Last week, National Land Realty held the 2018 National Land Summit at the Hilton Atlanta Airport in Atlanta. NLR leaders, land professionals, and team members came together to learn, network with one another, and hear from several distinguished speakers over the course of two days.

The second annual conference kicked off Tuesday morning with check-in for agents and brokers at 8 a.m. Attendees then received a warm welcome from Aaron Graham, NLR President, followed by a State of the Union message from Jason Walter, NLR CEO.

After an important update from NLR Marketing Director Lizz Pingry on the company’s marketing efforts, and another from Ann Gaffigan, NLR CTO, and Tyler Van Meeteren, NLR GIS Director, on several exciting new tools for the agents, attendees got to hear from Shane Boyer, VP at AgSouth Farm Credit. Shane shared the services AgSouth provides and the areas they cover.

Before breaking for lunch, Zac Ritchey, Wealth Advisor at Carson Wealth, shared how his company can help agents’ clients and announced an exciting giveaway of a hunting trip to the company’s private lodge in Nebraska. (Congrats to Devin Dickey who won this great prize!)

After lunch, the Summit introduced Jean-Louis Guinchard from RCX Capital Group. Jean-Louis discussed important topics such as farmland values, farmers’ top concerns, and the 7 deadly sins of Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs), among others.

Jason Burbage, NLR Executive VP, followed with a presentation on the latest on what’s happening in the business of land. Attendees then got to hear from Ricky Novak from The Strategic Group on all the details and news on conservation easements.

Day 1 of the Summit closed with a returning session from last year’s conference, the Top Performers Panel, where several agents and brokers shared their expertise.

A delightful treat for this year’s Summit attendees was the Awards Banquet, sponsored by RCX Capital Group, on Tuesday evening. After some time of mingling and a plated dinner, a fun raffle preceded the presentation of the 2017 awards.

2017 Awards

Rising Star: Stan Swofford
Alabama Top Producer: Clint Flowers, ALC
Arkansas Top Producer: Jeramy Stephens, ALC
Colorado Top Producer: Sydney Terrell
Florida Top Producer: Nathan Fabrick
Georgia Top Producer: Tommy Stroud Jr., ALC
Iowa Top Producer: Ryan Schroeter, ALC
Kansas Top Producer: Jeremy Oehlert
Mississippi: Mark Lewis
Missouri Top Producer: Sid Wise
Nebraska Top Producer: Molly McClure
North Carolina Top Producer: Aaron Sutton
South Carolina Top Producer: Greg Greer
Tennessee Top Producer: Thomas Krajewski
Texas Top Producer: Brad Wilson
Top Gun: Clint Flowers, ALC

The Awards Banquet successfully closed with a keynote by Dr. Tom Osborne, college football coaching legend and former U.S. congressman. Dr. Osborne gave a meaningful and deeply motivating message many will never forget.

At NLR, one of our core values is leaving a positive impact. So, this year we decided to make our conference donation to TeamMates, a mentoring program founded by Dr. Osborne that promotes youth to continue to post-secondary education. We are truly privileged to be a part of it!

Day 2 began with a productive morning of roundtable discussions over breakfast. Sessions fired back up with another technology update from Ann and Tamara Bunte, sales coach, followed by a special presentation by Aaron on how agents/brokers can strategically use co-marketing to their advantage. Attendees then got to hear from KC Conway, Director of Research & Corporate Engagement at the Alabama Center for Real Estate and CCIM Institute’s Chief Economist.

The 2018 National Land Summit closed with a few of the agents/brokers sharing their overall takeaways from the conference and a motivational team reciting of the Husker prayer led by Aaron.

The 2018 National Land Summit was well attended with over 100 agents present. Thank you to all who came, and hope to see you next year!

A big thank you to our sponsors:

AgSouth Farm Credit
Land.com
U.S. Trust, Bank of America
Quattlebaum, Grooms, & Tull Law
Alabama Ag Credit
Midwest Title
RCX Capital Group
Carson Wealth Management
Westwood Professional Services
Wyatt Brothers Financial
Ci Shirts
McKissock Learning