The best part of conventions isn’t governance meetings, innaugurations, classes, presentations, or keynote motivational speakers, it’s the memorable folks you meet and get to interact with IRL (In Real Life), discussing real life stuff and connecting as friends.  I learn more from those folks in that informal situation than I ever can in any of the other conference venues.

Richard Silver

Richard Silver’s session at REBar Camp demonstrated that he is a talented presenter and moderator, but I also found him  to be a genuinely nice guy.  Richard, who practices his trade in Toronto, and I had a great side conversation about medical care in our respective countries.  I don’t want to get all political, but the USA could learn a lot by turning off the propaganda machine and taking a good look at Canada’s system.

Daniel Rothamel

I don’t think I saw Daniel Rothamel without his coat of many URLs at any time during the conference. Daniel is a Realtor in Virginia, community manager, prolific blogger and tweeter, and all- round nice guy (could have something to do with being south of the Mason-Dixon Line).  Check out his blog to find out more about The Real Estate Zebra.  Special thanks to Daniel for including me in a very special conference experience.

Matt Fagioli and RealtyMan

If anyone has made good use of his brand it’s RealtyMan.  I have followed this guy a long time, maybe even met him IRL before, but never knew his name.  The RealtyMan persona is so pervasive, he has T-Shirts.  I am waiting for mine to arrive in the mail from Gerry Bourgeois ( but just google realtyman) – pictured at the left with Matt (the suit) Fagioli, one of the daddy’s of the fabulous RETech South Event

Derek Overbey always greeted anyone who happened to be around with a cheerful smile and a sincere hello.  This Roost guy and I have bantered back and forth on Twitter for a  while and I always appreciate his wit. Derek is involved with the 100 Interviews project, and is a highly talented interviewer.  Thanks to Derek for interviewing me, although I fear that much of my performance will be heavily edited.

Derek Overbey & Tara Hunt

I have had an intellectual crush on Tara Hunt ever since I read The Whuffie Factor. I was honored to be incuded in a roundtable session that Tara facilitated on VRM and real estate, and to get a few minutes to talk with her one-on-one.  This is her formal presention at NAR on Unlocking Home Buyer Happiness with Whuffie.

Bill Wendel (r) confronts a cool kid

Speaking of VRM (look it up!) the roundtable featured my new friend Bill Wendel.  Even though I was intimidated by Bill’s highly intellectual presentation, we became  friends, finding that we had a lot in common, especially a sense of humor about real estate, real estate practitioners, and cool kids.  Bill taught me my favorite new acronym, for a malady many in my profession suffer – not ADD, but ASD (Attention Seeking Disorder), and the Luddite 2.0 principle, which will take many more posts to cover. We will be collaborating on some online projects.  Stay tuned.

Mr. Wright and the Gonzo Mama

And last, but my no means least, my favorite Mommy Blogger and THE FUNNIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD, Christina-Marie “the Gonzo Mama” Wright.  TGM was at NAR with her husband, Greg Wright, 2010 President of the Washington Association of Realtors.  There is no more entertaining evening than catching this lady on a  roll – she had me laughing continuously for about 2 hours.

So, between the sessions and the suits, the rootop cocktail parties with huge fire pits, the innagural dinners, the bloggers’ lounge, classes, and keynotes, there were  some great times to be had at the NAR conference.  I am glad I was there!

Here’s to my great friends!  Stay in touch, y’all.