Back from ISA Conference

I just returned from nearly a week in Charleston, SC for the ISA annual conference. I was there early to assist in setup and attend the ISA Board meeting.

In my opinion (and that of many I have spoken with) the conference was very successful. ISA had an excellent turn out of members, with more attending than we actually budgeted for. I think the strong program along with the allure of Charleston were the reasons for the strong attendance.

I enjoyed many parts of the strong program, including those by Tom Savage (director of museum affairs at Winterthur), Ron Fuchs (Director of the Reeves collection at Washington and Lee), Geroge Read (appraiser and former Sotheby's auctioneer), Greg Horner (FBI Art Crime Team member), Alvah Beander (ASA Appraiser speaking on the Gullah people), Janet Moffitt (IRS Art Appraisal Services), Roger Durkin (ASA appraiser on expert witness testimony) and Andrew Brunk (auctioneer on state of the market). Those are the ones that I saw, there were still other sessions I was not able to attend.

I particularly enjoyed George Read. If you ever have the opportunity to see him speak, I highly recommend you take advantage of it. A truly gifted speaker with a vast amount of knowledge and information. His presentation A Little History of Antiques was informative, educational and amusing.

This program was a fitting followup to last years successful conference held in Baltimore. Next year the conference moves North to Toronto.

The ISA conference is open to all appraisers, and in my biased opinion, I believe ISA is now managing the best conference program in the personal property appraisal community.

The journal was also being sold at the conference where sales were strong, and it was very well received by both attendees and speakers. I am please to say a copy of the 2008 and 2009 edition were also given to Janet Moffitt of the IRS to act as staff copies for the IRS Art Appraisal Service team. I am please to announce that I was awarded the ISA Lamp of Knowledge Award for my contributions toward appraisal education for organizing and editing the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies.

Now that I am back, I hope to get back to more timely AW posts of what is happening in the markets and appraisal related news. Thanks to everyone who sent in links and news information while I was traveling. It was greatly appreciated. So, dont stop sending just because I am back at the computer. I cant collect all the relevant information, so if you see something of interest, please email me the information or link, I might have a post scheduled for it, but I might have missed it as well. Dont be shy, we can all work together to help the profession.