The first ever Agency Essentials event took place in Manchester recently, the first of what we hope to be many more collaborative efforts between property industry suppliers.

As well as ourselves at Estate Apps, we were lucky enough to be joined by VecoFixfloTouchRight and Docusign. In addition to giving us each the opportunity to show off our products and the problems we’re looking to solve, we also wanted to make it worthwhile for the agents in attendance. With that in mind we focused on teaching and providing professional insight to the changes in the industry as well as demonstrating how our companies can help.

After a short round of networking, the panel of speakers got together, introduced by Terry from Touchright, and the presentations got underway.

To kick of the discussions, Richard Murray from Veco gave us a view into his world of property software. Talking about the needs of the agent being paramount, he gave insights as to how best to choose property software that works for your business. He talked a little more in-depth about the decision making process and points that should be considered when it comes to the software’s capabilities. Picking a property software supplier is a big decision for any agency and Veco want to see it done right, even if that means picking another supplier to them. If you’re interested in how they may be able to help you, make sure you get in touch with them here.

We asked Richard what he thought of the event and he described Agency Essentials as "A unique opportunity to join likeminded proptech companies and share ideas with forward thinking agents."

We then heard from Jon Chapman at Fixflo, who discussed lettings management and the issues that face all agents who deal with property maintenance. Property maintenance can be a pretty time-consuming task for agents and tenants alike which is what Fixflo is looking to change. They’ve come up with an automated and easy-to-use system that streamlines the whole process from beginning to end. Fixflo has become such an influential company that they have even been asked to advise on the Section 21 changes that came into effect October! Be sure to at least take a look at their 14 day trial here.

We also asked Jon how he though the event went, he described Agency Essentials as "A great opportunity for agents to talk to multiple suppliers at the same time and understand how the technologies work together to help and benefit their business."

Next we heard from Terry who gave a detailed look at the TouchRight system and how it can help property professionals easily generate reports. Their ethos of work smarter, not harder, has led to the creation software that can effectively halve the amount of time you spend on reports! You can generate numerous reports from inventories all the way through to Legionella risk assessments, all with a few simple clicks. You can see how they can benefit your business here with a free trial.

Terry was kind enough to share his thoughts on the event saying it was "Great to be part of this inaugural event to highlight and demonstrate how software and technology is readily available to support the forward-thinking, busy agent."

Next up was us at Estate Apps and we gave a talk on why your website and social media are becoming more and more important. We got the audience to see the journey of a modern house buyer, from the buyer’s perspective and what happens before they even find a property they are interested in. Along the journey we saw exactly how they are choosing to find their properties and more importantly, the agents they want to interact with – backed up by staggering statistics! We’ll be publishing a blog in future based on what we spoke about so be sure to keep a look out. If you can’t wait for that though, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help!

Finally, we heard from the guys at Docusign. Jacqui and Adam gave a split presentation, each showing off different parts of the DocuSign business. Jacqui provided impressive stats and figures of their platform, proving that it’s been of great use to over 50 million users. We were then given a demonstration by Adam of just how easy it is to use and integrate the Docusign system into your agency. The Docusign system seemed incredibly easy to use, but more than that, it’s totally secure for your users. Docusign offer a free trial too, so try it and see if it can help your agency!

After all the talks were wrapped up, the attendees had the chance to see all of the products in action and were given the opportunity to get hand-on with each of the businesses on show. All-in-all it was a great free event and I believe that every attendee learnt something new (myself included!).

We’re hoping to do it all again soon so keep a look out for an Agency Essentials event coming to your city!