A couple of industry vets just got new gigs. I failed to mention these guys earlier but as I wait for my plane I thought I would give them a quick shout out.
Jamie Clymer
Jamie Clymer is now General Manager and Vice President of Hotpads. I met Jamie back when he used to run Homes.com. Smart guy. Most recently he ran Rentals.com. Good luck to him and his family as they make the move to the west coast.
Brad Bjelke
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Brad Bjelke named Executive Vice President of Rapattoni. Looks like things are shoring up at Rapattoni since Nick’s departure. A relative new comer in terms of Rapattoni staff (only there 6 years) it appears he has impressed Niki and Andy enough to take a top spot. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Rapattoni and congratulate Brad on his new gig.
I’ve got to hand it to the folks at KW. I was super impressed at the recent 2011 Keller Williams Family Reunion in Anaheim, CA.
To start off with in order to participate in the event you must first compete a Approved Vendor Application. Here’s a list of some of the requirements:
You have to be in business for at least 3 years.
5 letters of recommendation from KW agents using your product.
3 business letters of references
1 letter of reference from you bank.
I would love to see more of this type of vetting in the industry. Although the requirement for being in business for 3 years could be shortened. This might limit their agents to new technology.
Tom While setting up our booth an announcement went over the PA requesting Vendors to come to demo theatre. At that point Tom Freireich, director of business development for Keller Williams introduced himself and thanked all of for supporting KW and for our business (imagine that!!) Tom told us how many agents were expected (what? no spin? an actual number?) He also invited us to participate in the general session and other events. In fact the show hours were designed to allow this. Tom explained to us that he wanted everyone to particpate and understand their culture. And a quick note about the show hours, the earliest they started was 11AM. So just in case you didn’t listen to me and “went big” the first night you didn’t have to stress to get to the booth at some ungodly hour. Plus you also got a voucher you could use to buy something to eat. Boom!
The inclusive vibe KW set the tone for was a welcome surprise from someone who has attended and paid for a lot of trade shows. To me Keller Williams has set the bar on how to run a trade show and the respect their vendors. Bravo.
