Every industry has its battlegrounds — ongoing arguments about what we do and how we do it, often with more than two distinct war parties. Whether it’s how to deal with tech disruption or your philosophy about clients (leads or relationships?), there are dozens of topics that demand attention, but who has the time to indulge in thought-provoking, meaningful discussions these days?
Hopefully you’ll find some time the afternoon of Thursday, August 10, because the Provoke track is back at Inman Connect San Francisco, August 7 through 11 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square — and as usual, nobody will be pulling any punches.
Moderators Valerie Garcia, Bill Lublin and Joe Rand will host a series of panel discussions about the controversial issues you think about every day but don’t have time to mine.
And these aren’t your typical lofty pie-in-the-sky industry debates — they have actual application to the decisions you make every day about your business, from how to brand to where to draw the line with certain behaviors.
Sessions will cover:
- The tendency of real estate agents to focus on volume of leads instead of quality of service
- Whether agents are meaningful — or necessary — in a world where buyers and sellers can find what they need on the internet or get a question answered by a bot
- And speaking of agent relevance: What’s the point of brokers in 2017? Are they still necessary?
- Why it seems like nobody has manners anymore these days (it’s not just you!) and what ethics, etiquette and professionalism could do for the industry
- Technology disruption and your approach to it — should you roll over, partner up or ignore the invaders?
- The brand debate — should brand focus on the agent, team, brokerage or franchise?
- Whether it’s a good idea to try to compete for clients’ attention through “interruption marketing” techniques and what authentic outreach might look like
Your decisions about these issues shape your business for better or worse, so it’s a mistake to think that you’ll get nothing more from Provoke than highbrow finger-pointing. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of how you feel about each battleground — and what you’ll have to do differently in your day-to-day life as a result.
The only place you can experience Provoke is at Inman Connect San Francisco, so start training those neurons and logical skills for a marathon in August.