We started contacting our community to promote RETSO Refocus this past week. On one end of the spectrum the response has been immediate registration and on the other end we’ve had a few people upset. Such as…

RETSO Refocus will deliver the same level of content that people fly all over the world and pay up to $2,000 to attend – for only $300. We think it’s an incredible deal, but you decide what’s valuable in your life.

RETSO is not designed to be NAR, Inman, CRS, or any of the other national events. RETSO was built for the doers of the industry.

It’s hard to refocus when distracted by nightlife, fine dining, and the big city. RETSO is intentionally away from all that noise.

RETSO Refocus may not be for you

The last thing we want to do is take someone’s money and have them come expecting one thing and getting another. [highlight]Please be sure Refocus is for you before purchasing a ticket.[/highlight] We’d rather have 300 attendees here to focus on true business model generation than to have 800 attendees who came looking for shiny objects, nightlife, fine dining, or something similar to other events. We have intentionally changed RETSO to refocus on creating meaningful business models. We understand this may not be for everyone.

We took the theme of ‘Refocus’ very seriously and every decision we’ve made to improve RETSO has been intentional. We raised the price. Changed the floor plan of the event. Cut down on social chatter. Reduced the number of speakers. Removed simultaneous sessions. We even limited the number of sponsors. But most importantly we focused the content to be powerful, simple, and transformative. RETSO is refocused to help you understand, design, rework, and implement custom business models.

The truth is we’re doers just like you. We constantly seek knowledge and do what we learn. As Marty Neumeier shared in his new book, Metaskills, we need to insert design thinking and actually make things before we do them. So we rebuilt RETSO to help everyone design the one thing that means the most, your actual business model.

We’re still going to have the smartest people in our industry gathering to share ideas, meals, and drinks with you. We’ll have lots of fun challenging and encouraging each other by mixing formal sessions with barcamp style workshops. We may even throw in a surprise or two, because we believe in working hard and playing hard while making the future.

We look forward to seeing our fellow doers in April.