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So I attended Inman Connect San Francisco.

And I had the time of my life.

However, in the back of my mind, I thought, “That was an anomaly, a statistical aberration, beginner’s luck, a perfect aligning of the planets, whatever you want to call it…it won’t happen again.”

Boy, was I wrong.

Seattle was everything San Francisco was. On some levels, it was even better.

Here’s a quick recap of my whirlwind visit:

• Bellevue is an amazing place. If I could design a city, it would look exactly like this. Clean, new, upscale, towers of pricey condos everywhere, walkable, and full of people who look…happy? Is that the word I’m looking for? Yep. The climate? To die for. And the natural beauty of the area is absolutely breathtaking – the picture at right taken through the plane window of course does not do it justice. I want to come back here. Again. And again.
• Before I go any further, I want to say THANK YOU to Inman News for inviting me to speak. It is an honor and a privilege to be part of this great event, and I was and am humbled to be included. And I want to give a special shout-out to Madelyn Mock, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure an event like Agent Reboot can happen and go off without a hitch. Which it did. You rock, Madelyn!
• Whoever chose the Meydenbaur Center (below) as the venue deserves a raise and a gold watch. The Exhibit Hall in which Agent Reboot took place is the nicest room of its kind I’ve ever been in. The venue alone gave the day’s proceedings an air of “world-class-ness” and “cutting-edge-ness” that was really special.
  
  
• The fearless leader of Agent Reboot’s west coast swing is the inimitable Nicole Nicolay (@nik_nik). What can you say about Nicole that hasn’t already been said countless times before? There is simply no one else like her in the real estate space (and probably no one else like her in ANY space). She is the perfect, perfect, PERFECT choice to emcee an event of this kind, because she is a special combination of cool, smart, hip, serious AND fun at the same time, energetic, relentless, positive, respected, knowledgable…I could go on and on. She can go from convincing the entire room to dance to having a dead serious conversation about potential imputed broker liability in short sales without any loss of credibility. There’s just one Nicole. It’s her world, and we’re just living in it. And we’re damned happy to be here.
• Speaking of Nicole, below is a photo of her (taken at the after-event Tweetup) with Teri Conrad (@TLCHome), me and Tom Everitt (@ThinkTomDotCom), a super-sharp agent from Vancouver, BC who taught me a lot about video (short version: he has a video studio set up in his garage that has been featured on local TV news shows) and impressed me with his knowledge on a range of topics.
  
  
• I met Dale Chumbley (@DaleChumbley) originally in San Francisco. In Seattle, I got to spend some true quality time with him. Dale is getting a lot of notice of late, and all I can say is (1) he totally deserves it, and (2) it could not happen to a nicer guy. I had dinner with Dale and a number of other people and then drinks at a sweet outdoor patio bar called the Tap Room, and throughout the entire evening all I saw was this guy that everyone just seems to adore. He is full of grace and knowledge and loves to selfishly share of himself with other people. Example: he mentioned that he makes entire videos with his iPhone. I asked for a quick example, thinking he might spend one or two minutes giving me a big-picture overview. Nope. He made a freaking movie. And then he edited it, showing me all the options along the way. He spent a good 20 minutes giving me a crash course. I was humbled that he would do that for me. Dale Chumbley: Righteous Dude. Also: you can’t spell “Chumbley” without also spelling “humble.” Somehow, that makes perfect sense.
• I co-presented at one point with Teri Conrad. As we prepared for our presentation leading up to the the event, I got to know Teri and I have nothing but respect for her. She’s like the sister I never had. It was an honor to work with a professional of her caliber.
• I also met Chris Smith (@techsavvyagent) of TechSavvyAgent.com. I know a bit about technology, so it takes a lot to impress me on that level. This guy overwhelmed the room with his relentless assault of quality tech advice that included no fluff whatsoever. It was just one good tip after another. And he was a very effective speaker and presenter.
• I also met Darin Persinger (@DarinPersinger; that’s him at right) of ProductivityJunkies.com who shared a lot of great content regarding webpage capture and conversion. Darin is a well respected voice in web and Social Media and it was great to finally meet him. And he really blew me away by inviting me to breakfast the morning I left, picking me up, taking me to a great little restaurant and bringing me back to my hotel. That is the spirit of Social Media, personified.
• I shared the stage at one point with T.A. McCann (@tamccann) of Gist. I must admit that I have never taken the time to truly investigate and understand Gist, although my partner Todd Waller (@ToddWaller) has and tells me it’s a genius concept. Having said that, I now feel I have the gist of Gist (too predictable? Sorry!) and I think it is a great idea worthy of further investigation.
• I finally got to spend some time with Chad Johnson (@ChadAJohnson) of MyTechOpinion.com and AgentEvolution.com. Chad travels with Nicole and is a major reason why the “Nicole Nicolay” brand is what is is today (mega!). Not to mention that he is a super-smart and sharp guy in his own right. I had a great conversation with Chad at the Tweetup after the event and all I can say is that he IS the man (and an amazing photographer).
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  I met a number of other amazing people – Linda Aaron (@skynnard; that’s her in the photo with Dale Chumbley at right), Debra Trappen (@debra11), Geoff Thomas (@GeoffThomas77), Katherine Cannon (@KatherineCannon), Kelley Skar (@KelleySkar) and so many others. Again, the power of these “connection” events is exactly that: connecting with people you’d never have the chance to meet in any other way.
• I heard a really cool SMROI story from a guy named Dan Keller (@dankellermtg).  I encouraged Dan to write a blog post telling the full story, which he then did. Here’s the link to that post.
• Of course, there was a LOT of other quality content at the event, but in the interest of keeping this post (potentially) readable, I have to limit my observations.
• Finally, you know you have influence when people talk about you and you aren’t even at an event. Over and over I had conversations with people, and somehow the words “1000Watt” and “Marc Davison” (@1000wattmarc) ended up being spoken by someone. Somehow, I was never surprised…

In summary, Agent Reboot Seattle was another great event and another great experience for me personally.

I cannot wait to do it again in Las Vegas on September 15!

PS: In case you missed Agent Reboot Seattle, the topics about which I spoke were as follows:

• Think Before You Tweet (click here for downloadable PDF)
  
• The ROI of Social Media (click here for downloadable PDF)