With a record setting 25,000 Realtors flooding the city of New Orleans for the annual National Association of Realtors Convention, crazy stuff was bound to happen.  we started the day with the Active Rain members meeting, followed by the Blog Seminar featuring The Real Estate Coach herself, Bernice Ross, celebrated blogging author, Richard Nacht and blog expert, Bill French, then we toured the exhibits and attended the the NAR general session and ended the evening with NARdiGRAS on Bourbon Street. So, for those of you that did not make the trip to NAR, here is a brief recap of yesterday's events.

Active Rain Meeting

With a record setting 25,000 Realtors flooding the city of New Orleans for the annual National Association of Realtors Convention, crazy stuff was bound to happen. So, for those of you that did not make the trip to NAR, here is a brief recap of yesterday’s events.

Active Rain Meeting

At 8:00 AM, about 15 Active Rainers met in the lobby of the Morial Convention Hall to meet Matt Heatton. The cast of coffee carting bloggers included the illustrious Sharon Simms, Teri Isner, Moo, Bill French and many more. Oh yeah, for all of you that haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Matt, what a great guy! Matt comes across as a very humble and open. Bill French and I even had the occasion to publicly agree with each other on some aspects of blogging. Stop the presses, I said it, we agreed on things! Just kidding, Bill is a really good sport. Check out this fun photo Bill French and I took at the morning meeting.

Blogging session with Bernice Ross (Inman), Bill French (Myst Technologies) and Richard Nacht (Blogging Systems)

The 9:00 AM Blogging Session, with it’s distinguished Panel of experts was chock full of information. John and I luckily grabbed seats in the packed room and watched as future bloggers soaked up the information and scribbled notes furiously as Bernice, Richard and Bill dispensed their pearls of blogging wisdom.

Book Signing: Blogging Systems, Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney debut the Realty Blogging Book

Around 10:00 AM, we headed off to the NAR bookstore to get our hot off the presses release of Realty Blogging Book signed by the authors. Before I even say anything about Richard and Paul’s book, I have to tell you the picture doesn’t do these guys justice. They are simply adorable. I was so honored to find out that both Richard and Paul have read my blog! These guys are just incredibly personable and very helpful. I am just about done with the book and will be posting a review of it sometime later today.

To buy Realty Blogging Book, click here.

Walking the exhibits

11:00 AM time to walk the exhibits. I’m just going to mention the booths that were of interest to us, because we’re simply not qualified to recommend the real estate specific booths, not being Realtors ourselves.

Google was in the house. Beyond getting the coolest pen ever from their booth, they were demo-ing, Sketch Up, a 3D sketching software for the conceptual phases of home design. Very cool technology.

To download your free copy, click here.

For those of you that don’t know what NOLO is, you have to check them out. If you ever had a legal question, NOLO as the answer. Nolo is the nation’s leading provider of do-it-yourself legal solutions for consumers and small businesses. I’ve been reading NOLO books for years to get a better handle on business legal issues including copyrights, incorporation, human resources issues, property law and patents. I have even threatened John with buying the NOLO Divorce book if he doesn’t start putting his dirty laundry in the hamper instead of on the bedroom floor! Just kidding, but as you can see, they cover just about everything you can think of.

Check out NOLO, visit their site.

General Session

Around 3:00 PM, John and I jumped into the long line of Realtors waiting to get into the general session to see both Former President’s George Bush Senior and Bill Clinton speak. It was a long wait, but we met some very interesting Realtors along the way and definitely worth the time spent standing in line. Surprisingly, George Bush stole the show! He had the crowd belly laughing for the first 10 minutes of his speech reviewing the ups and downs of both his presidency and his retirement. Both Bush and Clinton focused heavily on the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund while touching on the power of bipartisan cooperation. The whole session just seemed to fly by. If this is the kind of show NAR puts on every year, we’ll be seeing ya’ll in Vegas next year!

NARdiGras on Bourbon Street

Yellow, Purple and Green NAR T-shirts flooded the French Quarter last night. Zydeco music filled the streets and Realtors from across the country filled their stomachs with Cajun cuisine and spent their hard earned cash in the city that could use it. Everywhere we went, from Rumalade’s restaurant where we feasted on oysters and crab cakes to historic Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop where we sipped a glass of Shiraz. Realtors were out in force.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Well, boys and girls, I must return to my reading so I can be the first to review Mr. Nacht and Mr. Chaney’s book.

Bill French and I duking it out and making peace!

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