Interesting Times.
July 31 through Aug 3 I was in San Francisco at the Inman News Real Estate Connect event. You remember those 3 days - the sub-prime mess broke out in a public and wild ride manner. What a time to be with the crème-de-la crème of the Real Estate industries Technology Leaders, Dreamers, Observers and Funders - collectively “The Innovators”.

Growing form 300 attendees a few years back to a crowd of 1700 this year I was amazed by the focus on Technology and lack of attention to people, relationships. Yes this was a Venture Capitalist hunting ground. Realtors were the audience and participants – but the action was the Technologists and the Money Guys – all looking to throw cash at, or build the next Google.

A host of home sale sites – Trulia, Zillow even Realtor.com.
Yahhoo was there speaking to their strength in the growing busines of Real Estate Info sites and so was Google. But as usual Google was a quiet, humble and understated player - wanting to say 'we're just playing the part a supportive role in the process. Wink, nod and a smile.

Three best take away key phrases –

- Executive Vice President of NAR on stage with founder of Zillow, who was also the founder of Expedia so he has track record….back to the comment…..fiercely competitive and protective of Realtors – the Exec VP when asked how he felt about Zillow et al, stated that NAR is friends of anybody this is a friend of Realtors.
- At the general assembly a member of the audience stood and asked "So where was NAR during all this reckless mortgage lending, that was flattening the markets?” the sucking-in of air from the awes, was like the noise of a silent vacuum, the following silence - eerie.
- BUT THE BEST might have been at a break out session that ran circles around Referrals and Technology, the Moderator finally asked the Panel …”but what about relationships” they went blank. An odd time to freeze.

THE BIG RAGE of the Conference –
If you’re Selling Real Estate and don’t have a blog – you’ll perish. Interesting I thought. As of February 2007 there were 69.2 million blogs. By early August there were 97.3 million blogs. My gosh there’d be at least a thousand more as a result of this conference.

That’s 97,300,000 plus 1,000 to equal 97,301,000 – so how is someone to find mine? And with so little time, who has time to read it?

San Fran – great hills. Lots of Star Bucks. Tons of relaxed people. Makes Vancouver look tense!
Best shoe store DW ain’t as good as it used to be for selection or price – Macy’s across the street has good deals too – and great selection with some very cool salesguys. GAP there didn’t have black-jeans either and I as sure they started as a Jean Store…anyone else remember that? Oh oh oh and I played with an IPhone – very cool. Rode the cable, walked the wharf and climbed the hills. Yes day one almost knocked me down, out and flat – but then I did it – got to the top – hung there for an hour like it was Everest – yes now I owned the terrain instead of being bound to the lower regions.