Fast forward to the week before Inman in 2009. The team was busy putting the finishing touches on a project we coined “Next Generation Real Estate Brokerage,” which Sherry Chris unveiled as the next generation project on the main stage of the conference.. Over the last year, there have been dozens and dozens of blogs, hundreds of Tweets and a countless number of conversations in the industry about what the future of the real estate brokerage model should and shouldn’t be. This is exactly what we had hoped for.

There are several highlights from 2009. One of which was attending with several of our franchisees. In twelve months we had grown from zero to over 2000 agents. We were on our way to fulfilling the vision of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand.

And here we are the week before Inman 2010. We have lots of great stuff planned this year. We continue to stay committed to sharing and learning with our colleagues in the industry.

We start the week off at the first ever Agent Reboot on Monday. Sherry will be discussing life style branding strategies for agents.

I’m honored to be facilitating the Brokers Summit on Tuesday morning. We have gathered some of the brightest and most innovative operators in the business together for a morning that promises to be full of ideas and insights.

Sherry will hit the main stage on Wednesday as part of a Leaders panel and again on Thursday to unveil the next chapter in Next Generation Brokerage. We’ve been working hard on bringing some new and interesting perspectives on the future of the industry.

In between all that, we’ll be hanging out at our booth in the trade show, in the Premium Lounge and if you can’t find us at either of those locations search for the nearest Starbucks! We’ll need the caffeine.

We hope to see you there. But if you can’t be there in person, please follow along with us here, on Twitter.com/BHGRealEstate and on Facebook.com/BHGRealEstate.

Instead think of a triangle. What makes this shape special is that it’s three sides are all the same distance. I view the relationship between broker, agent and consumer like a triangle. In other words, equal.

The consumer is on the top and both brokers and agents should be focusing on meeting the consumer’s needs in the best way possible. At the base of the triangle is the broker at one side and the agent on the other. Both need to bring equal value to each other and both deserve to be rewarded for that value.

We saw this relationship get out of balance starting back in the late 90′s. With agent centric business models being adopted by brokerages, the agents kept more and more of the commission dollars. Brokers began offering fewer and fewer services and tools. However, agents expected certain things from their brokers and were often disappointed. The broker and the agent were in a bad marriage with each other. They shared the same house but had stopped communicating and started sleeping in separate bedrooms.

Then the market downturn hit. That combined with the emergence of technology and the changing needs of today’s consumer left the agent and the broker looking at each other agreeing that it was time to work things out.

And that leads us to today. The successful brokers and agents I see across the country have recommitted to each other. They have found a place where they are each offering a mutually beneficial value proposition and collectively as a team they are focusing on delivering exceptional real estate experiences to the consumer.

Brokers and agents are like parents who should be working together to provide the best possible environments for their kids (i.e. the consumer). Isn’t it time we worked as a team?

The number 46 million. Ukraine’s population is just under 46 million, 46 million Americans were born between 1965 and 1980 and, by 2014, 46 million people will have an iPad or other tablet device. Wow! It also turns out that “sponsored conversations” – which compensate social media users for discussing brands’ products – grew to $46 million in 2009, a 14 percent increase from a year earlier. I’m starting to think that 46 million is catching on.

Google lately has been a little late to the game, but still manages to cause waves: first with the Android and now with Google TV. It will be interesting to watch this technology develop into mainstream. Predictions on its success?

Control over Facebook’s privacy last week has opened the social networking site up to more competition. One area it certainly can’t be touched is mobile, especially with the launch of 0.facebook.com, and of course with its unprecedented reach, which bodes well for marketers.

As you all know, I love Foursquare. This week I learned that 15,000 new users each day agree! So, what are you waiting for? Try it out!

A survey from Deloitte found that consumer, in particular the affluent, believe financial recovery has arrived. How can we take advantage of this new confidence and turn it into buying behavior?

It surprises me really that few brokerages have a Facebook strategy. All the numbers support it. Massive adoption from Gen Y and the staggering growth among women 55-65. This week, RWW reports that 40% of People “Friend” Brands on Facebook. So what is it about Facebook that the rank and file brokerage doesn’t grasp?

Social Media Optimization. A insight into how the Boston Celtics are using social media.

From SEO consult: A step by step page analysis of SEO. It’s not as heady as it sounds. Quick read.

Lately, a lot of brokerages have been going through website redesigns and producing some exiting results. @properties in Chicago is one such example. Interesting to note beyond their redesign was their launch and how overnight, they had everyone in real estate talking about it. The reason, they did it right. From who they chose to work with to the people on their team they put in charge to their seemingly flawless execution. It’s not for me to give away their secrets but take your time and read this in depth post from Smashing Magazine titled, Redesign: When to relaunch the site and best practices

Fast Company brought us 8 great solar gadgets to consider. Sort or reads more like an advertisement but nevertheless, this agrees with my interest in being as green as possible. And with the holiday’s coming up, there are few great ideas here that end up under my tree.

Fellow brokers – I can’t stress the importance of using a tool like Twitter to monitor local conversation. This is customer service on steroids. You wouldn’t be the first as this is a practice taking place in many outside verticals. Consider this article from Conversation Agent titled -Twitter, Customer Service and Good Brand Management.

From Marketo blog - 25 Must Read B2B Marketing Blog posts. Everything from tips on Twitter to boost your marketing efforts to answer the question of whether choosing search engines over users is a fatal flaw in SEO?

From Harvard Business Blog, David Armano offered Six Social Media Trends for 2010. Worth reading now and getting a jump on these things to stay ahead of the pack. The main takeaway here is the move past frivolous and the cozy up to serious.

There certainly is a lot of hoopla over augmented reality. However, Curious Raven has different, perhaps more realistic, perhaps cynical take. You decide.

Speaking of Twitter, Jennifer Leggio of ZDnet questions the the depth and scope of corporate Twitter accounts especially for the Johnny come lately brands that do it to do but offer no real substance in this post titled I don’t care if your company is on Twitter.

Can you benefit from content scraped from your site? Take a look at what Google Webmaster Central says taken from their YouTube channel.

Jay Thompson has been hanging around the social media water cooler for quite a while. He’s earned his stripes. Even has an innovator award from Inman that serves as his purple heart. So one might expect him to be gaga over social media. Well he is. But to a sound and logical point which he clearly expresses in this must read Achieving Untold Wealth Via Social Media.

On the same topic of social media reality check brandmind published some very cohesive thoughts about social media and how it works best when integrated. That means planning social media efforts as part of a comprehensive communication plan here titled With the social Web, don’t expect results to come easy.

So what has happened within the real estate industry?

Frankly, from a broker owner and brand perspective, not much. Agents jumped on the bandwagon early on creating Facebook and Twitter accounts, joining blogging platforms and organizing Barcamps 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 effort.

But what about the brokerage companies, the regional and national brands? Leadership is noticeably absent in this arena. I’m not talking about developing a Facebook  training program, or allowing a staff person to set up a company Twitter page. I’m talking about becoming visible, taking risks, engaging the public in an open and honest way, inviting commentary,listening to what your customers are saying and making decisions as a result.

Don’t think the agent population isn’t noticing this absence of leadership. Don’t think it isn’t being talked about online and offline. The way business is being conducted has changed right before our eyes, and while the real estate industry has always been a slow technology adopter, this is not the time to have your head in the sand. Here are some tips and how leaders in other industries are taking control:

• Create and post a viral video – Think Evian Babies
• Engage personally in social networks – Think AT&T
• Join the blogosphere – Think  Jonathan Schwartz, CEO Sun Microsystems blogs.sun.com/jonathan
• Create a community – Think www.minicooper.com

These companies are all taking risks… as consumers are going back to drinking tap water, Evian stands out. In a space where the competition is fierce, and you are not perceived as the best, AT&T invites commentary to help them improve in a world where CEOs have spokespeople, a few such as Jonathan choose to face the world of blogging head on. And in an industry most deeply wounded by this recession, Mini Cooper takes a chance that an online community of hopefully satisfied customers  will help sell more cars. This type of stuff takes guts.

In our industry there is a lot of chatter about “The Brokerage of the Future”. What does this industry need to look like to capture the interest of  the customers of today and tomorrow?  We decided to be proactive and engage the “groundswell “to assist us in doing some modeling. Are you curious? Join us in the conversation as we unveil our work at  Real Estate Connect San Francisco and on this blog in the weeks that follow. Leadership in the real estate industry has never been more important than right now.