Inman ConnectTech – Aug 5, 2009 in San Francisco
May 18, 2009A quick note to let you know about the Inman Connect conference coming up this Aug 5-7 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This is always one of the best conferences of the year, and they’ve got some really great speakers this year.
Click for Inman Connect info.
Inman is also bringing back a workshop specifically designed for CTO’s, developers, entrepreneurs and product managers – it’s designed to explore innovation in a program tailored to geeks. I will be the moderator – the “BIG GEEK” – for the day. Check out the agenda – there’s some great speakers already signed up, and I know they’re working on a couple more that will really blow everyone away. Let me know if you have any questions or other input.
Click for ConnectTech workshop info.
Finally, if you’re a developer (or know or employ developers) check out this opportunity. This is your chance for fame and glory – a great way to get added to the main Inman Connect agenda and in front of the entire industry. Real Estate Connect SF 2009 will host the first-ever real estate developer challenge. A hack-a-thon called Connect Create, it’s a brand-new opportunity to demonstrate your (or your company’s) innovative streak.
Here’s the short version of how it works:
- You or your team have 48 hours to create an interesting real estate application (during the first two days of Real Estate Connect).
- You demo your application in front of 1,000 of the most important people in real estate during our Friday general session.
- You wow our judges, win our grand prize, and become and instant real estate rock star.
Participation is limited. Email create@inman.com before close of business on Friday, May 22nd to express your interest. This contest is platform agnostic and applications may be business-to-business or business-to-consumer in nature. Official rules and logitical plan will be distributed to interested parties.
Please feel free to forward this to any others in our industry. Hope to see you in SF this summer!
People have been asking me about the Connect Create contest. I’m not really in charge of it, but the vibe is a small team of one, two, or three on-site creating a cool/quick/fun mashup over the two days. You then get to demo that in front of the crowd. This is great exposure for a company or people who could not get on the main agenda and want the entire real estate community to know they’ve got the mad skillz. You’re not going to create a production ready app in 48 hours – your goal should be to create something that works and demos, makes people say “that is cool!” or “that has potential!”. Wouldn’t hurt if it was entertaining too.
I’ve given out two sample ideas this morning. In the interest of fairness, I’ll make them public below. Remember – you have to send an e-mail indicating interest by this Friday. You can work out the details later – just get on board now. This should be fun, and a great opportunity for those willing to step up and take advantage.
Connect Create Idea 1. Use this as an example to get your ideas rolling – don’t take it literally and just copy it. How about an IDX search where you input the address of your mother-in-law, highlight a radius for “close enough to babysit”, and another for “close enough for a drop by visit”. Then show active listings that are in the sweet spot – inside the babysit zone, but outside the drop by zone. Add a radius for “half hour commute time to work” for extra usefulness. That’s quick/cool/entertaining/potentially useful.
Want more ideas?
Connect Create Idea 2. Again – just an example to get the ideas flowing. How about a virtual buyer tour, where you pick active listings then create some kind of animated fly-by using Google Earth API or similar. Maybe mix in neighborhood highlights like the local elementary school (from another API), the nearest Starbucks (from another API), etc.
Want more ideas?
Interesting. thanks for the insights. I will add this to my favourites and come back to check out your updates. very cool
Dan, great meeting you guys at connect thanks for the hospitality and a super cool (very fun) challenge.
Thanks Morgan – nice meeting you guys too. I posted some wrap-ups on the blog this morning.