Valuation Expo 2024 Recap: Veni, vidi, vici.

Friends, appraisers, countrymen, lend me your ears: I’m Jason Covington, Tennessee appraiser, here to share my insider impressions of Valuation Expo XXI. Full disclosure: I was excited to see how my colleagues at Appraiser eLearning would manage Val Expo in their second year as owners/operators, so I crossed the Rubicon and joined them as an honorary staffer for the week. I showed up early, stayed late, and got a fantastic behind-the-scenes view of how the pros put on a massive production, from set-up to tear-down.

Jason Covington keeps time in the general session.

When I say “the pros,” I’m talking about Karen Connolly and Jim Morrison, seasoned VE generals who make it look almost easy to command the biggest appraiser conference on earth. During our Sunday-night bonding session (at a hilarious axe-throwing and rage-room emporium), we joked that Karen and Jim’s cool & steady leadership style looks like ducks on a lake — gliding calmly above the surface, paddling like mad underwater. But from my backstage view, I could see how easy it wasn’t. First of all, AeL made some bold, risky moves, trying out a colossal new venue at Caesars Palace; a faster-paced, more nimble schedule; a sleek new mobile app that required some frenetic retooling to make it look seamless; and a sophisticated AV setup that worked beautifully 95% of the time and had us pounding the walls the other 5%. Not to mention a wild ride of a keynote address — more on that later.

Heidi, Stephanie, Karen, and Diana ruled the registration desk.

Monday morning after our rage-room adventure dawned too early, with a triple-digit Vegas heat index. But the sun never rises inside Caesars Palace, and the front desk registration team (photo above) looked more chipper than I felt as the first registrants streamed in, slipped on slick McKissock lanyards, collected their Aloft goodie bags, and headed down the escalator to the pre-conference sessions: McKissock’s USPAP updates, the Appraisal Institute’s class on short-term rentals, Aloft’s market-based adjustments class, AeL’s course on eliminating bias, and the ever-popular Lenders and Vendors Live. In the general session hall, the “Opening the Doors” session (sponsored by Solidifi) shined a light on the Appraiser Diversity Initiative® and its talented young scholarship winners, giving us all a shot of hope and inspiration for the future of this profession. AeL partner Hal Humphreys’s experimental AV setup worked well, despite a lot of moving parts — sigh of relief.

“Opening the Doors: The Appraiser Diversity Initiative” session, sponsored by Solidifi

The bustling trade show opened that afternoon with a packed vendor turnout and crackled with electric energy all three days. I loved hosting the raucous cornhole tournament (sponsored by Restb.ai) and supervising our booth’s Val Expo Open mini-golf hole with fellow AeL honorary staffer Allison Rodriguez. You might think games aren’t essential for a trade show, but they’re actually a brilliant, sneaky way to get folks talking without feeling like we’re formally “networking” — even though that’s exactly what we’re doing. Plus: prizes! Congrats to Bradford Technologies for the most splendidly designed golf hole and to the following VE Open winners: 1. Neil Ricafrente ($500); 2. Kris Osborn ($100); 3. Mike Manganaro ($50); 1st in clubhouse: Margo Behnfeldt ($50); ShotTaker: Eddy Martinez ($50). Congrats also to these cornhole tourney champs: 1. Nick Conteduca & Shay Brown ($200); Bryant Vayhinger & Ryan Goydich ($100); Best Team Name: “Certified Cheeseheads,” AKA Stacy Caprioli & Bryan Caprioli ($50).

Networking on the Trade Show floor

Relationships seeded on the trade show floor

Trophies from the Val Expo OPEN

Bryan Reynolds with a Hole-In-One on the Bradford Technologies Best in Show Hole

During my breaks, I switched into attendee mode and shook hands with vendors I was eager to meet. I got great tips from the Spark and Synapse folks about the tools I’ve been using to support my adjustments, and from the CoreLogic / a la mode crew about their new ScanToSketch mobile app. I took what I learned from them home and started using those lessons in the field immediately. But to me, the best kind of networking is the kind with no real agenda. Those are the relationships that may one day grow into something you could never have foreseen.

First thing Tuesday morning, the AV setup went rogue. By a half-hour before showtime, Hal was sweating it. He’d spent two days on his hands and knees running cables, setting up cameras and switching boards, and explaining to the IT staff how it all worked. Suddenly, it didn’t. But somehow, Hal — who had a hurt ankle and was walking with a cane — limped onstage for his opening “VET” talk (Valuation, Education, Tech). He’d put the infuriating tech failures behind him and delivered the opening remarks with on-brand Hal humor and confident humility.

Hal Humphreys & Mark Calabria’s fireside chat

I got to watch this and the other presentations at close range, because one of my volunteer roles was to be the official timekeeper. I introduced myself to each speaker, then sat up front and signaled them when their time was nearly up. I loved the informal sitting-room feel of the stage, and the dramatic stage lighting made the room feel more like a theater and less like the usual dismal, beige-washed conference ballroom. Hal and the Caesars IT team solved the AV issues by changing out a single misfiring dongle, and the show was on. Day one moved quickly, from the morning’s “Answering the Why” panel and entertaining “Man vs. Machine” debate to Mark Calabria’s economic outlook fireside chat, updates from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (with solid performances from Lyle Radke and Scott Reuter), and another fireside chat on the UAD redesign.

 

 

 

 

 

Lyle Radke (left) & Scott Reuter (right)

We were a little behind schedule by the time keynote speaker Jason Feifer blasted onto the stage like a supernova. Everybody leaned in as he posed questions that are still ringing in my head, like: When the world changes around you, how do you hold onto who you are, as a professional and as a human? I was riveted. We all were. Then I flashed a 5 minutes left signal — we’d started late but were trying to end on time, which put him in a bind. He looked stricken.

I won’t go into all that happened next, but let’s just say that Feifer lost the thread and never quite got it back. It hurt my heart to watch him — a good man fighting hard to give us his absolute best. We didn’t get perfection that afternoon, but we did get a very memorable moment of realness and humanity. I’ll never forget it. (And neither will Feifer — he wrote this about what he learned from bombing onstage, and I think it’s pretty profound.) Big thanks to ServiceLink for sponsoring Feifer’s brilliantly flawed and powerful keynote.

Jason Feifer’s keynote address

Things ran more smoothly on day two, which included Sandra Adomatis’s VET talk; panels on “Finding Your Niche” and “Tech Analysis, Tools, & Data”; a VET talk on AI by Loren Cooke; a fireside chat on touchless appraisal; and a panel on adjustments. Lots of folks took home great prizes in the Appraisal Bee (see winners’ list below), and Bryan Reynolds closed us out with some high-energy takeaways, highlighting folks who have superpowers that fly under the radar.

As I look back on the week, I think about the hard work and camaraderie, the triumphs and failures. And I keep coming back to Jason Feifer’s message: that realness and supreme effort matter more than perfection. That might just be my takeaway from this whole conference: The AeL team couldn’t put on a perfect show, but we tried some bold & risky new things and gave you our very best. I’ll be back next year, and I hope you will, too.

Bustling trade show floor

Thanks also to the following sponsors: ValueLink and Restb.ai, coffee; Freddie Mac, lunch; Quantarium, wifi; Stewart Valuation Intelligence, headshots; and ICE, keycard.

Last but not least: We always say the Appraisal Bee is the best odds in Vegas, and this year we had a record number of prizes! Thank you so much to our sponsors for donating such wonderful treasures, and congratulations to our winning attendees.

Sponsor – Prize – Winner
ACI – LG Monitor – Mike Coyne
Aloft – Leica Disto – George Roberts
Appraisal Institute – $200 gift card – David Tiddwell
Appraisal eLearning – RayBan Meta Glasses – Eddy Martinez
Appraisal Buzz – 50″ UHD TV – Justin Twist
Bradford – VIOFO Car Camera – Justin Slack
Class Valuation – Ultra Lightweight cooler – Jeff Rauland
Clear Capital – $100 gift card – James Young
Consolidated Analytics – Branded travel bag – Edgar Mujukian
CoreLogic – $200 Apple gift card – Wes McDaniel
Go Source – $100 cash – Marion Dilbeck
Intercorp – $100 Amazon gift card – Kris Osborn
Jaro – Beats Studio Pro- Nita Sloan
Landy – Bose Soundlink Flex – Jon Nishikawa
LIA Administrators – $150 Gift Card – Amy Tanaka
McKissock – 1-year annual membership – Stephen Domenici
Mosiac Valuation – Airpod Pros – Cynthia Zazzetti
NAA – Hiking backpack – Cathy Putegnat
Opteon – Airpods – Jason Laborde
OREP – Galaxy Tablet – Ann Marie Jensen
PCV Murcor – Bose Soundlink – Neil Ricafrente
ServiceLink – $1000 gift card – Pat Callison
SFREP – JBL flip 6 – Gary Twist
The CE Shop – $250 Amazon gift card – Steve Capistrant
TrueFootage – 50-inch insignia HDTV – Lendell Lynch
True Footage – 50-inch insignia HDTV – Tammy Schoenbeck
ValueLink – Airpods – Peri Jordan
Valuation Connect – $200 Amazon giftcard – Ian Tobin
PropMix – $200 gift card – Keith Beall

Santosh Kanse of Go Source awards cash prizes at the Appraisal Bee

 

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