STRATEGY
VIRTUAL LEARNING
Is AI Next in REI Education?
HOW VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ARE HELPING AND HURTING REAL ESTATE INSTRUCTION
by Steve Streetman
ver the past year, real estate investment (REI) organizations
participate in activities in markets where they invest. You don’t have to travel, so a meeting takes up only the time of the meeting. You don’t even have to put on pants (but please manage your video appropriately). And you can reach a higher number of attendees. From an instructor point of view, it has become easier to create perma - nent content just by recording the meetings and making them available to students who couldn’t make the meeting time. This further increases the number of students and allows an instructor to teach once and let students learn multiple times. But not all the value from REI is easily
maintained in a virtual environment. When I go to conferences, I am usually less interested in the ses- sions than the people. The most value I receive is from individual conversations with other attendees. I meet new partners, new friends, and new investors. And even with my introverted tendencies, I just enjoy the conversations and learn unex - pected things. These interactions are far more challenging in a virtual environment. You can have breakout sessions in Zoom (and they help) but individual conversations are not easily possible. It’s just not the same trying to get to know someone through the chat window.
O
have scrambled to remain rele - vant and operative as the pandemic has shut down and altered in-per- son meetings. Mostly gone are the three-day live bootcamps, the annual conferences in vacation spots like Las Vegas and Orlando, and even the REIA meetings at hotels. In their place are webinars and Zoom meetings. No doubt these changes have pushed some peo - ple out of business, but others have thrived. There are benefits to hosting meetings online. You can join from anywhere; it is much easier for an investor from out of town to regularly
58 | think realty magazine :: april 2021
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