Real Estate BarCamp Seattle 2009... a very in person cyberspace blast.

The barcamp event this past Friday (2/13/09) in Seattle at Zillow HQ was an absolute winner.

An awesome free flowing day exchanging ideas and experience on most every topic imaginable that had to do with technology, social media, blogging, SEO, SEM, and marketing real estate.

Creativity, openess, passion, and discovery permeated the spaces all day!

A very special event that was so generously facilitated, supported, and presented by members of our very own communities. Those we draw from for ideas, inspiration, guidance, and support.  

I was also at the Bloodhound Seattle Unchained prequel event the day before, also at Zillow HQ.  Many of us attended both days and a big thanks goes to local Realtor Scott Cowen for being the catalyst.

Between the two events we hung out with a lot of passionate professionals. Many with differing points of view on the future of real estate and technology. Both presenters and attendees shared ideas openingly with a wonderful and obvious compassion for a better future. All talking very openly about the roads they travel and what they have personally discovered with their online efforts and what is working for them. More important than answers, I was impressed about the questions that were shared. It was very inspiring.

At the Bloodhound event on Thursday, Brian Brady (America's #1 Mortgage Broker) talked and also hosted the festivities. There were several great conversations... One being between Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin and Greg Swann of BloodhoundBlog. (Greg already posted the video on his blog, shot by Marlow Harris.) Both Glenn and Greg had their own segments where they openly shared their experiences and vision. Then, in a friendly round robin debate with Brian Brady and Rich Jacobson they shared opinions, methods, and thoughts about real estate on the web, social media, and being successful (meaning: how do we make money at this) etc.

There were great take aways...

Follow the ubiquitous road... be everywhere on the web.

Be in the community... feed it if you like it.

Today's consumer on the web is looking for reasons not to do business with you.

Show the past (leave your breadcrumbs) so the consumer knows what you've done.

Later, the blogpanel with Rhonda Porter of Mortgage Master's, Marlow Harris of 360Digest.com (and numerous other sites), and Brad Coy of San Francisco Real Estate Services talked about their blogging and online marketing styles and strategies. I really enjoyed how each of them approached their online endeavors differently, yet with a similar straight forwardness and honesty of purpose. They all said, "it's not always about real estate. It's about your passions and serving others."

 

The barcamp event was delightful. It started right up with a lot of energy that never subsided. I'm not even sure where to begin or end talking about this event. We had a wonderful day of presentations and breakout groups on blogging, SEO, website development, lead generation, and online real estate technology. For me personally, I was in heaven. 

Kevin and Monica Ray, Active Rainers from Missoula, Montana, were there and shot a lot of pictures. If you are friends of theirs via Facebook, you can see them there.

Jim Marks of Virtual Results did an outstanding job talking about website traffic and conversion. "It's about killer content. If you're interested, it will be interesting." And, is the value of your website INSTANTLY apparent.

David Gibbons, Drew Meyers, Rich Barton from Zillow had a great conversation about keywords, crosstalk, inbound linking, anchor text, and page ranking. That might at first sound geeky, but it was very fun and engaging. They also talked about using Google and Yahoo Site Explorer to analyze and tweak your website/blog.

Mike Simonsen and Scott Sambucci from Altos Research chimed in on that conversation and also had a great presentation of their own technology, market statistics and analysis and how to leverage market data. I loved the point they made that data is not the answer. Data should be the illustration of the point you are making to help your client make an intelligent decision.

All in all a fabulous couple of days not soon to be forgotten... I know I've left a lot of people out, but I'm sure you'll soon find more attendees posting comments and pictures. I have a pile of notes I still need to decipher.

Once in a great great while, if you're very lucky, you have a special time where the universe pulls a particular energy together and you find yourself in the midst of a bunch of people that share a common interest, enthusiasm, passion, and dedication. This was one of those times. If you missed it, go to the next one no matter where it is... If being 'online' is a way you do business, it will be worth the trip.

Many special thanks go to...

Active Rain * Agent Image * Altos Research * Bloodhound Blog Unchained * Center for REALTOR Technology * Diverse Solutions * Education.com * Front Seat * Hawaii Real Estate Guy * Inman News * MLBroadcast * Onboard Informatics * Real Geeks * Redfin * RETechy * Trulia * Zillow

I see that Rhonda Porter on Facebook took a lot of pictures also...

Cheers...

René