So what do you say about a long weekend in the Big Easy? Wow and ouch sound appropriate. Wow because of the sheer volume of meetings, classes and vendors to check out and ouch because your feet are challenged from all the walking and standing.

Let’s cover the Expo – the overall theme continued to be mobile applications, social media and integration. Phil reported on QR codes and tags, which were prominently scattered throughout the trade show floor. I took the time to shop for a new phone, hear from the vendors their recommendations as well as what they use and what REALTOR® discounts are available. I also stopped in to a couple of booths to see their latest offerings; including REALTOR.com; Realtytrac; and Houselogic; all of whom I would recommend for further study.

On the meeting front, I would start by recommending going to www.narconferencelive.com and ‘clicking on’ Conference Live, which will take you to a number of videos from the conferences highlights. I would recommend that you start on Day One and work your way forward by your favorite topic. The 59 and ½ is the Conference kick off and this year the 2010 President Vicki Cox Golder spoke of the year’s challenges and accomplishments. Also, Ron Phipps interviewed HUD’s Secretary Donovan. Probably the next session to watch is Lawrence Yun’s Economic Forecast. These sessions are sometimes the entire presentation, although some have been edited. Also there are many more sessions available and in different formats-i.e. on a CD or MP3 format so you can listen in your car or on your iPod. These you’ll have to order and buy.

At the BOD meeting on Monday, the board decided to update the Code of Ethics to include some Social Media points including one on ‘retweeting’. We heard a number of reports including one from REALTOR.com discussing accurate data and their recent purchase of ListHub. This is a point that agents and consumers will be seeing and hearing more about, since the data is in so many places, but who is checking to see if it’s been updated in a timely fashion to make sure the price is correct or solds have been pulled? RPR gave their presentation discussing their live data for the last 6 weeks. I think that they are starting to get some traction in our marketplace. I did speak with their officers about timely data for the ARMLS system. They are certainly aware of the issues and have committed to fix them ‘in the near future’. Stay tuned.