Our team just returned from an insightful and exciting five days in New York City for Inman Connect – an event where 3,500 of the best and brightest in the real estate industry come together to network and share ideas. It may just be us, but it feels like the week goes by quicker and quicker each year. Time flies when you’re having fun!
The Marriott Marquis in Times Square was buzzing with top influencers and leaders from the industry sharing innovative ideas and valuable content. Ask anyone, and they will tell you—the people make the conference, and the energy is simply contagious. We’re already looking forward to Inman Connect SF, so as we count down until August, we’ll count down our favorite moments from Inman Connect NY.
7) Sponsoring Inman’s CEO Connect. We had the pleasure of sponsoring Inman’s CEO Connect event this year at the New York Times headquarters. Our CEO, Scott Olsen, and VP of Business Development, Myron Lo, attended the event and enjoyed hearing from and meeting some of the industry’s top leaders and innovators. Key highlights included an industry overview from Trulia’s economist who discussed themes for 2017 and stressed the importance of compression of the transaction, noted that consumer confidence is high but partisan, and predicts mortgage rates won’t go above five or five and half percent. During the female leadership panel, all three of the women in real estate knew Donald Trump personally and professionally, and shared that they were optimistic about his presidency.
6) Meeting with our current and prospective partners. Amidst the chaos of the conference, we managed to schedule time to catch up with our current partners, including the Council of Residential Specialists, Down Payment Resource, and Giveback Homes, just to name a few. We’ve also got some exciting opportunities in development with Concierge Auctions and Katie Lance Consulting.
5) Reconnecting with the Inman Ambassadors. If this was your first Inman Conference, you probably saw a group of people running around tirelessly making connections, answering questions, Snapchatting, and tweeting. These are the Inman Ambassadors—a group of leaders in the industry and Inman Connect veterans who are led by Joe Schutt and Laurie Weston Davis. It was great reconnecting with them as well as with other ambassadors, including Nikki Beauchamp, Wendy Foreman, Danielle Riley, Sara Sutachan, and Billy Ekofo.
4) Sallie Krawcheck: Own It! The Power of Women at Work. As we mentioned earlier, Inman attracts the best and brightest—and, CEO and co-founder of the digital investment platform for women, Sallie Krawcheck, was no exception. Sallie shared insights on some of the challenges she faced working as a financial analyst. She spoke about the need for companies to be more diverse, explaining, “There is such power in diversity. A crowd full of difference makes better results.”
3) Diana Nyad: Execution Perfection When Your Life Depends on It. Inman Connect is known for having exceptional keynote speakers. Last August at Inman Connect SF, the keynote speaker was serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, and this time it was champion swimmer, author and speaker Diana Nyad. Diana shared her epic journey of completing the 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64. Her biggest message to the audience was simple: don’t quit. Regardless of where you want to go, what you want to do, or who you want to be, never give up. She concluded her inspiring talk by reminding us, “When you achieve your dream, it’s not about what you get, but who you become.”
2) Hosting a party with BoomTown and BomBomb. On Wednesday night, we took a brain break from the conference to host a party alongside BoomTown and BombBomb at Bowlmor Times Square. It was a fun night, filled with catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, and brushing up on our bowling skills. A big thanks to everyone who came out and joined us!
1) Seeing our ReferralExchange members. By far, our favorite part of any conference is getting to see our network members in person. A special thank you to our agents who stopped by our kiosk including Michael Hines, Chris Chapin, Ray Lord, Travis Waller, Lance Levine, and Christina Valkanoff. Our talented network of top agents is the foundation of our business and we couldn’t do what we do without you!
If you missed the conference altogether, check out the #ICNY hashtag on Twitter for pictures and coverage from the week!