The Illinois REALTORS® 2023 Spring Conference & Expo kicked off today with keynote speaker Laurie Guest presenting “The 10¢ Decision®: How Small Change Pays Off Big,” and Illinois REALTORS® General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Services Betsy Urbance delivering an NAR settlement update, “That was Then; This is Now; Here We Go.”

Guest encouraged attendees to identify the valuable tasks and services they provide for free and how to communicate the value of those benefits to clients. She encouraged REALTORS® to give careful consideration to the thoughts, presence and words they use to communicate with clients. Positive attitude, appropriate body language, tone, pacing and word choices will affect the quality of communications as well as humor.

Urbance spoke briefly about the NAR settlement, introduced a skit about buyer broker agreements and answered a number of questions by audience members.

Attendees also got opportunities to visit vendors in the expo and earn elective continuing education credits. Illinois REALTORS® Legal Hotline Attorney Victoria Munson presented a one-hour “Legal Update 2024,” while Carrie Little led a two-hour class “Innovation in Real Estate: Embracing AI, Ethics, Digital Marketing & Data.”

Attendees were welcomed by Illinois REALTORS® President Matt Silver and Conference & Expo Committee Chair Celeste Wheeler.

The day ended with a networking reception at a nearby restaurant, Zapata’s.