Benefit your real estate business by attending events

So Many Events! Realtors Should You Bother Going?

The real estate world is a social space with more conferences, meetups, and mixers than you could ever attend.

You’re busy but have the best intentions to attend the next function. You miss board events, decline event invites on Facebook, regret not attending the “big conference”. But are you really missing out on opportunities to grow your business?

The answer is an astounding YES! Consider the ROI of attending just one conference –

• Interactive learning sessions (no clicking through mandatory content here!)…
• Lively discussions with innovators and leaders (to be continued over coffee next week)…
• Cutting-edge industry news, and marketing and tech trends (with a list of tools and providers to save you time and money)…
• Enhanced market presence and referral potential (and maybe you recruited an agent too)…

A ton of networking – with so many people there you can’t help but to find ones that you want to spend time with

Come home inspired, refreshed and confident. Ready to create your best year in real estate yet

That is a low risk investment to give yourself a competitive advantage. Whether it be knowledge, new connections, new skills, or just straight inspiration and motivation you are not coming home empty handed.

Let’s be honest. These conference are never somewhere like Des Moine, Iowa. Worst case you’ve had a mini
holiday somewhere fabulous that is a write off. Not saying this should be your strategy, but its a decent consolation prize.

Getting the most from events

Ok, let’s assume you are not shooting for the consolation prize. There is room for a little fun, but you want to grow your business as well.

Here are 4 tips to help you do both:

1. Be selective

Go to events that align with your business goals, personal goals, and budget. Ask others which events they like the best (or least) and why. Explore non-real estate events too, like TEDx or workshops that focus on sharpening skills like goal setting or marketing.

Mix it up! While conferences are fun, they require a greater investment of your time and money. Don’t overlook the value of small local events (especially if they include presentations or panels).

These are quick, inexpensive ways to delve into a specific topic, see what your competition is up to, and socialize with colleagues. The intimate format promotes discussion among attendees and you can usually chat with the speaker if you have more questions.

2. Attend with purpose

Do you want to:

Learn about a specific topic/tool?
Create content for your newsletters or social media?
Expand your network?
Recruit agents or staff?
See what your competitors are doing/saying?
Source services (like website providers, home stagers, etc.)?

You may have other goals, or if you just want to have a great time with colleagues, that’s okay too! Building relationships is a valuable business goal.

3. Don’t let a bad presentation get you down

That was a waste of time… Or was it? Consider why you’re disappointed with the content.

If you’re attending a multi-session conference, review the schedule beforehand and highlight sessions that interest you. Don’t just “follow the herd” and miss out on content you wanted to hear and see.

Sometimes the titles of the sessions can lead you to believe it was going to be about something completely different. This happens. No one’s fault. Just chalk it up to you can’t win them all.

If there’s something you wish the speaker had discussed, speak up during the Q&A or find others to continue the discussion with post-presentation. Often the speakers are available afterwards. Most speak at events because the love to share. Pretty rare they don’t make some time for one on ones afterwards.

Use your smartphone to take photos of interesting slides and keep track of links or articles to look up later. Or even
record the whole thing to watch again later. Just be mindful about posting it online. Some speakers and events don’t mind. Others may not be happy about it.

4. Take action

Industry leaders are willing to share trade “secrets” at events because they know most REALTORS won’t bother copying them. By most we mean virtually all of them. Don’t be them.

After each event, apply what you’ve learned to your business strategies (where it makes sense to do so). Don’t try to do it all at once. Try implementing things into weekly goals. Of the large idea, break it down into 10 to dos. Implement one a week. Sure you could try to do it in two weeks. But really…we all know how that goes for most of us.

Take detailed notes. No chance you remember 20% of what you hear or see. Or at least accurately. On a laptop, paper and pen, on your phone. However you do it, do it. This will go a long ways when it is time to start future projects.

Share your new knowledge with your team, your office or any of your peers. For the same reasons speakers give away the secrets you should to. Again odds of someone implementing them is slim. They will be grateful regardless. Realtors need to look out for each other and this is a way you can do that.

If you are footing the bill to send others to events, make sure they come back with information to share with you too.

And ALWAYS follow up with the contacts you made! Networking is worthless if the relationship isn’t maintained.

Was it worth it?

Compare your investment (time and money spent) to your return (your takeaways). You won’t be able to put a dollar value on each return, but that’s okay.

Of the six benefits we mentioned at the top, if you accomplish three of them. You’ve done well.

If all you got was the seventh benefit. At least you got some R&R. No one is judging. It is your conference to attend how you want. Just save your receipts for maximum ROI on that R&R.

Do you have a favourite event or function? Share it in the comments below!