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Final Reflections and Ramblings on My Conference Experience

November 12, 2012 | 5:00 pm

This was my second NAR conference, and it was by far my best experience yet. Here are a few of my personal thoughts:

The first thing is that I wished I had attended more education sessions. There were so many to choose from and quite a few I had written down, but for whatever reason I was always networking or busy doing something else. My roommates were good at attending the classes and they got a lot from them.

One of my favorite meetings was the invite to the Second Century Ventures luncheon on Saturday. This is the venture capital branch of NAR, and we had a collaborative discussion about technologies that we’re currently using. I got a lot out of this and took notes to go back and try some of the services that others mentioned.

Rolling briefcase is coming with me next year. I’ve been a big proponent of the cross-body bag, but this year it was just too heavy with a laptop, iPad, bottle of water and snacks. My dear husband got me a really nice rolling briefcase at the beginning of my career and we had recently talked about how I don’t use it any more. Well, he and my shoulders and back will be happy to know that it will be my new best friend in 2013.

I won the Wells Fargo pony!! Two years ago, I made a goofy video recap of my attendance at NAR and how I didn’t win the pony, but this year the tables turned and I won my very own plush pony. Life is now complete.

Expo was even more fun than I had expected. I met at least five new vendors that I am seriously going to consider using for my business, and that doesn’t include scores of exhibitors that I was re-introduced to.

I was surprised that Moo.com had a booth. They’re a fun printed materials company that I’ve known about for a long time.

Homes.com had a hilarious photo booth that I partook of three times, and Chase was making flip books out of a seven-second video which was super-innovative! I also did an interview with Chase for their future YouTube channel that is focused on educating buyers about the home-buying process. Trulia was giving free head shots, and I saw various cameras set up at other booths.

Note to self for next year: wear more professionals clothes, even if it’s only an expo. I went casual on my last day thinking I was going to breeze through the booths but ended up spending hours with the vendors.

All in all I did a pretty good with dressing comfortable. No blisters on my feet this year! Now I’m sitting at home with a serious stack of vendor brochures that I am going to start researching and implementing.

Cheers to a successful 2012 REALTORS® Conference & Expo! It was truly magical.