Stacey Moncrieff, Editor-in-Chief

If I want to attend a conference to learn how to be a more effective “digital communicator” (translation: a magazine editor using the Web), I typically have to dish out more than $1,000 for two days of education sessions. Entertainment is extra. That’s why it’s not hype to say that, at $330, the four-day REALTORS® Conference & Expo (complete with a free Lionel Richie conference, keynote address by Lance Armstrong, and night at Universal Studios to name just a few of the features) is an incredible bargain.

All that said, I know many of you will not be traveling to Orlando in November for this year’s conference. That’s why we bring a sliver of the conference to you in the October issue of the magazine. We do that this year with exclusive speaker interviews and a complete list of conference exhibitors to-date.

But there’s more to the October issue than a preview of the REALTORS® Conference. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun gives a lesson in commodity pricing and talks about how that might bode well for home prices.

If the slow market is getting you down, read our interview with psychologist and author Kathy Cramer, who teaches the importance of using “asset-based thinking” to detect opportunity in tough times.

This month, we also bring you the final segment of our 2008 Work Smart Series—with advice and scripts that’ll help you generate referral business from past customers.

And don’t miss this month’s buyer’s guide on how to find the right printer for your business.

Finally, if you’re a political junkie and missed our coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, see the highlights now. Learn how and why 300 of your fellow REALTORS® served as delegates at the conventions and helped spread the “REALTOR® Party” message.