The recent Second Annual National Real Estate On-line Convention and Exposition showed a 150 percent increase in attendance attracting 32,463 real estate professionals from 38 Countries during the 5-day event in April. The completely virtual event is produced annually by the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, a professional organization with over 4,000 members and 100 Chapters worldwide.

According to John M. Peckham III, the Society’s Executive Director, attendees participated in 34 educational sessions including 3 Keynote talks. They made 111,414 visits to the 300 booths at the Convention Expo and while at the booths made 32,804 requests for additional information.

Although the main convention with all speaking events will not be available again until next year’s annual event on April 18-24, 2004, an abbreviated Spring/Summer session is currently available to real estate professionals without cost at: http://www.recyber.com/summerconvention

According to Peckham, four speakers presentations including handouts are archived at the 2003 Spring/Summer Session and are available 24/7 to attendees. The entire Exposition section featuring all 300 booths remains open during the Spring/Summer Session. Real Estate professionals wishing to see the latest performance enhancing products and services can visit the Exposition anytime during the Spring/Summer session, which will remain open until labor Day.

After the 5-day event adjourned, the Convention staff released statistics reflecting a significant degree of satisfaction on the part of attendees, sponsors and exhibitors. According to Convention Director, Angela Portosa overall attendee satisfaction was high with a 95.6 percent approval rating (63 percent either extremely satisfied or very satisfied with the On-line Convention overall).

Exhibitors were equally enthusiastic with their participation giving the On-Line expo a 98 percent+ satisfaction rating with 77 percent of exhibitors either Extremely or Very satisfied; 84.6 percent of Exhibitors indicated they would recommend the On-Line Expo to potential exhibitors (as long as they are not competitors!); and 81.8 percent of exhibitors rated the Expo booth support staff Outstanding (The other 18.2 percent rated the staff Excellent). 76.9 percent of exhibitors received between 600 and 2000 booth visits each. 38.4 percent of Exhibitors rated the On-line Expo more productive than a live "hard floor" show. 30.7 percent of Exhibitors rated the On-line Expo just as productive than a live "hard floor" show. Only 5.1 percent of Exhibitors rated the On-line Expo less productive than a live "hard floor" show. 69.2 percent of Exhibitors rated the On-line Expo a "better return on investment" than a live "hard floor" show.

According to Portosa the exhibitors’ sales production was significant as 30.7 percent made a sale or sales at the Convention. 61.5 percent expect to make sales following the Convention and 84.6% received phone calls or web visits during the Convention.

Peckham observed, "We were extremely pleased with the Second Annual On-line Convention turnout and overall satisfaction levels. Convention attendance increased 150%. Attendees, exhibitors and sponsors expressed a high degree of satisfaction. Responses from the exhibitors, sponsors, speakers and attendees lead us to believe that the Third Annual event announced for April 18-24, 2004 will attract approximately 60,000 attendees. To accomplish or exceed this goal we will expand the 2004 event to 7 days to accommodate the many attendees who requested more mid week convention time to listen to the speakers, network and check out the products and services at the Exposition.

Major Convention Sponsors included Stewart Title, Realty Times, The Real Estate Professional Magazine, plus hundreds of Real Estate Associations and organizations worldwide. Special technical support was provided by the Matthew Ferrara Tech Hotline and CCBN.

The Society also announced that it will now offer its patent pending On-Line Convention/Exposition process customized for real estate and other organizations wishing to extend the reach of their conventional conventions and events.

“In just our second year we brought together the largest group of real estate professionals to ever assemble at one event. The Society is proud to continue its industry leadership into the new and exciting on-line networking world!” Peckham concluded.

The 2004 Convention registration for attendees and vendors is available at www.REcyber.com/preconvention/ Information regarding membership in the Real Estate CyberSpace Society is available from Society headquarters by calling 617-559-0000, at www.REcyber.com or by e-mail at admin@REcyber.com.

Published: May 20, 2003

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