Having been to last year’s convention of the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) was already the best experience in attending a conference in my entire life. And yes, I had been to many, many, many other conferences before that. So, my expectations this year were very high and no, I would not have missed out on this opportunity, even if there is a cost involved. Every single penny spent for this event has been worthwhile. When making the decision I saw a great opportunity to listen, learn and get inspired in my business that I am so passionate about. Well, it ended up being way more than that.
When I walked into the room the first day it was so overwhelming that I met so many stagers from last year as well as many who I knew from Active Rain and Facebook. I felt like home with all my staging peers, the most awesome group of people. The open mindedness and the sharing of thoughts and ideas cannot be found in many industries. I am very proud of being part of this forward thinking and continuing education focused group of home stagers, who differentiate themselves from other home stagers by setting high standards and through their professionalism.
The content of the presentations was stunning. Speakers included top stagers and industry experts. There are still many people, including many real estate agents, who think home staging is only about making a home look clean and pretty, not realizing that home staging is such a powerful marketing tool that is available at their fingertips to sell a home so much faster and easier. This impression might come from those stagers who are not dedicated to continuous education on what is going on in the staging industry. During this convention we learned so much about how to help selling a property even better through very specific advanced techniques. Yes, home staging is also evolving as our industry grows up. Also ideas on how to advance the business in 2011 have been confirming that I am on the right track with everything I am doing. How exciting! I cannot wait to implement new ideas and what I have learned!
On top of all these awesome events, winning two awards (Rookie Stager of the Year in the Northeast and Rookie Stager of the Year in all of North America) has been such a great honor. But even better than that were all the nice words, emails and comments that I have received about my acceptance speech. I was overwhelmed and moved by the response. Thank you all for listening to me being so excited about these awards.
