Tuesday, June 1, 2010

AREC Conference 2010

Angela, Karen and Lisa recently went to the Australasian Real Estate Conference, AREC 2010, in Sydney and Lisa fell in love with the keynote speaker. The entertaining, brutally honest, very thought provoking and a little bit sexy (thought Lisa) rock star Bob Geldof. Bob challenged everyone to re-think what we are capable of achieving and how to go about it. During his session, the auditorium was completely silent and the people spellbound.

Aside from Bob there was an array of world class speakers sharing their tools, techniques and ideas.

Some of Lisa’s favorites included, Erik Wahl (US) artist / sales performance motivator. Erik's catch cry was "Innovative Solutions to Achieve Superior Performance". He bounced around the stage with enormous energy, painted five amazing portraits, showed some highly inspirational YouTube clips and encouraged us to look at everything from a different perspective.

Belinda Yabsley was another highly inspirational speaker; she was passionate about sales and customer service. Belinda launched the world-class Mercedes Benz Airport express in Sydney, which resulted in sales that exceeded targets by nearly 400 % within the first 12 months of operation. She was voted Business Woman of the Year in 2005.

Edward de Bono (UK), the creator of the term 'lateral thinking', introduced us to the concept 'EBNE' -excellent but not enough. He had us participating in a number of workshops to assist with problem solving including the six thinking hats. Dr de Bono left us with the message of continual improvement, particularly in areas that appear to function well - he urged us not to be blocked by an open road, but instead to consider the alternatives - take a side street!

Karen, Angela and Lisa all loved Ewan Morton from Morton & Morton Real Estate in NSW.
He took us through his journey of building a modest real estate agency through to the successful enterprise his company is today. We listened to the challenges he endured during the past 18 months which highlighted for all of us the vulnerability of the market cycles. He discussed the challenges associated with recruiting, the importance of systems and procedures and most of all he encouraged us to make peace with our "crapness". Apart from being an entertaining and enlightening speaker, Lisa was left with the distinct impression he would give his competitors a run for their money.

There were many other speakers including Andrew Winters from the TV Series Selling Houses on the Lifestyle Channel. Andrew discussed the presentation of homes during the leasing and selling process. John McGrath shared some insights on his successful business McGrath Real Estate and Matthew Ferrara coached everyone on the secrets of Social Networking - Face book, Twitter and Blogging.

Karen, Angela and Lisa enjoyed their time in Sydney. They also took the opportunity to enjoy a meal over at Woolloomooloo - and no they didn't bump into Russell Crowe.

Bring on AREC 2011.

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