There have been several posts regarding the Five Star Conference and how worthwhile it may or may not have been for the attendees so I thought I would throw in a few of my thoughts and tips.My experience is that, like everything in life, what you get out of a conference is in direct proportion to what you put in.For me, the conference was a huge success. I was a panel member discussing advanced valuations. This put me in direct contact with some of most dynamic people one could ever hope to meet in our business. (Did I mention that most are potential clients?)I met with a new client and received our first listings from them before I left the conference. In the current environment of closed broker lists, that alone made the trip worthwhile. For me, it usually takes no more than three listings to pay for a conference trip. I have not attended a conference that did not pay for itself in less than 90 days.I do have some suggestions to make. Go with an agenda and a plan. Make it specific. Weather it is a client or an agent or broker whose brain you want to pick, target specific people and clients you want to get “face time” with and make appointments to meet with them at a specific time and place. “Stop by the booth and see me” does not cut it. An appointment, even if it is for five minutes in the hall to say hello does. Make sure you follow up with EVERY new client contact you make after you get home. Make sure you stay in touch with those agents and brokers you met and shared ideas with.Do you have other clients in the area? I usually arrange to see at least two of my other clients that are in the area. I start setting up appointments sometimes weeks or months in advance. Not all of our clients are at every conference and most likely the AMs and Pre-Marketers we talk to on a daily basis will not be there. Show them some love, too.Sure, it seems to be just common sense to combine a conference trip with client visits but I would guess that the vast majority of attendee’s flew into town, sat through some classes and lender open house sessions, went to a sponsored party and flew out of town. Hopefully, when they left it was with some new knowledge and education, but probably it was also with the sinking feeling that it could have been better.Remember: Don’t just show up hoping you will run into an opportunity, create the opportunity. Make a plan for a rewarding conference trip and then execute your plan. Make every trip worthwhile for YOU!
Very well said, Franklin! Having the right mind-set and goals setout to achieve, you certainly reaped the rewards! Being a pannelist on "advanced" evaluations also shined on you. Thank you for sharing!
The stars at night, are big and bright....deep in the heart of TEXAS! WOOT! All I can say is that 5 Star maybe the biggest player in the future change of this site, I can't wait to announce it. I got to finalize some details but, it's looking good!
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