All you have to do is submit a video that is 3 minutes or less, explaining why you should get an all-expenses paid trip to NARdiGras 2010, NAR’s annual conference and expo happening November 5-8. Looks like a fun contest and a pretty great prize as well. A few years ago I attended the NAR Conference & Expo in Vegas, had a blast, and met all sorts of industry greats.

Winner of the contest receives, full conference registration, round-trip airfare, hotel room for 3 nights, and $300 gift card for expenses. The winner’s video will also be displayed on the REALTORS® Conference & Expo home page.

Video submission deadline is August 15th, and the voting for the finalist happens August 23rd – September 13th. So get creative, show off you awesome video skills, plead your case, and be sure to include the phrase “NARdiGras 2010, the REALTORS® Conference & Expo in New Orleans.”

For more information on the contest and guidelines, check it out here.

Good Luck!

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Methinks that NAR is taking some great steps in the right direction. This is some exciting stuff in my opinion. I think this is badly needed and hopefully will erase the need for agents to buy into 3rd party aggregators. This should become a truly valuable NAR member benefit… Finally.

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

So what is a BarCamp anyways? According to Wikipedia – BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

Why should you attend? It’s VIRTUAL! So you have little excuse not to attend. You can attend right from the comfort of your own office, and can even invite a few of your colleagues. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and share great ideas about what’s new real estate marketing, real estate technology, social media and more. And all in a informal webinar sort of way.

And did I mention that it is free? That’s right, it wont’ cost you a thing!

So go and sign up and I hope to see you there!

More info from the VREBC folks…

Educating Real Estate Agents On How To Use Modern Technologies To Better Their Business Will Never Be The Same!

On November 17th, 2009 dozens of the most respected educators in the real estate industry converge to host the first of its kind, Virtual Real Estate BarCamp.

Virtual Real Estate BarCamp is a 1-Day Learning Extravaganza.
From 9am until 4pm PST, three concurrent webinar "rooms" will each host 9 different sessions, for a total of 27 different presentations.
There is something for everyone and everything for someone, and best of all, IT IS FREE and attendance is unlimited!

Click below to:
Register.
Learn more.
See who is coming.
Check out the Session Calendar.
Get sponsorship info.

Attendance is projected to be at least 1000 agents, nationwide.
Do not miss out on being part of this ground-breaking event.

Session topics include:

1. Social Media Risk Management

2. Flickr for Real Estate

3. Developing Your Brand

4. Online Advertising Secrets

5. Facebook for Real Estate

6. WordPress Training

7. Daily Goal Tracking

8. Starting a Real Estate Blog

…and much more, with new sessions being added every day.

And if that wasn\’t cool enough, individuals from around the country are volunteering to host In-Real-Life MeetUps for after the event.
Learn all day, and then meet to have a beer with local participants. This is going to be a blast!

We hope to see you there!

If you want to ditch the desk and go completely mobile, here are the necessary tools to do so. This is a great post from Clint Miller on Active Rain. Follow him on Twitter too – http://twitter.com/therealclint

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

• Social Network Marketing packages and more
• More graphic design services including Twitter backgrounds, custom web/blog headers and buttons

And as a celebration for our celebration of our site’s new look, I am running a New Look Special! For any new clients that sign on with us before March 31, 2009, we are offering 5% discounts on all of our retainer packages for the first 6 months of your contract. So don’t delay and contact me today for more details. Be sure to stay tuned and check back to our site frequently to see our new services, new resources and new team members we add in the coming months.

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC,  and runs blogs, The BVAS Connection and The Virtual Perception. Megan has been in a Virtual Assistant for 4+ years and has spent 10+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

The awesome people over at ActiveRain had made blogging for real estate professionals that much easier by offering Outside Blogging.  Some of the coolest features about their outside blogging includes:

• The ability to host outside blog on it’s own domain (that you must own)
• You can totally customize the blog to fit your branding and marketing materials
• Can be setup in minutes
• No need for AR users to learn a new blogging platform – it is all within ActiveRain
• Great SEO benefits from ActiveRain
• With the click of a button, agents can syndicate those same posts to AR, Localism and the outside blog all at once!

ActiveRain couldn’t have made it any easier for agents new to blogging, and agents in ActiveRain that want more exposure.

So calling all agents- if you are still trying to figure out how to start blogging and haven’t yet jumped into the rain, get started today!

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

Guillian-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is something that me and my husband’s family is all too familiar with.  In the beginning of last March 2007, my Father-in-law noticed some tingling and numbness starting in his hands and feet. That tingling and numbness traveled up is limbs and withing 5 days, he went from walking normally, to barely being able to crawl on the ground unable to walk.  He was then diagnosed with GBS and hospitalized for weeks. He spent about 2 months in hospitals/rehab facilities, and then spent many months more in physical therapy and undergoing 2 more treatments until they found something that worked. It was a very difficult recovery process not only for him, but it tool a great toll on my mother-in-law.

Like Charles Richey, my father-in-law is self employed and was unable to work for many months. Unlike Charles, my father-in-law was fortunate enough to have health insurance to help cover the incredibly high medical bills. This is where Mr. Richey and his wife really need our help. He not only will be out of work for several months to come (as well as his Realtor wife who will need to be at his side), they do not have medical insurance. There is a fundraising effort set up for Charles and his wife to be able to help them cover costs, and the need is high. You can go here: http://www.ibsteam.net/blog/blogging/charles-richey-fundraise to find more information about donation, and a way to add a button to your websites, blogs, etc to request donations.

There is a light at the end of the GBS tunnel. The good news with my father-in-law is by last August, they had found a treatment that helped reverse his GBS. And in October he was able to take their yearly vacation to Cancun, walking mostly though sometimes using a wheelchair. And today, my Father-in-law is almost completely recovered and back to his regular jogging and humorous self.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Richey family.

Donate to the Charles Richey Fund

Friend, husband and fellow REALTOR® was unexpectedly hospitalized read more

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

I came back from the trip when new contacts, new vendor connections and full of new ideas that I can’t wait to share. I am energized and excited for the all possibilities of what I can do for my present and future clients. There were a reported 37,000 in attendance this year and I was thrilled to meet many of them, including Realtors from all over the world. Just meeting new vendors and learning about what’s new with tools and technology in real estate made this trip to NAR super valuable and one that I will be sure not to miss in the future.

I met countless contacts from countless vendors new and old and over the next few weeks I will be sharing here on my blog some of the cool new things that I found there as well as some available discounts. I’m also full of new ideas and will be working hard to make the upcoming year of 2008 a success for all my current and soon-to-be.

I was there with my colleagues representing the IREAA (the greatest bunch of real estate virtual assistants on the planet) and we spent a lot of time educating and enlightening all that we met about virtual assistants and how we can help Realtors (and some vendors) grow their business. The ladies from IREAA were all so much fun and I was so proud to be there among the “cream of the crop” in my industry.

Cool new tools and vendor highlights will be coming soon!

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

I am also a proud member of the IREAA, and you can find me and my other IREAA colleagues at the NAR Conference & Expo this November in Las Vegas. Meet me at booth 3951 to learn more about how a VA can help your business.