76th International Conference of the IAAO a Winner

Building Strong Communities Locally and Reaching Out Internationally

Ever attend a conference that has great sounding educational sessions and training opportunities and afterwards you felt like the sponsor didn’t deliver on their promises?  I have and I’m guessing many of you have too.  Fortunately I just returned from a great 3-day conference sponsored by the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) where everything progressed like a finely-tuned clock and the educational sessions were exceptional.  My test of a successful conference is coming home having learned several important things that I can put into practice in my job right way.

The three most important things that I learned during this conference were:

1. Property assessment offices around the world are sharing innovative ways that they have implemented and achieved through the use of aerial photography, street view   images, geographic information systems (GIS), and electronic data collection techniques.  Several emerging countries have leaped from no assessment records to a complete set of electronic records in a matter of months using these new technologies that reduce the number of assessment office staff needed to collect and process such data.

2. Property assessment offices are finding statistically proven ways to deal with the large number of foreclosure-related sales that have occurred in their jurisdictions.  While it has not been easy, and increased numbers of assessment appeals have generally been experienced, property assessors who have experienced the cycle from foreclosure to bank-owned property sale to second sale after the initial foreclosure can advise those who are experiencing challenges in the earlier parts of this cycle.

3. Through the use of new technologies appraisal staff in many assessment offices are now better able to concentrate on valuation techniques and problem properties where typical data collection and valuation models are not proving adequate.  As a result local governments are able to do more with less, working smarter so that scarce resources continue to be used wisely.

Other attendees are encouraged to share what they learned or how they felt about this year’s conference.

The IAAO completed their 76th international conference on September 1 in Orlando, Florida.  As one of nearly a thousand attendees at the 3-day event I was very satisfied with the quality of this year’s conference.  I’m hoping that all of this year’s attendees came way having learned practical things that will make them more successful and efficient in the work they do as local property assessors and tax administrators.

Here is a great big thank you to the IAAO staff, all the conference sponsors, host committee members, and the educational session presenters and moderators.

Comments

[rick stuart, CAE]

I am the editor of the Kansas County Appraiser's Quarterly newsletter and would like permission to reprint in our upcoming issue. We always do a large section about the IAAO Conference and this will fit in well. I will give the appropriate credits and would be glad to add you to our email list when new issues go online. Rick Stuart, CAE

[Richard L. Sanderson]

I will gladly give permission to you to reprint this article in your quarterly newsletter. And, yes, please add me to your mailing list.

[Richard L. Sanderson]

See December 20, 2010, post that includes a link to updated list for the entire Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area.