Register for RE BarCamp YYC

A BarCamp may be something you are familiar with, or it may be something you think we made up. Either way, it’s something you should know about.

Registration is now open for RE BarCamp YYC, which is set for May 1 at the Wainwright Hotel at Heritage Park. This unconventional day of exciting, unplanned discussions will keep you on your toes, while providing each attendee with an individualized experience.

The idea behind a bar camp is that the day’s sessions are built throughout the day by volunteer session facilitators, allowing for spur-of-the-moment conversations. It’s a chance for attendees to turn the conference into what they want it to be.

Just type “bar camp” into any search engine and you’ll get a picture of what this event is intended for and what it can be.

The Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA), the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA), the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association (AMBA) and the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®) are taking what we learned from last year’s event and making this year’s even better. This event depends on the participants that join us and their enthusiasm.

Registration this year includes a continental breakfast, a hot lunch and free parking. And the first 100 people to register get a free RE BarCamp YYC 2013.

Registration is limited, and this year’s event is going to sell out!

Click here to register

Video of RE BarCamp YYC 2012

Follow @REBarCampYYC or #yycrebar  to keep up to date on the latest news and information on this amazing event.

Mark Your Calendars! RE BarCamp YEG and YYC are almost here!

The first-ever RE BarCamp YEG is on February 26, 2013 at Schanks Sports Grill in Edmonton while the second annual RE BarCamp YYC is on April 17, 2013 at the Wainwright Hotel at Heritage Park in Calgary.

For those that don’t know, a RE BarCamp (or “real estate bar camp”) is an “unconference conference.” It’s an ad-hoc gathering of real estate and mortgage professionals through which attendees can share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

 Here is a video of some photo highlights from RE BarCamp YYC last year.

Here’s what the main RE BarCamp website says about the movement: It’s different. The RE BarCamp movement says to the attendees, “What would you like to learn about and why are you here?” The attendees then help to create the conference. Actually, let’s change that to conference(s) as most RE BarCamp have a series of different sessions going on at the same time. But who is going to be the speaker? The RE BarCamp says, “If you want to speak, you can speak” and taking it one step further, “but the speaker shouldn’t be the speaker, they should instead lead the discussion.”

Attendees have the chance to learn what they want to learn and if they have questions about something, they have the opportunity to get an answer. At the end of the day, everyone walks away happy – feeling the day has been a worthwhile learning experience.

The inaugural RE BarCamp YYC was a huge success in 2012. More than 100 industry professionals attended and engaged in high-energy discussions about technology, advertising and the future of organized real estate.

The organizers took away a lot of new ideas from 2012 and this year’s events in Calgary and Edmonton will be bigger and better.

To check out all of the details for the Edmonton event – and to register, visit the RE BarCamp YEG website at http://rebarcamp.com/yeg/.

RE BarCamp YYC 2013 is jointly organized by RECA, the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association, the Alberta Real Estate Association and the Calgary Real Estate Board. For more details check out the RE BarCamp YYC blog at http://rebarcampyyc.wordpress.com/ or follow the Twitter account @REBarCampYYC.

See you there! 

Save the Date

Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) Thought Leaders Series

Canada’s economy has done reasonably well, yet things are not all that they seem. Like a frog in a pot of warm water, Canadians have not yet realized the changes an increasingly global economy can bring. How will this impact the real estate industry based on current patterns, trends and forecasts? Will Alberta’s real estate industry be shielded?
 
This is an event you won’t want to miss!
  
Speaker: 
Todd Hirsh, Senior Economist at ATB Financial
Co-author of the Boiling Frog Dilemma
 
Dates:
 
Calgary: October 25, 2012 at the Calgary Real Estate Board, 300 Manning Rd NE
Register your spot online here: http://thoughtleadersyyc2012.eventbrite.com

Edmonton: November 6, 2012 at the Citadel Theatre, 9828 101A Avenue
Register your spot online here: http://thoughtleadersyeg2012.eventbrite.com

Both sessions will take place from 11:30-1:30 p.m. A light lunch will be provided.

Are We Building Consumer Trust and Confidence?

At the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA), one of our trademark sayings is “Building Consumer Trust and Confidence.” In fact, if you Google this phrase, you will get 4 million results and RECA results are in positions 1 and 2, listed immediately after three scholarly articles. As good as those search results are, though, they got me wondering if RECA is really doing what is necessary to build consumer trust and confidence?

I recently attended a Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR) conference in Toronto, on the topic of “Public Confidence in Professional Regulation.” CLEAR is an international association of organizations that regulate professions. It became very clear to me that in order to earn and keep public confidence in the work we do, we have to do the right things, do things right, build trust with the public, and increase public awareness of our mandates and the work we do.

Bruce Matthews, Deputy Registrar at the Real Estate Council of Ontario, suggested we need to take a serious look at what actually needs to be regulated, with an eye to avoiding over-regulation. Instead of a new rule or regulation, can we educate instead? We should adopt a “right-touch approach,” which means not applying the force of a hammer to every issue that comes before us. We should be proactive, not reactive. Knee-jerk regulation is a bad way to operate as a regulator. We need to be consistent, follow good practices, and seek continuous improvement.

Jan Robinson, Registrar and CEO of the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, said we need to continually focus on what’s in the public interest. Regulators need to be deliberate and do things right. This includes good governance, tending your culture (organizational values), adherence to rules of fairness, customer service, building capacity, continually evaluating risks, and ensuring a sense of accountability or social responsibility in regulatory staff. She also encouraged regulators to speak up, report publicly and let the public and their licensees know what they are doing. She concluded by saying as regulators, “we end up with the reputation we deserve.”

Claudia Newman, a CLEAR member, reinforced the importance of trust. In addition to wanting to establish trust, you have to act in a trusting manner. Trust is earned and takes a long time to establish; but it can be lost very easily. The perception of your organization may be based on false or inaccurate information; you need to take steps to break down that perception.

The importance of building trust and establishing your reputation was reinforced by Sherri Haigh, a communications specialist with the Real Estate Council of Ontario. Sherri said we need to be aware of “reality.” People need to know you exist and are doing things right. We need to define ourselves, to the public and our licensees, before someone else does it for us. Regulators should establish and promote a consistent brand, use social media, develop a crisis management strategy and, perhaps most importantly, have professional staff to help manage communications on a day-to-day basis.

Having listened to the various presenters and the discussion that took place, I returned to RECA knowing that in many ways, RECA is already doing many things that build industry member confidence and trust, including initiatives that others have not yet tried, for example Council formally adopted a “Statement on Self-Regulation,” which addresses many of the issues that were addressed at the conference.

Now we are beginning to enhance our efforts to “build consumer confidence and trust.” Though RECA does many things well, we can always learn from others. Going forward you will see RECA have more face-to-face time with consumers, and more communication produced specifically for consumers. The greater trust consumers have for RECA and the industry, the greater trust and confidence those same consumers will have in our authorized industry professionals.

RECA is an organization of transparency, accountability, engagement with its industry, communication, customer service and continuous improvement, which is exactly what building consumer trust and confidence requires.

Bob Myroniuk
RECA Executive Director

How are you building consumer trust and confidence in your own business?

Regulators Go East: Canadian Regulators Group Conference Wrap-Up

Real estate regulators from across Canada met in St. John’s, Newfoundland last week as part of the annual Canadian Regulators Group (CRG) Conference. 

In attendance were staff from the real estate regulators in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, and staff from Quebec and all provinces West of Quebec. Despite the differences in the type and structure of regulation in each province (some government, some self-regulating, some jointly regulated), many of the issues at the forefront are similar across jurisdictions. 

These annual meetings are an excellent opportunity to bring staff together to discuss the issues that are of national importance, and guest speakers are on hand to highlight emerging issues and trends.

Jan Robinson, Registrar and CEO of the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, presented on “Fostering Confidence in Regulation Beyond 2012.” While she made a number of good points, perhaps her most important point for regulatory bodies is that public protection has to be thought of first and foremost. A customer service focus is fine, and engagement with stakeholders is critical – but regulators need to remain focused on their mandate. Transparency is critical, but at the end of the day, the public typically does not care about committee work. Rather, the public wants to understand a regulator’s mandate, the challenges and how the regulator is responding to those challenges.

Darrel Pink, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, presented on “The Revolution in Professional Service Delivery.” As we look at the advent of new business models and new ways of doing business, it becomes even more important to recognize the changing expectations of clients and the huge obstacles that will arise for those who fail to see what is coming. The same can also be said about professional regulation. As business changes for our industry professionals, so too will it change for the regulation of those professionals.

Regulatory staff are also are given the opportunity to attend breakout sessions for their area of responsibility. Education, Compliance and Communications staff all attended a two-hour session with their peers from other jurisdictions to discuss changes and initiatives within their respective areas of responsibility.

The second day of the CRG conference was focused on information sharing between jurisdictions. As part of this year’s conference, attendees discussed labour mobility, electronic agreements and signatures, social media policies, education, language proficiency requirements and collaboration on education initiatives with industry associations and educational institutions.

The digital age has made buying and selling property across provincial borders easier than ever, and more efficient labour mobility and common education and licensing standards across the country are becoming increasingly important issues. We’ve spoken on collaboration many times in the past year, most notably with respect to stakeholders from within Alberta – but CRG is an excellent example of the collaboration that actually takes place across the country.

Organized Chaos at Work - RE BarCamp YYC Wrap Up

More than 100 Alberta real estate and mortgage brokerage professionals attended RE  BarCamp YYC at the Calgary Real Estate Board (creb®) yesterday. Attendees participated in more than 20 separate participant-driven sessions on topics as diverse as using an iPad to the Future of Organized Real Estate.

Sessions were very informal. Here Gary Chambers facilitated a discussion on the future of realtor.ca

RE BarCamp YYC was the first BarCamp held in Calgary, and thanks to the interest shown by the industry, Alberta industry professionals can expect to see more BarCamps in the future.

For those who missed it, here’s a rundown of the day:

We Came

We Learned

We Had Fun

Participants tweeted furiously before, during and after the event, and #yycrebar trended on Twitter in the Calgary area.

The board began to fill up early, nearly to capacity by the start of the first session.

Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who facilitated a session, Ernest Barbaric who provided the keynote presentation, and a special thanks to the sponsors: National Bank, Kahane Law Office, RE/MAX, CIR Realty, the Alberta Real Estate Association, creb® and the Real Estate Council of Alberta,  who made it all possible.

Collaboration at Work

One of the comments the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) has heard most often in the weeks since the RECA Symposium on Self-Regulation is how important this initiative was in terms of collaboration. The Symposium served as an excellent opportunity to get 100+ industry stakeholders together, from across the country, to discuss self-regulation and professionalism within our industry. That being said, it is not the only recent example of collaboration at work. 

• RE BarCamp YYC: the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA), the Calgary Real Estate Board (creb®) and RECA are currently working together to plan Alberta’s first ever RE BarCamp. Staff from each of the three organizations are meeting regularly to organize this event, which is taking place in Calgary on May 2, 2012, and the communications and marketing for this event is being issued jointly and branded jointly by the three organizations. Industry professionals from across the province are invited to attend. If you’re interested in reading more about RE BarCamp, check out the RE BarCamp YYC website at http://rebarcampyyc.wordpress.com/.
• creb®/RECA Tweet Up: creb® and RECA have booked a joint real estate professional Tweet Up for April 26, 2012 at Melrose Café and Bar. Representatives from both organizations will be in attendance and it’ll be a great opportunity to network with other professionals in the Calgary area. It’s also a great lead up to the RE BarCamp event on May 2. Register now at http://yycretweetup.eventbrite.com/.
• Social Media Breakfast: Last August, AREA and RECA split the sponsorship costs for a Calgary Social Media Breakfast. Social Media Breakfast is a free breakfast event, held monthly, that includes a guest speaker on some aspect of social media. Many industry professionals, both in real estate and mortgage brokerage, attend these breakfasts and it’s important for RECA to maintain a presence at such events. Collaborating with AREA on sponsorship made sense and demonstrates our commitment to partnering with other industry stakeholders.

As you may or may not be aware, the RECA management team meets regularly with the AREA management team to discuss priorities and issues of mutual interest, and RECA has recently started similar meetings with the creb® management team. These meetings are an excellent opportunity to discuss projects or issues that might be better tackled collaboratively.

Other recent examples of collaboration and cooperation between RECA and industry associations:

• RECA continues to work with the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association on the development of the Practice of Mortgage Brokerage course, which is the second course within the Mortgage Associates Program. In working with industry associations to develop education, RECA can ensure education programs fulfill the needs of industry professionals – both in terms of standards and practice.
• The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals is assigning 9 Continuing Education Units to the RECA Mortgage Re-licensing Education Program (REP) course.
• The Appraisal Institute of Canada and the Canadian National Association of Real Estate Appraisers (CNAREA) have both indicated to RECA that they are assigning continuing education credits to RECA’s Real Estate Appraiser REP course, and CNAREA has committed to assisting RECA in reminding its appraiser industry members of the REP requirement.

Do you have any suggestions on how RECA can collaborate or partner with other industry organizations and associations?

The Power of You

The Mortgage Revolution bills itself as “a grass roots movement by, and for mortgage professionals who truly care about our industry and are not willing to accept anything less than the utmost professionalism and integrity. It is time we did something to stand up for what we as true professionals believe in.”

This week, the Mortgage Revolution – together with the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association (AMBA) – held events in Calgary and Edmonton. These events brought together like-minded industry professionals to discuss the challenges that mortgage brokerage professionals face, but more than that, they came together to discuss solutions.

The point Mike Cameron, leader of the “Revolution,” made so eloquently at the beginning of the Calgary event was in relation to the “Power of You.” Individual industry professionals need to recognize the role they themselves have in improving their industry. If professionals aren’t personally willing to do anything, they need to stop pointing at others.

And herein is the call to action.

All too often conversations about improving our industry focus more on the challenges than on the opportunities and solutions. At the Mortgage Revolution, though, after discussing the industry challenges, the Calgary attendees turned their attention to discussing the solutions.

Education, standards, and consumer awareness of and understanding of a mortgage brokers’ value proposition were identified by many as being the top challenges. Of course the purpose of the Mortgage Revolution is to look at how individuals can affect change and “be the change they wish to see.” Individual mortgage brokerage professionals can’t control what the industry associations, organizations and regulators do –they can, however, ensure their own professionalism and integrity. But how?

A few of the solutions Mortgage Revolution attendees identified in the Calgary session were:

• Learning to use the tools you already have (both technological and otherwise).
• Having mortgage broker/owners taking greater responsibility for ensuring the competence of their registrants. It can’t be about how much money an individual associate brings in; if he or she isn’t competent and/or professional, get rid of them.
• Getting involved in a mentorship program.
• Making a commitment to never stop learning.

Good ideas all of them, now it’s time to make them happen – and include a commitment to continuing the conversation, particularly in terms of solutions not challenges.

What are you personally doing in your own business to ensure professionalism and integrity? How do you go above and beyond the minimum standards of practice in your pursuit of professionalism and integrity?

Self-Regulation: Together We Can Do So Much

My first thought when I was invited to participate in the Real Estate Council of Alberta’s (RECA) Symposium on Self-Regulation was what is it? Now before I get into details with that, I would like to present a challenge to you. As you read this blog, erase your current perspective of RECA, any history you have with them and read this with an open mind. Because if you do that, I believe you are going to admire the initiative that RECA has taken with their role in self regulation. 

RECA invited more than a hundred industry stakeholders to a Symposium (a big word for “discussion”) to collaborate on defining self-regulation. What impressed me with this concept is that a regulatory body (RECA) actually had a genuine interest in what its various stakeholders had to say.

I expected there would be a selection of practitioners from Alberta including real estate practitioners (like myself), appraisers, mortgage brokers and maybe even home inspectors, but in fact, the room was filled with far more diversity, experience and perspectives. There were representatives from real estate boards and councils from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, there were also representatives from the Alberta Real Estate Association, the Real Estate Insurance Exchange, the University of Alberta, Service Alberta, the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Real Estate Association and representation from appraiser and home inspection associations. For an entire day, we worked together as a group to provide our ideas and opinions to RECA about self-regulation.

What I took away from the one-day event was this:

The humility that was demonstrated by RECA to open themselves up to criticism by various stakeholders spoke volumes to me. This is not a regulatory body that is looking to rule with an iron fist, this is a group of leaders that would prefer to have “buy-in” from us as industry professionals so that the standards that are set by RECA are integrated into our day-to-day operations.

In listening to the various conversations throughout the day, I began to realize that some industry professionals view RECA as “the bad guy.” As an owner of a small, independent, real estate brokerage that started in May 2009, I embraced RECA as an integral part of my business from day one. RECA has been and will continue to be a huge support system to my brokerage as I value and respect the role they play in this industry. What I realized from listening to these various perspectives is that our attitude is going to impact the role that RECA plays in our businesses. We should not have a “we” versus “them” attitude. If we change our attitudes by letting go of any negative history, it will naturally change our perspectives and allow us to keep an open mind to the positive contributions that RECA can have in our businesses.

It was not a requirement of RECA to have our involvement in these discussions; it was a choice they made as a gesture of good faith to us as industry professionals and to continue to be leaders in self-regulation. What I think we sometimes forget is that RECA is bound by legislation and self-regulation is a privilege not a right. Ultimately, it is the consumer that is forcing regulatory responsiveness so we should view our commitment to regulation as a commitment to the consumer.

After a full day discussion on self-regulation, the message is very simple. As industry professionals, if we wake up each morning and commit to governing ourselves in a highly professional manner with accountability for our actions and honesty and transparency in our business practices, we will have captured the essence of self-regulation. Let’s impress the consumer by showing them the true value and effectiveness of self-regulation.

Susan Rochefort
Lime Green Realty Inc.

Announcing REBar Camp Calgary - An Unconference Conference

Why do you go to conferences? Do you want to be entertained? Do you want to be inspired? Do you want to learn? All of the above?

Real Estate Bar Camp Calgary may be for you!

Real Estate Bar Camp is an ad-hoc gathering of real estate professionals through which attendees can share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

Here’s what the main REBarCamp website says about the movement: It’s different. The REBarCamp (REBC) movement says to the attendees, “What would you like to learn about and why are you here?” The attendees then help to create the conference. Actually, let’s change that to conference(s) as most REBCs have a series of different sessions going on at the same time. But who is going to be the speaker? The REBC says, “If you want to speak you can speak” and taking it one step further, “but the speaker shouldn’t be the speaker, they should instead lead the discussion.”

This is what makes the REBC movement so different – attendees have the chance to learn what they need to learn and if they have questions about something, they have the opportunity to get an answer. At the end of the day, everyone walks away happy – feeling the day has been a worthwhile learning experience.

Now, the Alberta Real Estate Association, the Calgary Real Estate Board and the Real Estate Council of Alberta are working together to bring you Alberta’s first-ever REBarCamp, in Calgary, on May 2, 2012. AREA, creb® and RECA aren’t setting the REBarCamp Calgary agenda or deciding on the session topics and speakers. If you’re interested in attending this event or facilitating a session for it, watch for the REBarCamp Calgary website with more information coming soon.

Save the date and get ready to make history as part of Alberta’s first REBarCamp – May 2, 2012.