Have you ever been invited to two weddings on the same weekend? How do you pick? Who serves the better food? The better booze? Who do you love more, baby?

The 2008 conference schedules are out and NRMLA’s Spring Conference (east) and the MBA’s Reverse Mortgage Conference are during the same week.  Better get ready for some cross country travel from Philly back to beautiful San Diego. Will one conference cannibalize the other or will there be the same topics of discussion, held 3000 miles away, 3 days apart? Looking at both agendas, each seems to be taking a slightly different approach. Will there be different standards, hot buttons, and slang?  The more important question is, can everyone play in the same sandbox nicely?

There are obviously overlaps in missions but the question remains how will the two work together?  Who will take the lead in legislative issues, technology issues, and other critical items to foster the growth of the niche.

There has obviously been communication between the two groups but the MBA is the 800 pound gorilla in the mortgage banking realm today.  Being the King Kong of the mortgage industry does allow you to have featured speakers like Bono and Richard Branson, but unfortunately the MBA’s reverse mortgage conference biggest rock star in attendance is Brian D. Montgomery, Assistant Secretary Housing, Federal Housing Commissioner U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)… sorry Mr. Montgomery, you’re no Bono.  Lets not forget that at NRMLA’s last conference had a speaker who could be considered a “rock star” in some circles, Mr. Robert Wagner. 

Enough about rock stars, the good news is that Reverse Mortgage Daily will be there to check things out and provide some feedback on both conferences. If you’d like to setup a meeting to discuss your products and services that you’re pushing or inquire about advertising and partnership opportunities with us, please contact us and we’ll set something up.

Regardless of what side you are on, we suggest that next year that someone at either organization needs to say…”Have your people talk to my people daahling and we can work this scheduling thing out.”

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