Media Center - Florida Realtors®

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Jeff Zipper, Vice President of Communications
407/438-1400, ext. 2314
JeffZ@far.org

Marla Martin, Communications Manager
407/438-1400, ext. 2326
MarlaM@far.org

FAR's Strategic Visioning Experience Looks Ahead to Florida's Real Estate Industry Future

ORLANDO, Fla., June 29, 2004 -- To help shape the future of the real estate industry and discover new approaches for the Florida Association of Realtors© (FAR) to use to help Florida Realtors© improve their profession and boost their business, members of FAR's Strategic Visioning Committee recently participated in a two-day leadership development workshop held at the association's Orlando headquarters June 23-24, 2004, said FAR President Russell Grooms.

The 2004 Strategic Visioning "Experience" was facilitated by Gregg Thompson, president of the Tom Peters Company, a global training and education company based in Loveland, Ohio.

"The purpose of this event is to envision the future of the real estate profession and develop possible strategies free of all constraints," said Committee Chairman Tim Kinzler. "To unleash the creative thinking of 30-plus leading industry experts, we have partnered with the Tom Peters Company to stimulate creative approaches to broad marketplace and organizational issues concerning change, leadership and re-imagining the way FAR does business. After all, FAR represents 110,000 Realtors, 10 percent of Realtors in the U.S.A."

Keeping an eye on trends and a changing real estate profession enables FAR to provide the best services and information to members, Grooms said. "The real estate industry and our association are in a profession that used to experience change every 20 years and now goes through dramatic changes in less than a three-year cycle," he said. "We must reach out to the future of the industry and follow up the work of the Strategic Visioning Committee by implementing their recommendations and ideas."

Tom Peters Company Vice President, Southeast Region, Teresa Spangler added, "FAR is seen as an organization always striving to make a difference. They have always been a pace setter and plan to remain a strategic value to their Realtors and to the Realtors' clients. TPC is proud to support FAR's re-imagining process into the future."

The Florida Association of Realtors, the voice for real estate in Florida, provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to its 100,000 members in 70 boards/associations.