They came. They saw. They learned about luxury real estate for three days. And the insights thus far are that The Key 2013 was a smashing success.
Last year, The Key was in Las Vegas, and the theme was Showtime! This year it was quite different. Our annual luxury real estate event took place at The Four Seasons in Scottsdale. And the theme was Revv Up! It included over 100 of the top luxury realtors in the nation and several all-star speakers. This is what made it special.
Real estate events are kind of our thing. We plan and execute luxury real estate events on a weekly, if not daily, basis. And each auction we conduct has a theme. For a Jackson Hole auction, we might have ‘cowboy chic’ food and a charity auction that includes ski passes or something else unique to the area. Those things would not make much sense for an auction in Florida. For The Key, we take our knowledge of planning those auctions and expand it to an even bigger event. The Key is an annual event in a different location each year. And each year many of our guests are repeat attendees. So, just like our auctions, theming The Key keeps it fresh year after year.
The theme this year was Revv Up! And that tagline along with Scottsdale and desert themes got people thinking about hitting the road from the moment they got their first save the date back in the Summer. The save the date was Scottsdale themed too (pictured). That theme carried through to the speaker day – cars and engines were the background to each introduction. And we ended the event with dinner at the Penske Museum. Nothing says Revv Up like a museum full of Indy Cars, classic American muscle cars, and luxury automobiles like Bentleys.
One thing that we have learned from our auctions: high-end real estate agents and clients do not have time to be bogged down with planning. We make sure all the players at an auction have transportation details. Upon arrival at our luxury real estate auctions, we present bidders with bidder packets, and direct everyone where to go.
The same is true of planning an event like The Key. We had a travel agency execute arrival details. We had SUVs and cars transport people from the airport, and then had team members directing all the attendees upon arrival. And throughout the conference, we sent text message alerts to all the attendees 15 minutes before each event. No one has time to look at emails during a busy conference, so this text message alert worked well.
At an auction, we know the lineup – seller, bidders, and their representatives.
For a real estate event like The Key, you have to decide who you want to in attendance. We know we want our preferred agent partners at The Key every year. The speakers take a little more time. For keynote speaker, we chose Barbara Corcoran of The Corcoran Group and Shark Tank. She was a perfect fit. As a successful real estate entrepreneur, she knows many ends of the business and was able to tell our audience all about marketing, selling, and growing a real estate business. Real estate branding expert Marc Davison and the real estate videographer team of Scott Haws and Matt Rollins from NARR8 Media also made perfect sense. We rounded the speaker list out with economist Larry Adam of Deutsche Bank to give us a more rounded view of how real estate fits into the current economic picture.
In doing follow up with our preferred agents and clients throughout the year, one thing we know is that they appreciate is the small things. Taking a listing agent to dinner the night before the auction. White glove service for potential bidders. And the ultimate detail: a closing gift of champagne for the winning bidder to celebrate after the auction.
At The Key, the details were important. Our attendees are very successful people in their space, and used to thinking of everything. So, when we surprised them with milk and cookies one night, or with a remote controlled car race at the Penske Museum, they really appreciated the effort.
In this day and age, it is not real if it did not happen on Facebook. Right? Well for us, that is kind of the case. Our auctions are all broadcasted through our social channels — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. And at the hashtag #ConciergeAuctions.
The first thing to do in setting up social for a conference like The Key is to set up a hashtag. It is usually pretty easy. Ours was #TheKey2013. Everyone on our team tagged Twitter posts and Instagram pictures with that hashtag. And the good part about an event hashtag is that all your attendees can follow and participate. Just go to the hashtag, and you will see all the amazing pictures of the Scottsdale sunsets… and everything else that happened.
Can’t wait to Revv Up for next year…with a new theme of course.
Stay tuned for photos and slides from the conference on our YouTube and Slideshare, pages. And leave us comment with your thoughts on The Key 2013.