Comments on: So, Who’s Really Shaping Our Future?

By: Has the “Groundswell” Effect Finally Reached Real Estate Companies? | Clean Slate

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:12:10 +0000

[...] to informally train each other and spread the word. I wrote about this in an earlier post “Who Is Shaping Our Future” – hats off to the group of agents, and a few broker owners who are spearheading this [...]

By: Darrin Friedman

Darrin Friedman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:11:05 +0000

Outstanding Sherry! Thanks so much for telling it like it is! RE Barcamp is special and being a part of this club is definitely the coolest club I’ve ever been in – LOL!

See you at the next one!

By: Matthew Ferrara

Matthew Ferrara — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:32:50 +0000

Sherry:
You have found a very important element to shaping change at companies: involvement at all levels. Too many training events are places where talking heads take the podium and prognosticate for hours on end. A few token questions from the audience confirm that nobody is fully asleep, but can we say any learning or change management took place? Not usually.

The format of getting people into workgroups, providing a topic/thought and letting them apply various creative approaches is one of the most effective ways to get people to break through barriers, consider other ideas, shed their “we’ve always done it this way” phobias and take leaps.

Keep up the great work with these events.

By: Stacey Harmon

Stacey Harmon — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:30:54 +0000

Sherry – I’d like to thank you and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate for your support of the barcamp movement and in particular, for the sponsorship of RE BarCamp OC. Will you be able to join us next Thursday (June 25th)? We’d love to see you. Got a great group coming from the re.net world plus lots of local agents new to the SM scene, as well as a handful of broker/owners. Hope to see you there! http://www.rebarcampoc.com

By: Sherry Chris

Sherry Chris — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:47:06 +0000

Derek, moving forward together is important. There will not be one model in the future, that is the beauty of this business.

By: Craig McClelland

Craig McClelland — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:46:12 +0000

I could not agree more. I had the opportunity to attend REtechSouth and meet most of the core group driving the REBC movement. Their an amazing group of individuals and anyone that thinks this is not the future is going to play a small part of the future. Many brokers are scared to embrace the future of business communications, the level of interaction and content sharing. I hope to attend a REBC in the near future. Maybe Miami I hear they have the best Mojito.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:42:13 +0000

If you’re open to anything, you just might find something…..

Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia.com

By: Sherry Chris

Sherry Chris — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:08:38 +0000

Fran – I always value your thoughtful feedback, thanks for taking the time – I think what we want to accomplish is not to diminish the collaborative nature of the events, but also to ensure that a larger audience has access. It will be interesting to see where the movement is a year from now.

By: Derek Massey

Derek Massey — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:51:44 +0000

Sherry, to me it’s so great to see someone on the “big broker” side attend and get behind this event. I have little doubt that most of the innovations we will see in RE over the next few years will have been born, spawned and incubated in some of those barcamp sessions. Without your involvement – and those in similar positions as you – this could become an entrepreneur v. corporate, big broker v. independent debate. Instead, maybe we can all move forward together and create a reality out of the image of RE that I think we all share.

By: Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:53:53 +0000

Thanks for the post Sherry. Like Jay and Kristal mentioned in their comments, I don’t think I could’ve described it better myself.

Watching the social capital flow through the whole REBC ecosystem is an amazing sight to behold. Participants sometimes travel hundreds, even thousands of miles to attend these events, and do so on their own dime. Often, they’re leading sessions and talking about what’s working for them (ie ‘giving away their secrets’) at a free event made possible by organizers & volunteers who aren’t paid and by sponsors who do so without being guaranteed anything in return.

Take a second and re-read that last paragraph and let’s be honest here, if I told you a year ago that an event like that would be growing exponentially, you would’ve probably locked me in a room with padded walls.