Free love and hippy communes…these guys have been on the wacky weed! REBarcamp 2011. WTF was this? A socialised information day based on the US I.T. industry and its historical habit of getting the real deals done in the Bar after the conferences? We can’t just do what the Seppo’s do… we are Australian for crying out loud.
Sure it was going to be a love-in, loads of agents locked in a room, egos parked at the door.…as if that’s going to happen!
Anyway I went, I’ll try anything once.
We were nervous and milling around, a suitably casually attired group of Agents (it’s another REBarcamp thing, no suits and ties. I had shorts and my double pluggers on) proceeded to nominate topics for the day. Really we had no idea what was about to unfold.
The rules were spelt out. No spruiking. Just stop selling today. No ego’s. This was to be a respectful meeting of minds. And if you didn’t like who or what you were hearing then vote with your feet.
And so it began. We broke into groups. 100 of Perth’s most proactive Agents started to share what they knew about their skills, industry resources, trends, changes, management issues. Suddenly the benefits of this little exercise hit me like the stench of a rental property where the toilets have backed up.
We share the same problems day to day. And we all have different solutions. A wealth of shared knowledge. The synergies were real. No wacky weed here. This was the real deal. From cloud computing to vendor paid marking we touched on all the industry hot buttons.
I picked up a little social media habit at that REBarcamp that changed the way Lee and I think about real estate. Twitter. Blogging. Social media as a business tool. That was real information that we picked up on that day and have run with and have incorporated into the model of who we are and how we do our business.
Without REBarcamp we might have eventually gone down that path, but not as early adopters and not with the confidence and newly acquired network of supportive, like-minded peers.
It was a fun day. We made new friends. Who says you can’t be friends with other Agents?! And it was productive! Most seminars or panel events bore intelligent interactive creatures like agents to tears. REBarcamp is like talkback radio on speed. If you don’t like the topic just change channel – that is vote with your feet – off to the next group.
Sure REBarcamp depends on the people who attend to make it work and it does have a sniff of socialised capitalism about it, but damn it works!
If you are fortunate enough to go this year’s event at The Balmoral Hotel in East Vic Park on October 19th, start thinking about topics that matter to you.
Make sure you move heaven and earth and get yourself a ticket to this year’s REBarcamp!
Great post Derek!