New Data Mining Symposium at Real Estate Connect

Amid blistering competition for customer share and an increasing internal battle for customer retention, the real estate and financial services industries are finding that a mother lode of information lays just underfoot, technologically speaking. Data mining is the latest strategy for transforming the way old-line industries will make future business decisions, according to organizers of the 7th Real Estate Connect, the industry's largest technology conference, scheduled for July 22-24 at the San Francisco Hilton and Towers.

A new symposium, "Mining the Customer Vein: Data Mining, Cross-selling, Increasing Customer Share and Customer Retention," set for July 23-24 as part of Real Estate Connect offers methods and strategies to leverage, mine and find new sources of customer data. Top regulatory and privacy experts will share methods and guidelines for employing consumer-friendly, integrated data collection strategies.

"Data mining yields hidden treasures," said Kristina Inman, co-founder of Inman News Features, the event's producer. "In this recessionary climate, capital spending is constrained and every customer counts. That's where data mining comes in. Technical infrastructures are in place. Companies have amassed mountainous databases with customer information. More data is collected during the real estate and mortgage process than in perhaps any other transaction. There's never been a better time to implement cost-effective customer acquisition and retention strategies."

The program will provide in-depth information on how to dramatically boost cross-selling opportunities, ramp up customer share and rapidly expand customer bases by leveraging the data a company and others collect.

Real Estate Connect attracts the nation's top real estate brokers and agents, technologists, lenders, title leaders, commercial real estate executives and other real estate service providers to get the first word on the future from heavyweights like conference keynoters Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the ballyhooed Blackberry wireless device; Larry Page, CEO of Google, the Web's hottest new search engine; Stuart Wolff, Chairman and CEO of Homestore.com; Geoff Colvin, the editorial director of Fortune magazine; Richard Mendenhall, president of the National Association of REALTORS; Robert Moles, president and CEO of Cendant Real Estate Franchise Group; Ian Morris, product unit manager of MSN HomeAdvisor; and Earl Lee, president of The Prudential Real Estate Affiliates.

Real Estate Connect current cosponsors include MSN HomeAdvisor, Homestore.com, Yahoo! Real Estate, Countrywide Home Loans, HomeGain, The California Association of REALTORS, Gannett's Celebro, Freddie Mac, eTranscentral.com, Stewart Title, DataQuick, Micro General Corporation and Homes.com. Industry partners of the conference include The Realty Alliance, Royal LePage Real Estate, The Texas Association of Realtors, Real Estate Cyperspace Society, The British Columbia Real Estate Association, The Alberta Real Estate Association, The Washington Association of REALTORS, LenderCareers.com, The Appraisal Institute, The Chicago Association of Realtors Comstock Net Services and the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Real Estate Connect attracts more CEOs and top decision makers than any other conference of its kind. For registration information call 800-775-4662 x3 or register online at www.inman.com/connect.

Contact Karen Miller of Inman News Features, 626-355-1245, karenmiller@earthlink.net.