Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

It’s official, this will be the largest CMLS Conference ever produced.

I’m not sure my liver will be able to handled this…

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CMLS 2010 – THE Multiple Listing Service Conference of the Year

LISLE (August 19, 2010) – When the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) scheduled its annual conference for this fall, they had no idea how big a conference it would turn out to be.

A little background first. Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is this year’s host, and CMLS 2010 is being held at the Westin River North in downtown Chicago, Illinois.

Whether it is the attraction of a great city, the central US location, or the number of hot issues in the industry today, registration and sponsor/exhibitor participation has gone through the roof! This will be the largest attended multiple listing service organization conference of the year, and the largest CMLS conference ever.

CMLS 2010 will be held Wednesday, September 29th through Friday, October 1st. Registrations are still being taken, and additional hotel rooms have been blocked. Sponsors and exhibitors stepped up so early that by the end of July all the available slots had been filled.

Headlining the event will be noted speakers such as futurist and prolific real estate trends author Stefan Swanepoel, technology evangelist Brian Boero of 100watt Consulting and Rob Hahn aka blogger extraordinaire Notorious R.O.B. Interspersed throughout the conference will be interactive panels and cutting edge information sharing sure to make the trip to Chicago well worth anybody’s time.

Those interested in more information about CMLS 2010, including registration, are directed to www.cmls2010.com, or please contact Gayle at 630-955-2768.

Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) is the premier forum and resource for Multiple Listing Service associations.

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) is a real estate data aggregator and distributor that provides the largest multiple listing service in the country (by listing volume) to over 40,000 customers, with property information encompassing northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana.

CMLS is gonna be a monster hit this year!

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!

GEEK ALERT! Don’t Miss “ConnectTech” at Inman this Tuesday and the MLS Innovation Track this Wednesday

Dan Woolley

My partner in crime, Dan Woolley, is once again moderating a workshop, dubbed ConnectTech at the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference this week.  It starts at 8:30AM and goes to 12:30PM

Great program this year.  Here’s what you can expect:

TUESDAY, July 13

8:30 a.m. – 9:10 a.m.
HTML5 Is Coming, Are You Ready?

Sasha Aickin, Engineering Manager, Search Team, Redfin @redfin

Josh Sharfman, CTO, California Association of REALTORS® @CAREALTORS

Tantek Çelik , Co-founder, GMPG & microformats.org

9:15 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.
Social Web – implementing FriendConnect, Twitter OAuth, FB Connect

Geoff Cramer, CEO & Founder, SocialMadeSimple, LLC @geoffcramer

Richard Lacy,Site Director, Frontdoor.com @Lacy_Blog

T.A. McCann,, CEO, Gist, Inc. @tamccann

10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
ConnectTech Sprints: Mobile Development Best Practices – Focus on Android

Greg Carpenter,CEO, Boopsie @boopsie

10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
ConnectTech Sprints: Geolocation and the Web – What Are The implications For Real Estate?

Ian White, CEO, Urban Mapping @urbanmapping

10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Creating Augmented Reality Apps for Real Estate

Rob Cross,Director of Distribution, Trulia @trulia

Michael Coutinho, Engineering Manager, Trulia @trulia

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Michael Wurzer

Also don’t miss Mike Wurzer on Wednesday where he will be ably moderating Innovation Track 1: The MLS.

Vendor Alley Tip:

GET THERE EARLY, THIS ONE ALWAYS FILLS UP!

The last session featuring Lauren Emery, Jim Harrison, and Teresa King Kinney talking about RPR, CoreLogic, and Realtor.com looks very interesting

Here’s the program

Wednesday, July 14

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
The Standards Imperative: How to Create a Meaningful MLS Data Standard in 2010
The world of technology, data and media is changing fast while MLSs remain tangled in a world without true standards. Learn how we can fix that – this year.

Michael Wurzer, CEO, FBS Data Systems, @mwurzer

Robert Overman, CTO and Vice President of New Technology, LPS Real Estate Group, @roverman

Travis Wright, Executive Director, RESO, National Association of REALTORS®, @REALTORS

2:55 pm – 3:40 pm
Naked Crunch: Radical Transparency and MLS Data
Learn how meeting the challenge of consumer empowerment with openness rather than intransigence pays off.

Bob Hale, CEO, Houston Association of Realtors, @BobHale

Justin Lajoie, CEO, Diverse Solutions, @jlajoie

Justin Tracy, CTO, Founder, Real Metric, LLC, @realmetric

3:50 pm – 4:35 pm
What – and Who – You Need to Reboot Your Org
You know you need to change the shape of your organization to meet new realities, but struggle with execution. Learn how to structure your organization for change – and you who need to drive it.

John Heithaus, CMO, MRIS, @MRIS_Real_News

Kevin McQueen, Focus Forward Consulting @kmcqueen

Mark Allen, CEO, Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS®, @mplsREALTORS

4:35 pm – 5:00 pm
The RPR/FirstAm/Realtor.com Taste Test
MLS operators who have executed partnerships with the Big Three share the straight dirt on what’s working, what’s not and how they see the future.

Lauren Emery, CEO, IRES, LLC @merylau

Jim Harrison, President and CEO, MLSListings Inc

Teresa King Kinney, CEO, Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beach, @RAMBMiami


Join me at Inman Connect for “Vendor Meet Up”

I’m moderating a Real Estate Tech Vendor Meet Up next week at Inman News’ Real Estate Connect Conference.

According to the Program:

“WEDNESDAY, JULY 14th
1PM to 2:30PM
Continental Parlor 1, Ballroom Level

CONNECT MEET UP

The name says it all: Meet and connect with people from across the country and around the world who share your business interests. Network. Problem solve. Share. Each meetup will be “hosted” by an expert in your market segment to gently guide a discussion led by participants.”

I’m looking forward to meeting new vendors who are just getting started and others looking to change their game.  Should be good chance to share some ideas on how to make a buck in this industry.  Hope to see you there!

Council of MLS launches new website

Council of MLS (CMLS) launches a new website.  W&R Studios worked with Jim Marks at Virtual Results to create a great new website for CMLS.

If you are not a member of CMLS you should be.  CMLS holds the best MLS Conference in the industry and through this new website is going to start to expand its reach with guest  bloggers, research papers, and webinars through the site.

This year’s conference is going to be held in Chicago, hosted by MRED, LLC. Join us!

Inman ConnectTech 2010 San Francisco – Speakers wanted!

Dan Woolley is moderating the ConnectTech Workshop again this year at Inman Connect SF.  The agenda has been set so now he’s reaching out to the real estate tech community and looking for speakers.

To find out more details see Dan’s blog: Tzetze Fly

Vendor Alley Jobs Board is live!

I’m happy to announce the creation of a new “jobs board” for the real estate industry! Since I get a fair amount of readers from all facets of the real estate industry I didn’t limit the jobs listed to just vendors.

The URL is http://Jobs.VendorAlley.com

My wish is for this to become a central hub for anyone involved in the real estate industry; whether a vendor, MLS, association, title company, franchisor, or real estate brokerage to find a job.

I’ve kept it pretty inexpensive. Only $29.95 to post a job for 30 days via PayPal. So far I’m starting with 4 categories:

Sales
Tech
MLS/Association staff
MLS/Association CEO

I consider this a version 1 release. I’ll be spiffing it up later. I would also love your feedback on making it better. Just e-mail me at vendor.alley at gmail dot com

Thanks!

Greg

Inman NYC Warm Up!

*** 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!

Inman Connect NYC – 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

Cloud CMA launch party tonight!

wr
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

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