Noteworthy

The 1st 4RealzEd event was yesterday and…

4ealzEdI think I’ve recovered enough now to actually post about it! 🙂

Despite our best efforts to be prepared, the day started off a bit rough with a nearby mudslide taking out power in our building in the morning (meaning no hot coffee and no projector) and a 9-car pileup on a nearby freeway slowed me down tremendously. AHHH

So, to say it started rough would be an understatement… But once it started, things seem to get on a roll quickly.

I started with an overview of consumers expectations in a web2.0 world to set expectations for the day… Jim followed up with presentation on optimal features and design for a real estate website. Then it turned back to me for a presentation on social networking… lunch… then another presentation by me on creating value through blogging about communities. And we returned for the day’s finally with Jim giving a engaging presentation on measuring and tracking marketing results to ensure a positive ROI.

All around, it was a wonderful day! And, maybe they were just being nice, but the attendees who talked with me said only good things about the education.

Because I promised attendees I would give them a list of all the sites I mentioned in my presentations (so that they wouldn’t have to ask me to spell out each URL), here is the list for everyone’s benefit.

Consumer Expectations in a Web2.0 World:

Engaging in Social Networking to Earn Clients

Using Blogs to Build Communities

I wasn’t tracking the sites that Jim mentioned, but there were not nearly as many of them in his presentations…

And thanks again to all the bloggers who have helped spread the word about the event, the sponsors who helped us keep the price low and all the attendees who made the day possible!

I received some incredible feedback from all three groups, which is going to lead me to make some changes to the upcoming events (I’ll announce those early next week!). Great stuff all around. Thanks again to everyone!

Related posts:

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  2. Learning, learning, learning…
  3. Going way back before I took my job at…

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23 responses

  1. Jay Thompson Avatar
    Jay Thompson

    Congrats Dustin! Mudslides and pile-ups aside, I’m sure it was well worth it for the attendees. Sounds like a great program.

    But next time, you should slip some Phoenix real estate blog in there somewhere… 😉

    Reply
  2. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    So very true!

    At one point I list “reasons blogs work”, and I use different examples from RCG posts… During the presentation I came to the conclusion that I had too many RCG screenshots, so my plan is to redo that section to bring in some other great real estate blogs… and I can only imagine there will be at least one Phoenix blog included! 😉

    Reply
  3. toddwcarpenter Avatar
    toddwcarpenter

    Congrats Dustin. I saw your twitter yesterday morning and had to laugh. Great that it all came together.

    Reply
  4. Athol Kay Avatar
    Athol Kay

    Wow, that’s some heady list to be included in with. I appreciate it!

    Reply
  5. Mike Farmer Avatar
    Mike Farmer

    Congratulations!

    Reply
  6. TimJ Avatar
    TimJ

    Congratulations on surviving your first event. You’re off to a great start! (except for the little mudslide and traffic thing).

    Reply
  7. Doug Willis Avatar
    Doug Willis

    I was one of the attendees yesterday. Jim and Dustin provided a wonderful presentation and experience. If you are thinking of blogging, you must go. Seeing Dustin is like, well, “having Moses personally escort you on the arc”.

    Reply
  8. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Thanks to everyone!

    And a special thanks to Doug! I’m planning to send all the attendees an email with a link to this post, but I hadn’t made it that far yet, so it is awesome that you followed up already! I just played on your site a bit and noticed that your site looks pretty darn good and includes a great cast of contributors. You’re already ahead of the game!

    Reply
  9. Richard Dale-Mesaros Avatar
    Richard Dale-Mesaros

    Hi Dustin,

    Glad to see you’re getting out there and enlightening the world about the new social networking. Things are moving at such a fast pace in this arena and we appreciate folks like you who are keeping us in the loop. 2008 is certainly going to be the year of the niche social network, as we’ve already been seeing with our own site for real estate investors.

    Keep up the good work!

    Richard 🙂

    Chief Deal Weaver
    http://www.BlackWidowNetwork.com

    Reply
  10. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Athol,

    I used one of your Bad MLS photos posts to talk about the benefits of using humor… and the slide alone was effective. Everyone had a good chuckle! So credit goes to you for creating a fun resource for us all! 😉

    Reply
  11. pasadenaviews Avatar
    pasadenaviews

    Dustin, this class was everything I hoped for and more. As always, you did a tremendous job making sense of Web2.0. Jim’s presentation on what a website should have and the ROI gave me a lot to think of. I have a slew of next steps to incorporate. Keep up the great work and I look forward to more classes. THANKS to you both!

    Reply
  12. Jim Marks Avatar
    Jim Marks

    Dustin,

    You are superman… Good job getting this post and all the links up… It is Saturday morning and I am just getting my feet back under me… with a weekend in Vail… I thought I would check your blog to get the news!

    I gotta admit that the Mudslide was the first time I have ever seen you sweat! but we worked it out!

    Reply
  13. monikamcgillicuddy Avatar
    monikamcgillicuddy

    Sounds like it all worked out in the end. I wish I could have been there to see you guys in action.

    Reply
  14. Marlene Bridges Avatar
    Marlene Bridges

    Dustin – What an awesome day of mind expansion. You and Jim were fully prepared. You gave us so much information in the morning that I was on the edge of my seat taking notes as quickly as I could. When it was time to break for lunch I was shocked that so much time had passed. Then after lunch you guys packed in even more.

    Dustin, you demystified, clarified, and confirmed things I knew, things I thought I knew, and things I’d wondered about. In today’s market, we simply don’t have money to burn. I absolutely thought my money for the day was well-spent. You valued our time and there was no “dead air”. You and Jim did such an incredible job. BTW – I drove three hours to get to there (enjoyed the scenery on the 405 and saw things I usually sail by-the mudslide affected the freeway, too) and I’d do it again in a heartbeat to hear what you have to say.

    Thanks also to the great sponsors. Events like this one simply can’t happen without sponsors. Thank you for carefully choosing relevent sponsors for this event. I can’t wait to get my Altos Research up and running on all my websites!

    Looking forward to the next 90 days of learning and to future events like this one to build up my Web 2.0 muscles.

    Reply
  15. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Irina, Monika and Marlene: Thank you so much for the kind words about the presentation! Everyone at the event was wonderful, inquisitive, attentive and understanding. A perfect audience! 😉

    Reply
  16. Naia Avatar
    Naia

    Dustin and Jim: As an attendee who showed up a few minutes late (15-30?), I can tell you that by the time I showed up, you were handling it all well, and I had no sense of crisis.

    To all future attendees: The workshop was well worth it! Balanced and useful across a variety of speakers: Dustin, Jim, and the 5 minute presentations by the three sponsors.

    Dustin and Jim, I was thinking that you were served well by your experience at tracking communication across communities. I think it made your planning for this event strong because the parts of the live event LINKED together well—even while each participant was able to keep their identity and provide their own expertise. That’s a hard thing to do well in live events, and you succeeded.

    Naia

    Reply
  17. Naia Avatar
    Naia

    Oh, yes. …btw, count me in for the 90day expansion of your training.

    Reply
  18. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    You’re on Naia! And thanks so much.

    Reply
  19. Missy Caulk Avatar
    Missy Caulk

    Sounds like fun, mudslides, car pile ups and all, but no coffee, I draw the line there.

    Reply
  20. Ubertor Avatar
    Ubertor

    Congrats Dustin. Sounds like a great event.

    Reply
  21. Laura-LosAngelesRealEstateTalk.com Avatar
    Laura-LosAngelesRealEstateTalk.com

    Wow! It seems like the event was a huge success. What is the 90-day expansion training? Is it only available to people who attended this first event?
    Cheers to new adventures!

    Reply
  22. Dustin Avatar
    Dustin

    Laura,

    The event was definitely a lot of fun.

    In terms of the 90-day course, it is an idea that I shared with the first attendees and it involves me walking them through social networking and blogging over a 90-day time period. And, yes, I did offer it free to all attendees…

    Once I get the system down, the plan is to open the course up to anyone who is interested (most probably for a fee).

    Reply
  23. Learning, learning, learning… « 4realz.net

    […] 10, 2008 by Dustin After last Thursday’s event, Jim and I took the weekend to relax and digest what we learned. The break was nice, but now […]

    Reply

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