A launch party people talk about after the units sell.

Bosa Properties books this. A presentation centre launch or a broker event puts a lot of people who don't know each other in one room, often with a sales conversation waiting. Close-up magic breaks that tension in under two minutes, and it leaves people talking about the moment rather than immediately comparing notes on price per square foot.

It works standing, with a drink in hand, and needs nothing from the venue, which matters at a presentation centre that wasn't built with a stage in mind.

Real estate moves with the market, and when it is good I am busy with boutique brokerages. RE/MAX Crest Realty has had me back more than once, and those nights are usually a room full of realtors, which is a crowd that talks — half the value of working a brokerage event is who is standing next to whom afterwards.

The one I have waited longest for is Michael Uy at Oakwyn Realty. He is a friend of fifteen-plus years, and I watched that brokerage go from about twenty agents to five hundred people. It took him until this Christmas to stretch a budget far enough to hire me, and when he finally did I was already booked — McCarthy Tétrault has the same night. So John Ha is doing Oakwyn's holiday party at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, 280 guests, and I am across town. That is the honest version of what a bench is for: it is not a substitute, it is the reason two clients both get a yes on the same December evening.