Russ Bergeron has taken over the effort of MRED, LLC hosting the CMLS Conference in Chicago this year due to Bud Fogel’s departure. And the event is shaping up to be one of, if not the largest CMLS conferences ever!

Attendance is way, way, up! The conference hotel (The Westin) is sold out of rooms. All sponsorship tables are sold out. And it’s only July!

So if you haven’t already paid your CMLS member dues or signed up for the conference I suggest you do so….now.

Details can be found at the new Council of MLS website.

Hope to see you there!

Not sure about you but I’m getting excited about the upcoming Inman Real Estate Connect conference coming up in San Francisco!  It starts next month on July 12.

First off is new leadership.  Tim Smith recently took the CEO position at Inman News and I’m looking forward to see what personal stamp Tim puts on the event.  Also lots of exciting stuff going on in the industry.  The competition is heating up and nothing like Inman Connect to catch up with all the players.

Not sure if there are any hotels rooms left but check here to register for the event.

But two things are radically different this year.

1.  The venue has changed from the Palace Hotel to the Union Square Hilton.

2.  The dates have shifted from ending on Friday to ending on Thursday.

I’m not sure about number 2 but I think I may have found out why Inman has switched venues.

Turns out the beloved House of Shields is closing down.  ”Oh the hummanity of it all!!!”

The red glow of the House of Shields was a beacon to Inman attendees as the truly “last call” of the evening.  Godspeed HoS!

For more about the HoS closing click here.

I had a chance to stop by Russ Bergeron’s farewell party last Friday.  I was just coming back from a week long trip in Jacksonville, FL.  It was well attended by Orange County real estate big wigs.  I told Russ he would be sorely missed.  Looks like he is ready for a new challenge.  Here are a couple pics from the event.

Good luck Russ and Godspeed!

Party was just getting started.

Rich, Wallis (Russ' daughter), and John from LPS

*** This post is best read while listening to Jay Z’s track “Empire State of Mind” off his new album “The Blueprint III ***

Oh man I’m getting pumped up for next week! Brad Inman and his team have certainly put together another great conference. I’ve heard attendance is up from last year. So I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. Dan and I have a lot going on at the conference that I wanted to share with you.

First up:

Cloud CMA launch!
Yup, we plan to officially launch our latest web app, Cloud CMA at the show. We will have a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT about this later this week so STAY TUNED!

We will have a demo pod on Wednesday only in “Start-Up Alley” so if you want to come and see a live demo of Cloud CMA please stop by!

Wednesday, January 13

ConnectTech

Dan Woolley will be moderating a Workshop called ConnectTech from 9AM to 11:30AM
Topics include:
Tips and Tricks For Working with the iPhone SDK
How to code IDX Solutions that Don’t Suck
CTO Roundtable: What’s the Next Round of Online Real Estate Innovation?

Thursday, January 14

10:20AM – 10:40AM
I (Greg Robertson) will be on stage for “Start-up Shoot-Out” Part I:The Entrepreneurs”
There will be six us of us pitching our new products and the audience and a panel of judges will decide who take home a prize valued at $25,000!

11:10AM – 11:30AM
Start-Up Shoot-Out Part II: The Investors
High-profile venture investors weigh-in on the start-ups. What do they like? What don’t they like? Will they invest? (Not sure if we get back on stage for this or not yet?)
Investors include: Simon Baker, Vanessa Fox, Brad Inman, and Michael Yang

3PM to 4:PM

I’m doing “CONNECT LAB 2″:

Vendors Only: Selling Technology Solutions in Real Estate
“You’ve got an application. A service. Something you think is killer. But you have no idea how to market and sell it. Learn how to price your product, message it, and get in front of the people who will buy it in this session led by one of the most battle-tested marketing and bus dev executives in the business.”

I’ll be giving a short presentation on what I’m calling “The Twin Peaks of real estate app sales”

I’m kind of bummed a bit because Michael Wurzer is moderating one of the “INNOVATION TRACKS” around the same time:

TRACK 3 – The MLS
2PM to 5PM

MIke has a killer line up of topics and panelists.

RPR Reverb: Should MLSs Love it or Fear it?
Breaking Data Taboos for Fun and Profit
For Those Who Think Big: Charter an Alternate Strategy for Your MLS
Not if, But How To: Work Towards Best Practices for MLS Data Sharing

Ought to be a good show. See you there!

I’m kind of anxious for 2009 to be over with and getting started on 2010. Which is why I’m super pumped for Inman Connect in New York City, which is January 13th to 15th. The list of speakers looks fantastic, as usual. I guess I most interested in see Jason Fried of 37signals.

They are bringing back ConnectTech which was super fun in San Francisco, can’t wait to see what the next set of developers come up with this time!

My company, W&R Studios, will be exhibiting in Start Up Alley on Wednesday. We will be showcasing Cloud CMA. I’m told that spots for Start Up Alley are sold out but Inman has 1 8X10 booth, and 3 demo stations are left. Contact Alice Myerhoff if you are interested.

I’m going to be speaking at a “Connect Lab” on Thursday, the 14th. It’s called Vendors Only: Selling Technology Solutions in Real Estate. So please join me for that session, ought to be fun.

Plus to top it off they have super deal right now. For only $939 ($839 if you are an Inman premium member) you not only get a registration for Inman NYC but Inman SF 2010 as well! Detail are here: Inman Connect NYC Registration

Drink Me!!!!

Don’t forget to come by our Suite and help us finish drinking all the booze we have left!

The fun starts at 5PM and goes to 6:30PM.

I’ll be picking people up in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel and bringing them up to the Suite starting at 5PM.

Help us celebrate!!!

gr

We’ve been getting requests from some of you who want to check out our new web app Cloud CMA.

We are already pretty booked up for formal demos so we thought we would have an informal “Cloud CMA Launch Party”.

So anyone who wants to come see Cloud CMA stop by our Suite at the Hard Rock Hotel on Sunday, November 15th from 5PM to 6:30PM.

Stop by for a cocktail, or two, and see what Greg and Dan have been up to!

See you there!!

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego
Corner of 5th Avenue & L Street
207 5th Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101

Check back here when we have the actual room number.

Shelley Specchio

“Do we know how to throw a party or what?” Shelley Specchio told the audience on Friday afternoon.

Well, the reviews are in and everyone agrees this was one of the best, if not THE BEST, CMLS ever. Early reports were that this CMLS was going to be something special and Shelley, CEO of Northern Nevada Regional MLS (NNRMLS) and her team didn’t disappoint. With the support of Merri Jo Cowen CMLS 2009 set a new bar that is going to be hard to beat.

Merri Jo Cowen

Here are some of the highlights….

Brad Inman gave the keynote. He had just launched his latest enterprise, Vook.com, in New York the day before. He spoke about innovation. Despite his busy schedule he gave a memorable presentation that many speakers referenced later. Brad chided the industry for supporting legacy “people”/systems/thinking and not being more innovative and to push to “create a vibrant marketplace”, and how innovation is “young person’s sport” and encouraged MLS providers to recruit as many young people to board positions. Some comments were a bit controversial but resonated for the rest of the conference.

Each presentation was given a TV Show theme. This added a bit of fun for both the presenters/panelists and the audience.

The content. There was furious note taking during all the sessions.

The voting keypads. Very cool interative tech for this kind of conference.

The Fannie Mae girls ladies. Interesting perspective.

Two words. Bud Fogel. Hilarious!

Jeopardy and Family Feud. (You knew I was going to say that!)

Opal- If you don’t know, then don’t ask.

Sports Center with Brian Larson and Kevin McQueen. This was scheduled as a two hour open forum on topics selected by CMLS attendees earlier in the conference. To me this was a high-risk program that could really have really gone bad. But CMLS attendees made the 2 hours fly by. Brian Larson did his normal fantastic job as he and Kevin kept things going giving great insight and audience participation.

CMLS Crossfire-Marilyn Wilson from The WAV Group, as classy and elegant as ever, played a perfect “straight man” to Larry Lomito as the CMLS crowd howled with laughter!

Speaking of The WAV Group, Victor Lund on Friday night dancing with his daughter was too precious and brought a smile to everyone’s face.

Speaking of Friday night, one word. Jam Sandwich!

Ice cream at the end of the last session on Friday. Nice touch!

I’m sure I’m leaving many things out so fill the comments with your favorites moments of CMLS 2009!

I got to give a shout out to Instanet. They clearly had the best booth setup. Great job Martin!

In keeping with their electronic forms and transaction management solutions they went all green by giving away trees to plant. Clever and fun!

Is it just me or is everyone getting psyched about CMLS this year? Maybe it’s because, as usual, I know something you don’t know ; )

Merri Jo Cowen committed to host the event back when she was the CEO of Northern Nevada MLS. As many of you know Merri Jo has since left NNRMLS and is now the CEO of MyFloridaMLS.

Enter freshly the freshly minted new CEO of NNRMLS, Shelley Specchio.

So now we get two conference hosts for the price of one! Both Shelley and Merri Jo have been working very hard to make this event a memorable success. Just check out the Agenda page and see why!

Brad Inman is doing the keynote. I hear rumors of interactive screens with audience participation, game shows (with yours truly as the host!), and golf, at Edgewood Tahoe, and did someone say casinos!

When are we gonna have time to talk MLS???

So if you haven’t already registered get your groove on! The fun begins next week.

CMLS 2009

See you there!