Home Improvement On The Web

RETSO is a conference (April 4th & 5th) created to help business professionals refocus. The Atlanta based event was launched in 2008 and features a great slate of presenters. Brad Nix, the event founder took a couple of minutes to answer some questions about RETSO. If you’re interested in attending you can register here.  If you’re involved with real estate conferences and would like to have it featured here on GEB, let us know.


What Is RETSO?

RETSO is a campground where the real estate industry’s brightest minds, most innovative companies, and greatest doers gather to share ideas and knowledge to make each other better and the industry smarter. RETSO is where ideas and doers meet.

Who Should Attend?
RETSO Refocus is made for leaders, visionaries, executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and doers. Today’s business environment is harder than ever. If your business needs innovation, your department needs more context for it’s role in the organization, or you personally need a challenge to think strategically about business, then RETSO is a must attend event in 2013.

What Have Previous Attendees Taken Away From RETSO?
In the past, attendees have taken away tactics and tools to improve their real estate business.  This year, we’re rising above shiny objects and latest trends to focus on business model generation.

What Makes RETSO Different Than Other RE Focused Events?
It’s time event organizers asked better questions instead of providing answers to problems no one needs to solve. Enough of the show and tell, let’s just sit down and work together to make something meaningful. Where do we start? By asking the right questions. At RETSO, we required all of our partners to explain what problem they solve for the real estate industry. We’re going two steps further and asking what key resource do they provide and what key activity do they perform? We will continue by asking attendees even tougher questions, such as what bundles of products and/or services are you offering to each customer segment your business model serves?

Who Are Some Of Your Featured Speakers?
Our speakers were specifically selected based on their experience working with the business model canvas both inside and outside of real estate.  Some familiar names to the industry such as Brian Copeland, Jeff Turner, Gahlord Dewald, Jeff Corbett, & Daniel Rothamel as well as couple from outside the industry.  For example, Matt Hames was chosen based on his recent implementation of creative business model design in the financial services industry. We went one step further and tapped Nick Niemann, a contributing author to Business Model Generation, to kickoff RETSO Refocus with a keynote overview of the canvas itself.

What Is Your Best Memory of RETSO’s Past?
My favorite memories seem to happen right before or right after the event.  The few hours before showtime creates a nervous, anxious, quiet, yet chaotic feeling – like butterflies in your stomach – that is hard to beat in life.  The moment is bigger than you ever anticipate, yet you’re completely helpless to stop it at that point.  Just hard to beat the moment before the storm hits.  That is until someone comes up after the event and tells you how much it has changed their approach to business.  For RETSO to impact one entrepreneur, one business, or just one doer is an incredible feeling.  To have had those moments time and time again, it’s really the only reason to go through such a production – to make a difference.

What Do You See As The Next Big Thing In RE Tech?
I think the next big thing is in people, not tech.  These past few years our industry and our society has absorbed so much new knowledge via new technologies.  It’s time to pause and convert that knowledge into applied wisdom.  We’ve become so enamored by the latest thing, the shiniest object, that technology itself is no longer enough to make a difference.  We’re going to have look within to search for meaning and context and learn to focus on what truly matters.  This will come from people, from doers.