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I’m in that” kinda busy as I’m leaving town tomorrow for several days” mode.  Leaving town, in my world, involves preparing my household, my clients and my office for my departure. Oh yes, and me!  This is a lot. And the better job I do in preparing, the more I am able to enjoy where I’m going.

I’m headed to Las Vegas for the RE/MAX International Convention at Mandalay Bay.  I’ve not stayed there before but hear good things.  I’m such a creature of habit, I’ll need to find the closest Starbucks to my room for breakfast, and scope out a few good lunch spots that will work in a hurry. 

 Before the convention I’m taking a two day training class on working with real estate investors in this market.  I work with plenty of investors, and found last year and the year before that investors made up about one third of my business. So polishing up on my skills seems in order. In addition, several agents in my office are interested in this course, which is available through RE/MAX over the web.  By taking the live version, I’ll be able to mentor our agents through their course.

The convention begins on Monday.  I’ll look forward the opening session of the convention as RE/MAX always puts on a good show.  The convention offers several “tracks” of continuing education including technology, broker/manager, commercial and technology.  I expect I’ll focus mostly on broker/manager, technology and social media.  The convention is also a great opportunity to connect with suppliers (our website provider for instance) and to get a peek at new tools and products headed our way.

I’m not a gambler, so that part of Las Vegas doesn’t hold much for me.  And I usually have a bit of “entry” problems when I first hit Vegas; it is just all so much.  But once I get in the swing of things, I enjoy the respite than Vegas offers from my normal, daily, Portland life.  Oh yeah, I have to hold down my scorn for how much water those casinos waste, the lack of, or inferior recycling programs can get me riled up, and Vegas isn’t the best spot in which to be a vegetarian.  But all that aside, I plan to learn  a lot, connect with a lot of people and have a blast.