There’s no shortage of conferences in the real estate community. There’s NAR, the Inman Connects, the national brokerage conventions, & the upcoming BloodhoundBlog Unchained just to name a few. While these conferences are cool and all, the price starts to add up and many of us leave after hearing a lot of stuff that we already know. It’s becoming apparent to me that many of the big takeaways are coming from the networking (& socializing) done at those events.
In an attempt to change things up a bit, I’m going to be organizing a real estate unconference in San Francisco.
An un-conference? Huh? Yeah that’s right, an un-Conference.
The day before the Inman ConnectSF conference in July, we’re going to have an un-conference for the real estate community based on the BarCamp (wikipedia)& Open Space principles called RE Bar Camp 2008.
Now, the concept may sound a bit anarchistic & chaotic, but I’ve participated in these types of events before and my experiences from them stand among my favorites out of any conference that I’ve ever attended.
Not only is this going to be totally different than any other real estate conference that you’ve attended, with a little help for the community it’s also going to be FREE.
To help offset the costs, We’re going to be offering sponsorships at the $250 level & every dollar will go towards the event.
Now, since most of you don’t already live in the Bay Area, remember that we’re going to be holding it on July 22, which is the day before Inman ConnectSF starts. So all you need to do is to plan on coming a day early. Way cool, eh?
Now, just to make things clear. This is a community event and we need your help to pull this off.
First, read the rules of BarCamp & then visit the wiki and poke around a bit. We’re going to be adding more as things develop and you’re encouraged to add stuff as well.
I guess that’s it for now, but stay tuned & don’t hate, participate.
Writer for national real estate opinion column AgentGenius.com, focusing on the improvement of the real estate industry by educating peers about technology, real estate legislation, ethics, practices and brokerage with the end result being that consumers have a better experience.

Greg Swann
January 18, 2008 at 11:59 am
Utterly brilliant. Anti-marketing at its best. My hat is off to you!
Marlow Harris
January 18, 2008 at 12:01 pm
If you’re meeting in a BAR, count me in.
loren nason
January 18, 2008 at 12:51 pm
very interesting. Since I making a point to go to SF Connect. I will have to go to this.
Brad Coy
January 18, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Great idea Andy. You know I’m there! This is a suit and tie type of event, right?
Kristal Kraft
January 18, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Outstanding! What a great way to put together a valuable event. I can hardly wait!
Andy Kaufman
January 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Greg- Thanks man. From what I’ve heard, you’re putting together a top notch event as well.
Marlow – I’m sure a bar/club/speakeasy/alley will be fit into the equation somewhere along the way.
Loren- Yes you will.
Brad- I was thinking more like those Tuxedo T-shirts
Kristal- Me neither. We’re going to have a lot of fun.
In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the wiki & add to it where you can.
Brad Coy
January 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm
btw – @Marlow, you know we’re going to have “tequila for twitterers” one way or another 😉
Robert Luna
January 18, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Count me in, I have the Connect on my calendar now so is the camp. Loren see you there.
Todd Carpenter
January 18, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Count me in. I’ll add this to the CoRE events calender as well.
Frances Flynn Thorsen
January 19, 2008 at 5:25 am
Sounds good … maybe we can take over Alcatraz Island for the day. Might be an interesting venue 😉
Ginger Wilcox
January 20, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Sounds great Andy! Count me to help.