Even with 23,915 Realtors, spouses and guests wandering the floor of the Moscone Convention Center for the National Association of Realtors' November meeting, it was easier than in most years to get a sense of what was hot and what was not.

The hottest thing in real estate is residential real estate itself, with sales of existing homes expected to reach almost six million in 2003.

Next hottest is the real estate profession itself. Membership in the NAR, which reached a low of about 650,000 at the 1996 convention in San Francisco, is at an all-time high seven years later.

"NAR has added 102,000 members in the last year for a total of 962,000 -- a record that reflects the historic level of home sales while other sectors of the economy experienced weakness," said NAR's chief economist, David Lereah.

Women now account for 52 percent of real estate brokers and 54 percent of agents.

And 94 percent of all Realtors say they were in some other business before turning to real estate as a career, Lereah said.

Technology remains hot, although the offerings at this convention were less revolutionary than they were at the 1999 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., when vendors were pushing digital cameras and the first virtual reality tours.

These days, 93 percent of Realtors acknowledge using cell phones, and 81 percent do a good chunk of business via e-mail, according to the most recent NAR member survey.

But with so many newcomers and the continued reluctance of veteran Realtors to get with the program, training at these annual get-togethers still emphasizes the basics:

• "Introduction to BlackBerry, Your Wireless Hand-Held Productivity Solution."
• "Get Organized! Personalize Your Desktop and Manage Files Using Windows XP."
• "Grab the Basics: Introduction to Palm-Based Hand-Held Devices."
• And "The Big Picture: Digital Camera Essentials."

Computer savvy can even feed your pet.

The iSeePet, by AlphaOmega Soft, looks like a high-tech coffeemaker. After the user has signed up for service, he or she goes to the computer, enters the password and, when the website comes up, watches the pet through a camera lens in a feeder.

At feeding time, the computer user activates some kind of come-and-get-it mechanism, like familiar music. The pet comes over, the food drops into the bowl-shaped bottom, and the pet eats.

Price: $500 (not including service).

The pet feeder appeared to be an afterthought at the technology center, where Nokia Smart Phones ($299), ViewSonic Pocket PCs ($299), Olympic Digital Voice Recorders ($499), and a variety of measuring devices (cheap at $99, more sophisticated at $375) held sway.

With so much technology and so much data, there is growing concern about security.

Enter RealtorSecure.

NAR technology director Mark Lesswing said the focus of RealtorSecure initially would be on protecting the infrastructure or, as he put it, "the data running through the pipelines."

"The data cannot protect itself," he said. "We need to keep the information from being misused, and to protect the integrity of the data we provide to consumers and from consumers."

The RealtorSecure program will begin next year and be expanded to all aspects of Internet technology.

As is typical of these industry shows, technology is just a part of the Realtors' bag of marketing tricks.

Postcards, business cards, photocopying machines, row after row of gifts for clients at closing, and the oddest-looking Realtor ties exist side-by-side with digital cameras, home-inspection companies, software providers, lenders and lead-generation websites.

And let us not forget the companies that sift through the federal and state do-not-call lists so that Realtors can contact expired listings and folks who are trying to sell their houses on their own.

There are plenty of new marketing ideas.

Rob Margolis has come up with AdSticks -- putting the name of your real estate company on the grocery dividers on supermarket checkout stands.

"The Realtor gets exclusive representation in a supermarket for a minimum of three months," Margolis said. "The advertiser gets 30 sticks per store."

Total costs, including production: $775.

Real estate can be a pain in the neck, back, feet and just about every other part of the body. A number of vendors were selling all sorts of massage devices to make the job less painful.

And just about every tired convention-goer who could grab a seat in one or another of the booths took advantage of a foot or back massage.

If you wanted to take one home, the typical retail price was $200.