The overwhelming post-convention commentary on the forums from attendees has been "You missed something extraordinary". It's been a long time since there was any gathering of appraisers that large and especially that enthused. "Enthused" isn't a word often associated with appraisers these days, but it certainly applied to our convention. Attendees remembered why they entered this profession in the first place, why they have faith in their peers, and why they trust us to represent them technically, and, ever more commonly, professionally.

That's because the profession's issues are increasingly technical at their core, and traditional organizations which believe that continuing education is their primary mission will never be able to lead in that arena. Plus, unless the organizations have faith in the profession, they'll always turn tail at the first challenge and sleep with the seemingly powerful enemy.

What about the other vendors? They're technical, but they're not risk takers and activists at heart. That too requires faith in appraisers, and their lack of faith results in AVM partnerships. They seem to forget that "diversifying" is not synonymous with "playing both sides of the fence" and "hedging your bet".

We do have the most technical depth, we do have faith, we have watched this industry prosper through grassroots efforts, and we don't shy away from a fight. We never have. We told you we'd make that clear at our convention, and we did.

In Las Vegas we showed how we've diversified into the agent, mortgage, and inspection markets without selling you out. In fact, the opposite is true - we've used those markets to push more business and connections to appraisers. A great example is our partnership with Ellie Mae, announced at the convention, which will encourage loan officers and brokers to order appraisals directly from their desktop software with no middleman and no parasitic fees. If we weren't actively selling Mortgage XSites, that partnership wouldn't have been possible.

In short, the convention proved where we differentiate ourselves. You'll see that clearly by watching the videos of the industry panel sessions. There are more on the way - many hours of video to edit - but we've got the copyrighting panel session, the AVM panel session, and my copyrighting keynote speech online already. If you want to see what will be affecting the industry in the near and long term, and what makes us different, watch the videos at:

http://www.alamode.com/training/lasvegas2005/Videos

Of course, we also conducted hundreds of hours of training over our existing products and our new centerpiece, WinTOTAL's new "Aurora" generation. Aurora got rounds of applause for everything from the radical new comps grid with integrated popup photos and adjustment models to the cool new MLS importer. By the time it's out en masse this summer (attendees left with a pre-release Aurora CD), it will be incredible. Even in pre-release form it's better than anything this industry's ever had.

To everyone who attended, everyone who's given us such superb feedback, and everyone who's e-mailed us to let us know they support us even if they don't use our products, let me extend my heartfelt thanks. This is a lot of work but it's well, well worth it.

If you missed it, we're looking forward to seeing you at our mid-year convention in Orlando in late July. Bring the family and write it off. Non-users are as welcome as our customers, and you won't be hammered by our salespeople to buy. (We'll let the customers in the room do our dirty work for us.) Arrangements are being finalized now, and we'll be sending out pre-registration information by the end of March.

Thanks again and take care -

Dave Biggers
CEO
a la mode, inc.

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