I was over at the Inman Bloggers Connect in San Francisco yesterday at the Palace Hotel. The Palace is a great venue but one of the main meeting rooms suffered from being adjacent to an alley or loading dock or a construction zone as I kept hearing the beeping of trucks in reverse. Then again, maybe it was all the coffee.

As much as I tried to connect with everyone, I left feeling that I had not connected with as many as I had wished to. So, it was more of a misconnect for me as there were just too many bloggers and too little time to connect with them all.

Joseph Natividad, new guest author for The Harper Team, attended as our guest. He was a great hit with all he met. We are working to get his blog up to speed which should happen this week. It was Joseph’s first conference and trade show. We stopped at everybooth so he could fill his bag with all the free stuff. He now has enough pens to get him through his first two years at UC San Diego where he will be majoring in Economics.

The first person I ran into was Teresa Boardman the evening before at the Thirsty Bear – Zillow’s Bloggers’ Beer event. Teresa is more petite than I had imagined and her half-picture doesn’t do her justice. So, I snapped a quick pic which she immediately objected to. I’ve been threatened with the wrath of God or worse if I publish it. So, to minimize my suffering I only publish the “other half” of Teresa here.

Kevin Boer (3 Oceans Real Estate) and Pat Kitano (TransparentRE) seemed to have the fix in with Inman as they were on stage numerous times throughout the day. Kevin did a great job as moderator of a panel. Here you see the two of them – doing what?? Kevin looks like he’s about to fly away and Pat is going for the free water. Sidekick Dean Guadagni (Dean’s Guide) was suffering a bad cold and looked it, so I burned all pics of him.

Meeting Jeff Turner was great. Unfortunately his wife, Rocky, was not able to make it. Jeff showcased his Real Estate Shows product at a panel on video/image technology for the real estate industry.  My opinion – Real Estate Shows seems like an easier more economical means to showcase homes than the other two video formats presented by the panel.

After speaking on at least one panel if not 6, Real Estate Tomato author Jim Cronin could not restrain himself any longer and stepped to the mic to ask advice from the “Top Bloggers” panel. Just goes to show that even when you’re one of the most recognized authorities on real estate blogging, you may still have a question or two.

The impression I had from the conference was that attendance seemed to about half seasoned bloggers and half new authors. I met many more people than I photographed which makes me wonder why – I usually am much more active with my camera. All that listening must have gotten in the way.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Stacy and Rodney Kennedy of Pacific Auction Exchange (PAX) in Pleasanton, CA. I know Stacy from the Realtors Marketing Association and the Valley Marketing Association meetings.

Stacy is another blogging convert. That Pat Kitano is a blogging evangelist!

It took about 4 minutes of listening to Rodney and Stacy to realize that I had a total misconception of what the PAX business model was. I had assumed that Pacific Auction Exchange dealt with clients who needed to auction their properety under financial duress.

As it turns out, PAX auctions all kinds of property in all kinds of situations. They have had some terrific results auctioning properties that were sitting on the market and seeing no action for more money than the original asking price. 

PAX made the front page of the Contra Costa Times on Nov. 14, 2006 when they succesfully auctioned a Discovery Bay home. The auction took 4 minutes and, according to the article, left the sellers happy with the price and PAX.

Stacy and Rodney are great people.

Friday night, I met up with Pat Kitano of TransparenRE, Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing, and Theresa (Caro Consulting) and Dave Caro at MoMo's in San Francisco. Pictured here are Theresa, Dave and Toby.

Theresa and Toby were in town to talk about social networking to the Fancy Food Show folks. Pat and I hooked up with the ladies to talk about blogging. Pat and I see the tremendous affect blogging is having on the real estate business, but we wanted to get some insight from these marketing professionals on how blogging is affecting their business and their take in general on the impact of blogging in business.

We all seem to agree on the overwhelming positive effects blogging has on business whether it is a small business or a large corporation. Another big plus of blogging is connecting with bloggers. Pat recently returned from the NYC Connect, a gathering of bloggers connected with real estate.

Pat and I will be teaching our first blogging class on Monday over in Marin at Keller Williams in San Rafael. We still have about 5 seats available. On Thursday we will be at Keller Williams in Danville for our second class. Email me for details.

We will be organizing several new blogging classes for the Bay Area in February. 

One of my joys is the experience of connections. For the last couple of years I have watched many fascinating people enter into the field of my experience that brought with them a network of connections. I'm always curious how life will unfold and how connected networks will connect with other networks and what will come of it all.

It's one of the great things about blogging and the evolution of the Internet.

Today, I was privileged to join Pat Kitano of TransparentRE and Jim Walberg of The Bay Area Team in a discussion of where the future of real estate and the real estate agent may be heading. We met up at Starbucks in the Marketplace Center in San Ramon, Ca. All three of us attended the weekly Realtors Marketing Association meeting just across the street at the San Ramon Community Center.

After Jim hassled a bit to get his WiFi connected (see my rant on that), the lively discussion began. It was great to sit back and listen to Jim & Pat converse. They each bring a completely unique perspective, experience and history to the table, but it was clear they share a common vision of where they feel real estate is going.

All of us think there are huge opportunities available for those willing to "step out into thin air" as Jim says - trusting that the ground will rise up to meet your foot.

Just a great morning with connections.

I met up with Dean Guadagni and Patrick Kitano of TransparentRE at the TriValley Marketing Association meeting in Pleasanton, California on Friday. Afterwards we headed over to a Starbucks to talk about Pat’s recent trip to the NYC Connect, our upcoming blog classes in Marin and Danville, and how technology and blogging are changing the real estate industry.

Today, I read Pat’s post Elvis = Zillow and I just have to accept that challenge as Elvis figures prominently in the explosion blogging. There are many sightings of Elvis in the blogoshpere and real estate blogs in particular continue to be heavily influenced by him.

Here is a partial list of Elvis' involvement and influence in blogging:

• Many real estate agents are feeling All Shook Up by technology and blogging.
• Most postings by Realtors are Almost Always True
• Many bloggers feel that their blogging will pay off Any Day Now
• Are You Lonesome Tonight? – post some comments
• After a Blue Christmas many real estate agents are in better spirits due to blogging
• It’s often reported that bloggers develop a Burning Love for blogging
• When writing a post or leaving a comment – Don’t Be Cruel
• Fools Rush In to blogging
• Be careful who you link to. Don’t wind up In the Ghetto
• With the market transitioning, many agents feel It’s Now or Never
• Mortgage fraud is introducing some to Jailhouse Rock
• Don’t post pictures of your Little Sister on your blog
• Many a blogger’s partner is pleading – Please Don’t Stop Loving Me
• Bloggers keep hoping for a Return to Sender feature for comments
• Some traditional agents look on blogging with Suspicion
• And of course, some brokers have Suspicious Minds

In summary, many real estate pundits feel that there is A Whole lot of Shakin’ going on in the industry