Forty years ago this summer about 100,000 young people from around the world flocked to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district to join in a cultural experience known as the “Summer of Love.”
This year, San Francisco again will be the meeting place, but this time it will be remembered as the “Renaissance in Real Estate Media.” Starbucks will replace the old psychedelics with double nonfat lattes, and laptops and iPhones will replace platforms and headbands.
Bloggers Connect marks the industry’s first official real estate blogging conference, and top real estate bloggers from around the country are planning to attend.
Real estate blogging took off in 2006, with hundreds of new industry- and consumer-facing blogs coming online.
Ardell DellaLoggia, Joe Ferrara and Rudy Bachraty, Noah Rosenblatt, Dustin Luther, Kevin Boer, Teresa Boardman, Brian Brady, Jeff Turner, Marlow Harris, Pat Kitano. These are just a few of the leading names in real estate blogging who will rub elbows, share ideas and debate the future of real estate blogging, July 31-Aug. 1, at the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco.
“People love to say they were at the first Real Estate Connect conference many years ago in the Redwoods,” said Bradley Inman, publisher of Inman News, the producer of the blogging event. “People will no doubt want to say they were at the first Bloggers Connect.”
Keynoting the two-day conference is Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, who will discuss what it has been like to manage the clash between old and new media. The online brokerage company is always in the media eye or subject to bloggers’ wrath. Kelman expresses his views at Redfin’s company blog, communicating key messages and humanizing the corporate mission.
Bloggers Connect will also dive into the practical questions on every blogger’s mind: how to gain customers, make money, find your voice and use your blog to network with colleagues and potential clients.
ActiveRain’s Matt Heaton and Jonathan Washburn will reveal the winners of the four-month-long Project Blogger contest in which 12 teams competed for the top industry blogger title. The competition was co-sponsored by ActiveRain and Inman News.
Attendees will also learn how to use search-engine optimization techniques to get their blogs noticed in search engines and how to convert their site visitors into paying clients.
In addition, speakers will discuss new widgets and other doo-dads that help lighten up blogs and create community and open communication that keeps readers coming back.
The conference will also spotlight how some bloggers are incorporating ads, sponsored links and other mechanisms that can make them money without compromising their original intent or goals.
In the spirit of the Summer of Love, Sellsius bloggers Joe Ferrara and Rudy Bachraty in July kicked off BlogTourUSA, their multiple-stop tour from New York City to San Francisco. The duo is making the trek in an RV, fully decked out with sponsor logos and pictures of top real estate bloggers on the sides. They’re making stops in cities along the way to meet up with bloggers they’ve met online over the last few years.
The full Bloggers Connect conference program is available online.
Confirmed speakers include Anil Dash, chief evangelist at Six Apart; Ted Murphy, founder and CEO of PayPerPost; Drew Meyers, community relations specialist at Zillow; Philip Ferrato, editor of Curbed SF; Paul Chaney, vice president of marketing at Blogging Systems; Robyn Tippins, community manager at MyBlogLog; and Jim Cronin, owner and author of Real Estate Tomato, among others.
Bloggers Connect precedes Inman News‘ annual Real Estate Connect conference where technology innovators and top brokerage executives meet for three days of networking, debate and exposure to the latest online innovations in real estate. The entire event takes place Aug. 1-3, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
