Every year the SVN International Corp. hosts the annual conference for SVN franchises all over the world. This year, the 2018 conference was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa.
The SVN Corporate team put together an amazing event that added team building activities this year. Activities such as golf, horseback riding, wine & watercolor, jewelry making, and team chili cook-offs provided the opportunity to network and meet other SVN advisors and staff from other offices. Conference speakers included top executives President & CEO Kevin Maggiacomo, Diane Danielson, John McDermott and Solomon Poretsky. Additional keynote speakers included Dr. Mark Dotzour who delivered an incredible address to the SVN crowd regarding the real estate economy. The conference also included motivational speaker, Coach Ken Carter. You may recall he is the legendary coach who inspired Hollywood movie producers to film the movie, “Coach Carter” based off his real life story. Coach Carter made national headlines by locking out his undefeated varsity boys’ basketball team from the gym and suspended all activities until the student athletes grades improved. Carter delivered a very clear message at the SVN Conference. Accountability, integrity, teamwork and leadership are the most important fundamentals in achieving success.
While the breakout and product council sessions were a main part of the conference, the event everyone looked forward to was the Annual Awards banquet dinner. However, Thursday morning was an unexpected epic moment for SVN | Desert Commercial Advisors hours before the awards banquet even took place. Kevin Maggiacomo took stage to discuss brokerage leadership. Maggiacomo also addressed increase productivity in 2017 and pointed out specific analytics that were displayed on two incredibly large screens on each side of the room. After a 10 minute address to the SVN audience he announced that Perry Laufenberg was named the ‘2017 Managing Director of the Year’ for his outstanding role as a managing director who possesses the qualities he talked about and what it takes to succeed. Out of the 220+ SVN offices combined, Laufenberg was the sole recipient of this prestigious award from the SVN corporate headquarters.
“It was an extreme honor to walk the stage in front of hundreds of my peers to accept the Managing Director of the Year award. With over 200 offices internationally, it is incredible to think that we led the world in revenue growth per advisor along with many other metrics,” Laufenberg said of this honor. You can expect some great additions to the SVN Phoenix office in the 2nd quarter. Laufenberg will be looking to add a group of new brokers to the team that can benefit from excellent senior leadership and the extensive training program that is offered. Laufenberg stated, “We would like to grow our industrial brokerage vertical and round out the team with self-motivated future leaders.”
SVN | Desert Commercial Advisors has also been recognized as one of the best workplace cultures in the valley. The locally recognized magazine Ranking Arizona just released the 21st Edition of the Best of Arizona’s Businesses. The SVN Phoenix brokerage was ranked #2 as the “Best Workplace Culture” in the State of Arizona in the commercial real estate industry. “We have been recognized in five categories this year. To be recognized in the Top 3 Commercial Real Estate brokerages in the State is something we take pride in,” said the Director of Marketing & Administration Melissa Swader. SVN will continue to make headlines simply because they put forth the effort into building a brokerage that strives for open collaboration, building relationships and creating an energetic environment to look forward to every day.
