Realtor ®-The Woodlands Real Estate

What in the world is a Barcamp? Simply put, it's a conference without an agenda until the morning of the event. It's an event created entirely by the attendees. Barcamps are among the most effective uses of conference time I have ever experienced. It's amazing how effective the "uncoference" concept is when it comes to the quality of the information shared. Recently a group of volunteers gathered together to put a Real Estate focus on Barcamps by holding the first ever REBarcamp in San Francisco. It was wildly successful and we're going to do it again, in the Bayou City (Houston) on Oct. 22nd. The best part? It's completely free!

Here's how it works. At the beginning of the day there is a white board or large sheet of butcher paper placed on a wall. The day is sectioned into hour long break out sessions with different room or area assignments. Attendees write down the title of the session they would like to either conduct or attend. Some folks seek out experts in certain areas to moderate their discussions, some decide to moderate their own. All attendees then review the sessions and determine which tracks will be right for them. We plan ot make sure there is something for everyone encouraging basic, intermediae and advanced sessions. So if you don't know what a blog is, don't worry. If you're a long time blogger, there will be something there for you as well.

There is usually a lunch break with a box lunch or catered food provided by the sponsors of the event. There are typically some pretty cool conference swag including a special edition t-shirt for the event, all provided free of charge. Below are the sessions that were finalized at REBarcamp SF - Keep in mind that if you do not see a session here you would be interested in, it doesn't matter, you can create the session you want to particpate in on the day of the event. Pretty cool eh?

time    Back Room    Front Room 1    Front Room 2    Front Room 3
11 AM    BlogSurvey    SocialNetworks    ForeClosure2    ThreeOutcomes
Noon    AltosResearch    VideoBasics101    PayForPerformance    TrainingCoaching
Noon        RetsReso     Syndication    MyTechBase
1 PM     Lunch
2 PM    BlogNetworks    ProBonoReal Estate?    PodCasting
2 PM    ForeClosures    Beginning Blog    Twitter Biz Case
2 PM    Web 2 Marketing
3 PM    Vicious Gossip    Flickr More    GuerillaMarketing
4 PM    MortgageIndustry    SearchDashboard    CommentManagement

We're working on a very cool facility that will allow us to have a wide varity of sessions taking place at the same time. If you're a real estate tech vendor, we encourage demos. If you're an exhibitor or sponsor at the HAR show, why not take advantage of REBarcamp to make additional contact with prospects ahead of the event?

The Houston REBarcamp will be held on Oct. 22nd. (the Day before the HAR Realtor Expo). We have some awesome people coming in from around the country, so don't miss it.  Visit the site today and add yourself on the event page at Facebook!

The folks at Active Rain will be helping us promote REBarcamp and we hope you will too! Tell your firends about it. If you have questions you can email me or Stephanie Edwards Musa for more details.