Guess who’s going for FREE?
August 4, 2008
Congratulations to lucky number 88 Gary Lou Allen, Sr. of Century 21 Virginia Beach, VA, our first winner in VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008 giveaway. Gary received a free convention registration valued at $325 and all he had to do was register.
Sign up online today for your chance to receive a FREE REGISTRATION and save up to $355 on your trip to Perfect Opportunities: VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008. The count is close, we’re about 26 registrants away from giving away our next free registration. Register now!
Why is the Virginia Association of REALTORS meeting in Maryland?
June 19, 2008
In a comment to a previous post, Phyllis Papkin asks why VAR is meeting in Maryland. That’s a very good question…
VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008 marks the final year of a policy adopted by our policy board several years ago that says VAR’s Convention & Expo will be in-state two years and out-of-state (within reasonable driving distance) the next. The purpose of that policy when it was adopted reflected the will of those members who actually attended Convention; surveys showed they preferred the occasional out-of-state location. It was also a strategic move that acknowledged that if we wanted other states to site their convention in Virginia, we should occasionally site ours in theirs (in recent years, North Carolina, NAR and Tennessee have hosted events in our state).
Our record since adopting the policy shows that our conventions are not as well attended when we’re out-of-state, although we’re actually 13 percent ahead of our registration pace compared to last year, as of July 30. However, as you’d expect, the hotel contracts for events the size of ours are signed well in advance of the actual year of the event, and we committed to Baltimore awhile back.
That’s why a working group was empanelled last year to evaluate and recommend changes to our convention siting method and schedule in hopes of attracting significantly larger numbers of our members to the event — by making it more convenient, attractive and affordable. That group continues its work, and we expect to have their final recommendations this September. Their interim reports, which have been accepted by our policy board, show that states that hold their convention in the same in-state location at the same general time each year tend to have a larger percentage of our membership attend; their final recommendations may include adopting such a plan. At a minimum, it’s unlikely that we’ll continue to have VAR conventions out-of-state on any regular basis after this year.
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VAR's Convention & Expo Experience
