Get the 411 on the great minds helping us facilitate, moderate, motivate, cogitate and innovate at this year's REBarCamp Jax.
Kim Knapp
Owner, Team Knapp, Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty
Kim has had a hands-on role in bringing REBarCamp to Jacksonville since the very first REBarCamp Jax in 2013. A CRS Instructor/Speaker, Kim is the driving force behind Team Knapp, as well as a Believer, wife, mom, Realtor®, instructor, speaker, Barcamper, free thinker and proud American.
Alexis Bolin
Broker-Associate, Keller Williams Gulf Coast
Alexis Bolin is an internationally-recognized real estate speaker with 39 years of residential real estate experience in the Pensacola, Florida, area. She is recognized as one of the most awarded agents in the nation, and has been named among the Top 100 Most Influential Agents in 2016-17. In her spare time, Alexis enjoys reading and traveling, and she hopes to encourage more conversation around getting listings at this year's REBarCamp.
Patti Ketcham
Owner/Broker, Ketcham Realty Group, Inc. & Ketcham Education Providers, LLC
Patti Ketcham is a popular real estate instructor who was named Florida Realtors Instructor of the Year in 2014. In March of this year, she was proud to be appointed by Governor Rick Scott to the Florida Real Estate Commission. Patti looks forward to helping make this year's REBarCamp a solution session, not a gripe session, when discussing the issues that face real estate professionals in the market today. In her spare time, Patti loves spending time with her family, and she's proud to be a Lifetime Member of the Smokey Bear Summer Reading Club, having joined at age 7!
Sean Carpenter
Realtor® - Coldwell Banker King Thompson, Nationally-Recognized Speaker & Blogger
A University of Florida Gator now living and working in Columbus, Ohio, Sean Carpenter is known for his unique & distinctive voice on all things real estate. In 2013, Inman News named Sean one of the 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate, and he was recently recognized as one of the Top 20 Most Influential Social Media Voices in Real Estate by The Swanepoel Report for the second straight year. A self-described beer drinking sports fan, Sean enjoys playing golf and listening to podcasts, and is interested in discussing the real life/non-techie side of the business at this year's REBarCamp.
Wendy Griffis
Realtor®/Trainer, Better Homes & Gardens Lifestyle Realty
Wendy Griffis has built a solid, successful real estate practice based on repeat and referral business. Ranked 26th on the Jacksonville Business Journal's 2016 list of Top Agents, Wendy looks forward to discussing team building strategies and growing a business vs. simply selling homes at this year's REBarCamp. In her spare time, Wendy loves to travel, practice yoga, go bike riding & shell hunting, and just hang out with her family.
Kim Sandberg
Broker-Associate, Team Lead, The Sandberg Team - RE/MAX Unlimited
One of the original Jax BarCampers, Kim Sandberg leads The Sandberg Team at RE/MAX Unlimited in Nocatee. Since joining the industry just as the housing bubble burst, she has built a solid book of business, achieving production numbers worthy of her inclusion in the RE/MAX Hall of Fame, as well as the RE/MAX Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a strong proponent of continuing education, and looks forward to discussing negotiation strategies, managing customer expectations and the new “Coming Soon” status at this year’s REBarCamp.
Mario Gonzalez
Broker/Owner – Navy to Navy Homes
Mario Gonzalez founded Navy to Navy Homes to help military families with what can often be extraordinary relocation needs. As a result, Mario and has company have given back nearly $250,000 in commissions to military families. A passionate trainer & educator, he has done everything from teaching leadership classes at the Naval Academy to coaching youth soccer. A father of three, Mario can often be found singing aloud in his car, or shooting sporting clays. He's interested to know what you'd like to hear more about at this year's REBarCamp.
Christina Welch
Team Lead, Welch Team - Keller Williams Jacksonville Realty
Christina Welch embarked on her career in real estate in 2006, founding The Welch Team 6 years later, in 2012. Since that time, she has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Women’s Council of Realtors, earned NEFBA’s Laurel award for most new home sales 4 years running, and is tops in unit sales year to date in both NEFAR and St. Johns Board of Realtors. At this year’s REBarCamp, she hopes to encourage discussion around management, new technology, showing assistants and more. In her spare time, she enjoys cheering on her children in sports, playing golf and traveling.
John Adams
Regional Renovation Loan Sales Manager - LoanDepot
Instructor - Military Mortgage Boot Camp & NEFAR
A seasoned loan officer, John Adams created and teaches the only course in renovation loans approved by FREC for CE. He has taught the course to more than 5,000 agents statewide. His REBarCamp wish list includes discussions on generating engagement through social media, lead generation, texting apps and automated process systems (not just CRM). In his spare time, John enjoys stand up paddle boarding, music, dancing and taking long walks to the bank…er, beach.
Cari Knapp
Realtor®, Team Knapp - Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty
Cari is one of Jax REBarCamp’s founding members, and a Certified Residential Specialist. She’s passionate about her faith, helping and motivating others and ongoing education. She loves food (who doesn’t?), almost as much as her family and friends, and she can often be found trying out new restaurants or old hole-in-the-wall, mom and pop favorites.
Cindy Gavin
Broker-Associate/Team Leader, The Cindy Gavin Team - RE/MAX Specialists
Cindy takes pride in having built a highly-successful real estate team, serving buyers and sellers throughout northeast Florida. She has earned her CRS Designation, and enjoys gardening, kayaking, working out and hitting the beach when she isn’t selling homes.
Sonny Downey
President & Broker/Owner – EXIT Real Estate Gallery
If you don’t know Sonny Downey yet, it’s likely only a matter of time before you’ll cross paths with him. One of the original Jax REBarCampers, Sonny has been actively involved in the northeast Florida real estate industry for more than a decade. He opened Exit Real Estate Gallery in 2007 with business partner Raymond Rivera, and has overseen nearly 20,000 real estate transactions over the past decade. He is a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, Certified International Property Specialist, Military Relocation Professional and Certified Distressed Property Expert. He has provided more than 5,000 hours of coaching and mentorship to area real estate professionals and currently serves as President of the Northeast Florida MLS.
In whatever downtime he has left, Sonny is committed to exercising daily and enjoys traveling, especially to the peace and quiet of the mountains. He looks forward to hearing more about dynamic presentation skills, increasing productivity and anything to do with social media at this year’s REBarCamp.
Cole Slate
REALTOR®/Team Lead, The Cole Slate Team – EXIT Real Estate Gallery
Cole Slate loves real estate so much, he even confesses to practicing it in his spare time. He built his business, and the Cole Slate Team, 100% on referrals, and he’s working hard to continue that trend. He’s looking forward to discussing strategies for working with listings/sellers at this year’s REBarCamp.
Kim Cameron
Broker/Team Leader, Kim Cameron Group - Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Preferred Properties
An undiagnosed real estate addict, Kim lives and breathes real estate. She hails from St. Louis, MO with a background that encompasses building, rehabbing, property management & mortgage lending. There’s little she has not seen in the last 20 years. She built a successful real estate team in 2005 and has never looked back.
Kim is a speaker, trainer and recently added to the roster as a national instructor for CRS. If you haven’t caught her “act” yet, Kim’s energy, humor and unique rhythm is often infectious. She will inspire, leaving you with more ideas to implement in your business than you could imagine. Kim enjoys free time with her husband Sid and their two Goldens, Fletch & Abby. Life is better with bacon and Tito’s on the rocks is my preference (3 limes, 2 olives) in case anyone is gathering after.
Craig Wilburn
President & Listing Specialist, Team Dynamo - Keller Williams Gainesville Realty Partners
With five children at home, it’s hard to believe Craig Wilburn has time to lead a team that produces more than $1,000,000 in gross commissionable income. But that’s just what he’s done over the past 15 years, building a team recognized not only in the Gainesville area, but Florida at large. At this year’s REBarCamp, Craig looks forward to delving deeper into the language of sales, and business by referral.
Chandra Hall
Managing Broker/Owner – Colorado Mesa Realty, LLC
In addition to being a CRS instructor, Chandra also teaches GRI and ABR courses for real estate groups across the nation. She is the managing broker/owner of Colorado Mesa Realty, LLC, is successful in several aspects of real estate--from residential resale to land development and building new homes--and has been recognized as the designer and creative consultant on three award-winning Parade Homes in Colorado Springs. In 2008, Chandra was awarded the prestigious
Distinguished Real Estate Instructor (DREI) designation and is past president of the Colorado National Speakers Association.
Mona Gardella
Director of Market Development, Fleming Island/Oakleaf – Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty
As Director of Market Development, Mona’s job is to guide and mentor new real estate agents, and position them for success in their careers. Clearly, she’s doing something right, as her office in Clay County was recognized as the 4th highest producing office among Northeast Florida Association of Realtors member organizations in 2016. While attending REBarCamp this January, she hopes to discuss sales associate succession plans, work/life balance and exceeding customer expectations. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, including watching her kids’ sports activities, and traveling.
Debbie Kirkland
Broker/Owner – Century 21 First Story Real Estate
Nine years ago, Debbie organized the second REBarCamp in the state, at the Florida Realtors Convention. She has been actively involved with REBarCamp ever since, and continues to mentor Florida real estate agents through education and her work on numerous committees and local/state real estate organizations. She has been published and interviewed in a number of real estate journals, and teaches social media marketing, and more, to agents.
At this year’s REBarCamp Jax, she’d like to participate in discussions around niche marketing/farming, re-targeted ads, holistic marketing, blogging and customer outreach.
In her down time, you can often find Debbie riding her Harley, traveling to Texas or the beach and taking photographs.
Daniel Halvorsen
Mortgage Banker – Bank of England
After graduating from Jacksonville University, Daniel Halvorsen joined Bank of England and promptly went to work building a book of business in residential lending. In 2016 and 2017, he and his team led the entire mortgage division of Bank of England in total units closed.
He’ll be at REBarCamp Jax hoping to discuss referral-based business strategies, team building and lead generation. A resident of Atlantic Beach, you’ll often find Daniel at the beach with his wife, Amy, and their two dogs, Tank and Coral.
Jonathon Smith
Of Counsel - Duss, Kenney, Safer, Hampton & Joos, PA
Jonathon Smith earned his Juris Doctorate (JD), with honors, and Master of Laws (LLM) in Taxation from the University of Florida, College of Law. He has been practicing law since 2001, and has been with his current firm since March, 2014. He is a member of the Florida Bar Association’s Real Property Section and is currently the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce’s President of the Downtown Council. He assists clients in both probate and real estate matters, including trusts, deeds, boundary line disputes, quiet title actions, landlord/tenant actions and other property matters.
Michael Morris
Broker-Associate – RE/MAX Specialists; Professor of Real Estate, University of North Florida
When it comes to real estate, Michael Morris is always at the head of the class. Not only is he a Broker-Associate with RE/MAX Specialists, he’s also a faculty member at the University of North Florida, where he teaches real estate. Michael is proud that by building a strong brand and delivering on his value proposition, he has been able to drive the vast majority of his business through personal referrals. He hopes to hear more about team building, hiring productive assistants and work/life balance at this year’s REBarCamp. In his spare time, Michael enjoys sports, travel, the beach and spending time with friends.
Aaron Ludin
Founder - Orlando Branding Agency
Aaron is the founder of Orlando Branding Agency, a Florida-Based firm that serves over 2,000 local real estate professionals and specializes in helping agents with client retention and strategic appreciation. He's a graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing & a Master's Certification in Sales Management.
Aaron speaks all across the country to various agents, entrepreneurs, & sales people delivering over 1000 messages on sales, marketing, branding to over 40,000 people from over 300+ different organizations. His new book, Client Retention: How to Magnetically Attract & Systematically Keep Customers For Life, is scheduled to be released next year.
Jeff Lobb
Founder & CEO, SparkTank Media
A REALTOR® for more than 26 years, Jeff Lobb founded SparkTank Media to provide training, coaching and consulting focused on real estate, technology, digital marketing, branding and social media. Jeff was co-author of the Swanepoel Technology Report in 2013, and has been named among Inmans Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in Real Estate for two consecutive years.
Gonzalo Mejia
Vice President & Managing Broker - Watson Realty Corp.
Gonzalo is originally from Lima, Peru where he studied Industrial Engineering. He moved to the States in 2001 and started his real estate career in 2004 while in Pensacola, FL. He moved to Jacksonville in 2009 and currently he is the Vice-President/Managing Broker of the Watson Realty office in San Marco.
Gonzalo is a national and international speaker and an instructor for NEFAR, Florida Realtors, REBAC and CRS. He believes education doesn’t have to be boring but exciting and entertaining.
Gonzalo also enjoys theatre and have been involved in local productions in Lima, Pensacola and Jacksonville.
facilitators
Daniel Halvorsen
Mortgage Banker – Bank of England