Number 10: Wednesday February 29, is Leap Day, which only comes around once every four years. That’s an extra day of early registration discount at AIM. Until midnight tomorrow, register on the AIM site at the early bird rate and save $100.

Number 9: With the $100 you save, you’ll want to book a spa treatment right away, or get the best tickets available to the Diamondbacks Phillies game the night before the conference. That stuff goes fast when a kick-ass conference is in town.

Number 8: Three keynotes, 14 sessions and two-and-half days of unbeatable programming and networking.

Number 7:  Live Mobile App R&D. Keynote presenter Dr. BJ Fogg, director of the the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab plans to review and critique multifamily mobile apps to show how mobile can be used to influence positive user behaviors. Want your app reviewed? Email me.

Number 6: Because your peers can’t be wrong. Shamelessly we submit for your approval a testimonial pulled directly from last year’s attendee survey: “AIM is not to be missed if you are looking for a hyper intensive setting to sharpen your marketing knowledge. You are immersed in 3 days of innovation and surrounded by the most influential pace setters in multifamily.”

Number 5: Did we mention you’ll save $100 with early bird registration through the end of the day on February 29? Why don’t you splurge on some serious networking at the District America Kitchen & Wine Bar onsite?

Number 4: Because AIM is a 10. According to the 2011 attendee survey, most AIM attendees on a scale of one to 10 consider the value of AIM for the money paid to be (you guessed it) a 10.

Number 3: No, really, because your peers can’t be wrong. From last year’s attendee survey: “AIM is by far the most progressive and thought-provoking multifamily conference. It never fails to challenge conventional wisdom and there are always plenty of takeaways to put in play immediately. I mark this in my calendar every year!”

Number 2: Do you really want to risk being left behind? Over 38 percent of AIM attendees decide to attend at the conclusion of the previous year’s conference. Catch up, man.

Number 1: AIM 2012 – Customer First will challenge you to succeed by reinventing your approach to the customer experience. From social media to new construction to mobile and email marketing, ILSs, predictive analytics and more, we’re out to prove what counts to apartment residents and prospects.

Don’t be counted out. Register today for AIM 2012 – Customer First. Then kickback, relax, watch the top 10 Jordan dunks of all time, and be glad I didn’t embed the top 10 MMA takedowns.

Ahead of its time. When I was a kid there was only one arcade game for me. Pocket-full of quarters I’d make straight for the nearest Atari Battlezone, which immersed players in a 3-dimensional hunter-killer virtual reality where tanks battled on a coordinate field peppered with polygon obstructions and distant erupting volcanoes. A totally revolutionary player experience—forget about every other kid in the neighborhood resting his nose on that periscope viewfinder.

With my affinity for ahead-of-its time technology innovation – you know you agree Atari was legit – it’s of little coincidence that I’ve always been impressed with UDR’s augmented reality (AR) apartment search for mobile devices. Yeah, it has its detractors, but the promise of using AR to deliver one of the richest multifamily customer experiences via mobile—think virtual tours, social media layered apartment search and interactive amenity areas—seems worth the investment. Of course, when it comes to investment into revolutionary multifamily mobile technology, its tough to outmatch UDR.

UDR isn’t the only firm breaking new ground with mobile, but they’re one of the best. Since 2000, the Highlands Ranch, Colo.-based REIT has regularly been first to market with mobile reservation tools, iPhone apps, apartment locators, and other advances in apartment mobile technology, including AR.

UDR vice president and director of sales and marketing Steve Taraborelli this year joins the prestigious list of speakers at AIM 2012-Customer First, where he’ll present a non-beginner, intermediate to advanced survey of the top considerations in creating a great mobile experience for renters—no viewfinders required.

If you’ve decided mobile is here to stay as a channel for delivering customer experience to prospects and residents, and you’re committed to making a strategic investment into mobile apartment marketing and technology, Taraborelli’s presentation is for you.

Graduate from mobile 101. Register for AIM 2012 – Customer First.

Graham Stanley Advertising CEO and President Larry Woodward offers a quick download on everything an apartment Internet marketer needs to take away from the cycle of some 70 commercials that blurred through the Super Bowl last weekend. Woodward’s bottom line: major advertisers are blending the online and offline customer experience, offering brand interactivity (like Coca-Cola, which pushed TV viewers to a site where they could ask questions of the iconic bears, and then send Coke coupons to friends) and advanced mobile platform functionality (like Chevy’s Game Time App).

Woodward says Coca-Cola marketing executives pegged a full 60 percent of the 100 million plus Super Bowl viewers as multi screeners, meaning they had a mobile, tablet, or laptop screen open and grabbing eyeball time away from the TV during the game. The subtle solution? Offer real-time interactivity with consumers after pointing them to online locations, enriching the brand and media experience even as customers switched between different devices and communication channels.

Super Bowl execs likewise got it right when it came to social media, setting up a crack unit of Facebook and Twitter strategists in the 2,800 square foot Super Bowl Command Center. Tweet something as simple as “Parking Sucks” and the command center would respond with directions to available parking nearby. Now that’s customer focus.

Want to push your marketing envelope and engage prospects and residents across the customer experience? Register to attend AIM 2012 – Customer First before February 29th and take advantage of the recently extended $595 early bird discount to save $100.

April 25-27, 2012

Sheraton Phoenix Downtown

15 Sessions, 2.5 days and lots and lots of parking… I mean networking.

AIM 2012 Registration: http://www.apartmentinternetmarketing.com/register/

Another big round of thanks to RealPage for their support of the post-conference video distribution from the 2010 AIM Conference. 

Next up is a video and presentation from Donald Davidoff from Archstone and Jane Griffith from Pinnacle.  Their task was to wrap up the AIM Conference 2010 and provide a simple framework for organizing all of the different exciting possibilities and create a workable, sustainable plan for any size of multifamily organization.  Please click on the photo or the link below for the video and presentation.

Cutting Through the Clutter: Creating a Simple Marketing Plan

Our editing is done and we're going to be rolling out the AIM 2010 videos fast and furious over the next few weeks so buckle up.  We appreciate the support of our video sponsor RealPage.  They are making it possible to help spread the expert knowledge delivered at AIM 2010.

We have two session videos relating to planning marketing.  The first up is a complete recap of the panel presentation featuring Julie Smith, President of Bozzuto Management; Doug Tulumaris, Vice President of Champion Window; and Deanna Kawasaki, Vice President of CallSource.  This panel discussed scenarios in which they used data to measure and respond to situations that weren't intuitive or necessarily solveable without marketing data.  They discuss how to use unexpected data findings in a series of scenarios:

Creating a Data-Driven Marketing Plan for a Hyper-Competitive Environment

Just a quick note to notify folks that the first three AIM 2010 session videos have been posted for your viewing and reviewing pleasure at http://www.apartmentinternetmarketing.com/2010-conference/.

We will add videos periodically as our editor polishes them up.  The first three are:

- Marketing for Third-Party Managers (Panel Discussion)

- Where Do Leads Come From?  Multi-Source Lead Attribution (Gary Angel, Semphonic)

- Mobile, Local and Real-Time Search ( Greg Sterling, Sterling Market Intelligence)

Each video is about an hour, so set aside some time to listen and enjoy.  Videos may only be available for a limited time, so schedule your viewing time with yourself soon!