Are you a tech hungry agent ? Come to #REBCRYE and become a Tech Savvy Agent

Apples, oranges, blackberries, and droids-doesn’t all of this sound like a futuristic fruit salad?  And as if that isn’t confusing enough-everyone is talking about Twitter, Facebook, blogging and SEO -which really sounds like cereal (note to self, don’t write when hungry…)

Are you curious, or possibly more likely, totally confused by what to do and how to use any of these tools in your business?  Wary of people peddling their wares, promising to make things work; catapult you to the top of search engines-for a (often hefty and absurd) price?

Bring your confusion to RE Bar Camp Rye!

What is a bar camp you ask? It is an unconference, an event driven by YOU the attendee, low cost (in this case FREE thanks to our wonderful sponsors and volunteers-full disclosure I am one of the latter). It’s a great way to wet your palette, jam packed with knowledge, from people just like you, other real estate professionals, from the trenches. Its not about sitting in a room having fruit thrown at you, please don’t throw fruit at us, but its about planting seeds, sharing knowledge ,starting and furthering relationships , taking the online offline, so that we may do what we do best even better, serve our clients ! Have something you want to discuss or present on that you are knowledgeable about-doesn’t have to be social media related-DO come and participate too, or if you’re a little shy-send us suggestions too.

Extra special bonus, we in the NYC are lucky to now be home to one of the co-founders of the Tech Savvy Agent blog, which recently was recognized as most innovative blog by Inman News. Chris Smith will be at REBC Rye!!!! Here is a prime opportunity to connect and engage directly, ask questions, learn what may work for you!  Become a tech savvy agent, so you can learn what could work or not for you, and become an informed consumer, learn what is worth investing your time (and money) into or not.

And, by the way, if you don’t believe in the power of  the fruit salad (if its for you, or that it works for anyone) WHEN (not if) you come to REBC Rye, be sure an introduce yourself to me and I will be glad to tell you some of the awesome things I’ve learned, people I have met, and yes, even business too!  At the end of the day, it’s not about social media, it’s about integrating tools to improve your business, that hasn’t changed-it’s just that now we have to “plug in” occasionally…

Don’t miss this event, register at www.rebarcamprye.com, connect and engage onhttp://facebook.com/rebcrye (and for those of you tweeting, the event hashtag is #rebcrye-if you don’t know what that is,come ,and find out !)

Follow me there !  The event is on Saturday September 11th from 8:30 to 4:30 in Rye, NY at the Hilton.

Nikki Beauchamp is on the planning committee for REBC Rye, an agent at Warburg Realty in NYC,, blogs on the Warburg Realty blog, and atYourNYCRealEstateResource.com …and of course on twitter and facebook!

Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource

My iPad and I,the first month

So, after waiting on the sidelines for a few months, got an iPad earlier this month. Unsure whether I would view it as a toy, or as a useful productivity tool in my work (real estate and semi-retired tech geek).

 

So far, I am absolutely amazed by many aspects.

 

I have the 64GB Wi-Fi only model.For me,the premium for 3G wasn't worth it for a number of reasons. Primarily,I already have a Mifi (with Sprint),and second,AT&T service is difficult enough on an iPhone,plus at time of my purchase,the unlimited pay as you go plan was no longer an option-so that extra $129 spent,I opted to go for more space :)

 

Primarily, battery life- and how much better my back feels. At times I have a rather complicated daily arsenal. I am not so much on the bleeding edge of technology anymore-once I was, and truly enjoyed it-these days I prefer not to have the bruises J . Although I have often many gadgets in my bag-I also enjoy pen to paper and keep a stash of stationary-my circa notebooks, personal note cards, business cards etc-never know when you have a few minutes of downtime to write someone a thank you note or a “thinking of you note” -YES by hand !

 

I prefer to have something that works for the vast majority of my needs when I buy it, I don’t want to spend ENDLESS hours configuring and tinkering-only a handful. I did my research, mercilessly analyzed the pros and cons. And then finally, took the plunge. (Many thanks to friends with iPads,both online and off, especially many people on Twitter who have written about their experiences and answered questions -which helped me to determine how I could use my iPad .

 

I may have used my netbook just a small handful of times since getting the iPad-I still use my main computers (laptop and in office) for heavy creation work of course.

 

Some reasons why I hesitated –

• Few, yes I am eagerly awaiting the multitasking iOS4 for iPad – I am both fond of it, and not so much on the iPhone/iPod touch-but it is useful in many respects.
• Wasn’t so interested in the idea of being a guinea pig and PAYING to do so.
• Unsure of how useful it could be to create content on the go –already convinced of how useful it would be to CONSUME content.

 

Some reasons why I’m glad I did it  :

• I can access listing databases of on the web-have been doing so for years, and doing it from Safari is a snap. (In the last week alone, have had ability to do so three times for potential clients/customers-in a much more efficient way then waiting for Windoze to boot.)
• Trying to go (mostly) paperless. I hope to be on the road to going paperless-not only for the economy ,but also for the sake of my orthopeadic health ! (with apologies to my orthopedists and their practice in advance ! LOL ) . I often edit documents and thanks to my wonderful eyesight (yes its sarcasm, and yes I’m glad I can see, but as years go by, I see LESS) I often go to hardcopy mode so I can edit-now I do it on the ipad (mostly using iAnnotate)

 

More reasons than I can enumerate-but overall glad I did it !

 

Is it going to on its own suddenly revamp my business-of COURSE not, is it a useful tool-definitely. Is it for everyone, certainly not. Weigh all of your options, before jumping into the deep end of the pool. J

 

Curious about some of the apps I enjoy ? Stay tuned-more blog posts coming !

 

Intrigued and want to see it first hand ? J Ask, and ye might find .

Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp Team, Your NYC Real Estate Resource