Photos by GP Photos

Former International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield shared some insights gained throughout his career at the Toronto Real Estate Board’s (TREB) annual Realtor Quest conference in May.  Hadfield, who touched on the subjects of goal setting, diligence and teamwork.

Day one of the conference featured a “what’s next” panel of real estate executives who offered their insights into the current state of the real estate market and its outlook.  Moderated by AM640’s John Oakley, the panel included Andrew Cimerman, chairman and CEO of HomeLife; Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage; Howard Drukarsh, co-founder and VP of Right At Home Realty; Brian Rushton, EVP of Century 21 Canada; Gurinder Sandhu, EVP and regional director of Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic Canada; and Rick Taron, national director of franchise relations and business development for Sutton Group.

As part of the meeting, election results were announced for TREB’s 2014/2015 Board of Directors. The president is Paul Etherington and president-elect is Mark McLean. The past-president is Dianne Usher.

Elected to director-at-large positions:   Sandra Rinomato, Donald Patterson,  John Lusink, Don Kottick and Shirley Porter.

Also elected were central brokerage director Tim Syrianos; central non-brokerage director Larry Cerqua; west brokerage director  Garry Bhaura; west non-brokerage director Michael Collins; east brokerage director Rosalind Menary; east non-brokerage director Michelle Makos; north brokerage director Joseph Shum; and north non-brokerage director Karen Gerrard.

A group from the Valley Park Middle School Children’s Breakfast Program performed at Realtor Quest.

The meeting also included an update from Usher and CEO Don Richardson on recent TREB initiatives as well as addresses from Ontario Real Estate Association president Costa Poulopoulos, CREA president Beth Crosbie and Real Estate Council of Ontario president and CEO Tom Wright.

Real estate coach and trainer Brian Buffini complemented Realtor Quest’s line-up of expert speakers, offering two sessions at the conference. Also featured through the conference’s free Learning Quest component were sessions about TREB’s MLS system New Stratus and its public records offering Propertyline as well as a seminar about issues surrounding the home inspection condition, offered by lawyer Mark Weisleder.

The gathering of more than 6,500 TREB members also included its share of entertainment offerings.