Today I attended a local tech event sponsored by REALTOR.com. I go to pretty much any local tech/marketing event I can go to even when I expect to learn very little.
For instance, today I learned that the brightness of a digital photo is directly related to the megapixels of the camera. I thought the presenter spoke incorrectly, but when it was repeated a few more times, I realized I heard correctly. I’m kind of a decent photographer, have studied the mechanics of cameras and have received underwater photography training from a National Geographic photographer, so I thought brightness was a function of aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation and lighting, but apparently not.
The “class” very quickly turned into a sales pitch as many of these events tend to do. One of my most recent favorite charts was thrown up explaining how vastly superior REALTOR.com was as a search web site. Now I’ll admit, I didn’t read the numbers the last few times I saw this chart, but take a look:
6.68% of the total US real estate search market share. Google has over 90% of search market share. Less than 7% isn’t much. If we combine Yahoo!, Zillow and Trulia (all free for basic listings last I checked), we get 7.77%, more than a percent more traffic than REALTOR.com.
So misinformation and propoganda, why do I go?
- I am a public speaker. I learn good and bad habits by watching other public speakers.
- The room was FULL of people who were interested in using technology for their marketing. They’re the few people I haven’t met. The people I’ve worked with left halfway through from boredom. So it was a great networking event.
- I am the local expert. It makes me look like an expert when I’m able to answer the questions that come up from attending these events. If I attend also, it allows me to have all the answers before someone asks.
Do you force yourself to attend events even when you know you are more knowledgable than the presenter and if so, what are your reasons?
See you at REBarCamp Seattle, where I won’t be the smartest person in the room!
Matthew Hardy
February 12, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Interesting. Do you have any background in CRM or computer networking? Would like to know your thoughts on my last post (our site/blog).
Keith Kreuer
February 13, 2009 at 5:11 am
From one instructor to another…Great article!
Nick Bostic
February 13, 2009 at 5:09 pm
@Matthew – Yes and yes. I think your last post is spot on and hopefully proves to people that trying to sync traditional free apps isn’t that easy in order to (I assume) hopefully sell more of your service. For me though, I’m a sync’er because I’m a tree-huggin-hippie-in-a-suit and my computer goes into standby after about 5 minutes, so remote access doesn’t work. But I do have remote access to my NAS. As for the blog, I’m a little saddened that Chrome can’t find an RSS feed and I didn’t see a feed icon/link because I’d like to keep reading.
@Keith – let me know when the site is up, I’d love to see what you’re doing.
teresa boardman
February 15, 2009 at 4:33 am
Interesting about the camera thing. Who knew. I get frustrated, it is hard to sit still and it is hard to keep quiet at some of the events. I attend a lot of technology events but have been attending local events outside the real estate industry. I am learning how other businesses use the same tools that we do and am getting ideas. I hope that I can bring some new ideas into the real estate arena next time I speak.
Vicki Moore
February 16, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I try to go to everything within a reasonable distance. But I’ve definitely left early – in fact, at the last one I went to where they were explaining that you shouldn’t steal someone else’s content. Do people really need to be told that?
Danilo Bogdanovic
February 16, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’ve been in classess/presentations where I know as much or more than the presenter, but I still stick around. Why? Because there may be somethin later on in the presentation that I don’t know about and I don’t want to miss it.
It’s foolish to assume that you know more ahead of time. The time you think you “already know that” may just be the time you don’t and you miss something that could make you more successful.
I agree that NAR isn’t the best at hiring the best presenters and is big on sales pitches, but not every conference/convention is by NAR.