Maltese RE/MAX Agents Head to #reucon17 in Lisbon

As a company, RE/MAX believes in motivating its estate agents and staff at every opportunity. With that in mind, a number of events take place every year that RE/MAX affiliates may choose to attend – often in fabulous locations as far away as Australia, Asia and the United States. However, there’s also one closer to home – the European convention, and this year it took place in Lisbon, Portugal.

This time, around 38 RE/MAX Malta agents attended the conference, which was themed ‘Changing the Game’ and was held at the renowned Pavilhao Carlos Lopes Convention Centre.

The Maltese agents mingled among 1,200 RE/MAX estate agents from all over Europe, North America and beyond, and celebrated their successes, shared best practices, networked and learnt from some of the most established names in their respective fields.

Among the many highlights of the event was the main real estate speaker – Richard Robbins, a world leader and speaker who previously spoke at the fourth European convention in Vienna and made a major impact on several Maltese estate agents.  Back then, over 30 RE/MAX agents went on to complete his advanced course, Masters Edge.

‘Changing the Game’ was reflected in many parts of the event and Michael Polzler, the CEO of RE/MAX Europe – who is a visionary by all accounts and the son of the co-founder of 33% of all of RE/MAX internationally – set the stage for an amazing event. He quickly announced that he expects RE/MAX Europe to grow by 25% in the next 18 months, and to reach an incredible 30,000 agents. However, this vision will only come to fruition if the company grasps the latest technologies and co-operates more with each other, as well as if each country continues to lead their markets not only in numbers but also by maintaining the education of their agents and the general public.

Meanwhile, Malta’s own Paul Vincenti, an International Coach and Trainer, kicked off the conference in the pre-learning seminars and delivered two separate sessions to agents and brokers respectively. It was very satisfactory and a proud moment when many of the people who attended Paul’s session showed their contentment and expressed that they were impressed with his coaching and delivery. Of course we weren’t surprised to hear that – but it was still a pleasing endorsement for Malta, and RE/MAX Malta.

Next came the other speakers. Among them, Christian Bischoff – Author, Motivational Speaker, a former Germany International Basketball player who was also (some 30 years ago) the youngest-ever to play for his country provided a very interesting session.  In his talk he explained how fears can easily be broken down if you look at them from an out-of-the-box perspective and face them head-on. As part of his presentation he invited a volunteer (Emmanuel N. Imana) from the audience to the stage to engage in a very particular activity in which he and Emmanuel placed the same metal rod on their throats, creating a bridge between them, and demonstrating that fear is just a perception. They walked towards each other and, contrary to what many thought would happen, the rod did not pierce their throats but bent instead. It was an important message – especially if you are stuck in a moment; it was inspiring and came across very well.

Over the next two days other speakers included Alisee De Tonnac – a CEO and Co-Founder of Seedstars World, Nils Muller – an Innovator, CEO and Founder of Trendone, and Pellegrino Riccardi – a Global Keynote Speaker and Cross-Cultural Expert.

The talks and presentations were enlightening and provided the delegates with several ideas to take home – from live demonstrations of virtual and augmented reality, to stories about how real agents have achieved success against the odds.

Richard Robbins, one of my personal favorites, was also at his best. A previous successful realtor himself, he had sold his brokerage in the late 90s to build a coaching and training company.  Today he is one of the Top Three, world-renowned speakers in our industry and I particularly like his work because I have literally seen him change the life of someone in Malta; someone who sadly isn’t with us anymore.

Besides the speakers there were a number of activities held during the convention, and RE/MAX Europe hosted all delegates to free-flowing wine and ample food. The best night was the evening at the Campo Pequeno, a famous bull-fighting ring that’s been transformed into a spectacular events hall.

From our perspective, this is the ninth year that we represented Malta at the European convention and, next year, the event will be held in Amsterdam.  We’re expecting to receive a major response from Malta and planning to take over 60 agents.

Learning is one of our key ethos and we believe that, by encouraging our agents to attend these conferences, we are living by our values. The conferences not only assist our agents in their real estate learning process but also serve as excellent team building.

For more information about joining RE/MAX and taking advantages of these incentives go to Join Remax Malta.

The next RE/MAX European convention will be held between 17-19 October 2018 in Amsterdam.