get to meet and party with the Active Rain triumvirate of Matt Heaton, Jon Washburn (and his lovely wife Sara), and Bob Stewart, and Jerry Van Gelder, the new Active Rain Product Guru.
Another reason for attending the Inman Conference is to meet and learn from talented bloggers and top industry folks like:
- Rudy Bachraty, Co-Founder of Sellsius
- Dan Green, Chief Blogging Officer, Bring the Blog
- Jeff Turner, President, RealEstateShows.com
- Rachel Natalie Klein, Founder, IntoTheBox.tv (you absolutely must check out this ultra-cool Manhattan real estate video website)
- Lockhart Steele, Founder and Publisher, Curbed.com
- Joel Burslem, Social Media Manager, Inman News
- Brian Rothenberg, Product Manager, Yahoo! Real Estate
- Teresa Boardman, Realtor/Broker, Blogger Extraordinaire
- Jay Thompson, Realtor/Broker, Blogger Extraordinaire
- Brian Brady, Managing Director, Worldwide Credit Corporation
- Dustin Luther, Founder, 4realz.net Consulting
- Kevin Boer, Founder, 3 Oceans Real Estate Blog
- Marc Davison, Partner, 1000Watt Consulting
- Bradley Inman, Publisher, Inman News
- Pete Flint, Co-Founder & CEO, Trulia
- Lloyd Frink, President, Zillow
- Craig Newmark (yes, the Craig in Craigslist!)
- Matthew Goldstein, COO, LifeAt
- Brian Wilson, Founder, Zolve
- Jonathan Butler, Founder, Brownstoner Media, LLC
- Jim Duncan, Realtor, Blogger, Real Central VA
- Pat Kitano, Managing Principal, Domus Consulting Group
Okay, enough name-dropping, already. I just want to see how many of these great guys and girls will find this post in their Google Alerts and stop by to comment.
The point of this post is to highlight some of those attendees who are often overlooked during a conference, but who also help the attendees learn quite a bit of the innovations going on in the industry:
The Trade Show Vendors
Here are a few of the vendors that I had the chance to chat with during the conference (unless specifically mentioned, I don't necessarily endorse using these vendors. Check them out for yourself):
VisiStat -- These guys run a topnotch web statistics and reporting company. I've been using them since last March on my own blog to provide a wealth of data as to who visits my blog, from where, how long they stay, what they click on, etc. Their reporting and stats are second to none. At the conference, the lovely Tina Bean, Director for Sales and Marketing, spent about 25 minutes talking with me and helping me discover new great things about how to utilize their statistics and reports. I highly recommend their services.
ProRealEstateCity -- I met PREC's Founder Scott Forcino over martinis and we discussed the new community that he's created for Realtors to use in their local markets. This is a service that I haven't had a chance to look into yet, but will check out in the coming days. Scott's an attorney from New York and a very likable guy.
RealProSystems -- I've had a website with RealProSystems for several years and think their service is wonderful. Check out my site at www.BlockRealEstateGroup.com. It's always nice to put a face with a name and connect personally with your service providers as I got the chance to do with Joe Lininger and Charlee Koff.
FrontDoor -- This is a new listing website service that was just launched from HGTV. I got a chance to talk with Rich Lacy who walked me through the site and explained how things work. They're sure to be a big up-and-coming player in the Web 2.0 sphere.
Catzilla.com -- I'm sure these guys are great and I met Alan Gunshor, the CEO, or at least I think I did since I have his business card. To be honest, I haven't the foggiest idea what they do, but I'll check out their site as soon as I finish this post.
There were lots of other vendors at Inman, but that gives you a taste of another part of this don't miss (or don't miss again) conference.
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