Wow, Pac Rim was great! Where was everybody?
Ok...I did notice a few familiar faces and a few unfamiliar faces...but not nearly as many faces as I hoped to?! What is up with that? The Pacific Rim conference has got to be the single most useful two days ever! Talk about giving you career a shot in the arm, we came home to Hilo very fired up and ready to spend the next week designing business plans (Thank You Tony Macaluso!), blogging our brains out (Thanks to our own Bob Stewart!), revamping our use of Technology (Awesome Job Saul Klein!) and doing all of this with understanding for our multi generational clients (Mahalo for the very thought provoking seminar Carolyn D'Agosta!) and a special thanks to Paul Brewbaker for being right...Again!
Who was missing? Lots and Lots of agents (Aloha Randy Prothero from ActiveRain, it was great to meet you in person!)...I don't have the total numbers yet for attendance, but I do know that there were a awful lots of empty seats...and not nearly as many vendors as I had hoped, this is supposed to be a trade show?! Where are you hiding the good stuff? For techies like Local Hawaii Real Estate it was very disappointing...some nice goodies (thanks Old Republic for the blue LED flashing luggage tags, they were neat even if they did give me a seizure on the way home and I know if I had tried to get on a plane with them puppies I would have been tackled as a terrorist!) But hey, at least Old Republic was there! Stealing market share...;) One of the most interesting booths this year was actually Ufirst, interesting approach to debt reduction and wealth accumulation, not sure it is for everyone but if you need help with discipline it may just be for you. Most disappointing booth..."BOOM" the sound canceling headphones for cell phones, the sign said that "REALTORS love the boom", I don't think thats the boom we are lovin... old tech people, lets move on to new and innovative... and that would be the Speakers! Just looking at the technology being used for the set up was enough to get me going! Between the speakers and the Waikaloa Hilton (More on them later) there were cords and cables, wireless buttons, focusing speakers, iddy bitty lap tops with more computing power than my Home PC...wow... I think I made them nervous cause I kept going back and scoping out their equipment...one guy hit on me so maybe he thought I was checking out "his" equipment (not a chance sweety, thanks though...).
The Hilton Waikaloa! WOW, can I say it again? WOW! This resort is soooo beautiful, incredible location, gorgeous weather, inspired design...and all of the art! Oh my goodness! Everywhere you turn there is either wonderful reproductions or incredible new works. I especially love the curved bridge that you travel from the lobby to the pool and conference rooms...and the neat little boat shuttle, I would so ride on that all day...me and the little dog would be up on the bow in the spray... and the staff! I can not stress enough how professional and kind the staff is...(yes I know your job is just to pick the cigarette buts out of the planters, but thank you for being nice enough to give me directions to the restroom with a smile!). The final Kudo for the Hilton is the food! They fed us so good...some one most have given them a heads up about REALTORS! Lots of coffee, fruit and pastries for breakfast (nothing heavy thankfully, our little tummies and fuzzy minds can not handle anything heavy or complex at 7:00 AM, tasty but light lunches (yes we will sleep through our afternoon classes if you carbo load us) and wonderfully rich dinners (thanks for the wine and brewski's, it was just enough to make us feel pampered), but the hands down winner was the local kine foods on the last day...Pork Hash! They made us Pork Hash dim sum! I almost had to call for help to waddle out to the car!
The surreal note of the event came to us as we were leaving the conference on the first day, my partner in Crime (Larkin Hathaway, yes of course she is on ActiveRain) noticed a adorable orange & white long haired half grown kitten hanging out in the parking lot...being a soft touch she decided that kitty should go home with her. After repeated attempts to sweet talk said kitty into joining us Larkin made her last ditch effort with her patented "Kissy" sounds... the hair on the back of my neck began to rise and I turned around to observe OVER 20 CATS RUNNING THROUGH THE BRUSH TO GET TO US! After recovering from the adrenalin spike, we noticed that they were anxious to be near us but not too near us...apparently some one is feeding this "population" and they have apparently infringed on Larkins "kissy" sound copywrite! They looked healthy and happy and I am sure some one has a plan with this population but it was a bit of a surprise for us...we explored a little and discovered another "group" on the other side of the parking lot...there must be 40-60 cats living in that parking lot?! If any one knows what the story is could you please drop me a line? I am just eaten up with curiosity and you know what that did to the cat...meow!
