This is not a Broadway musical comedy.

Inman News is excited to announce our keynote speaker for Real Estate Connect NY 2009; Gary Vaynerchuk.  Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to YOUR World!

Gary is the Founder & Director of Operations for WineLibrary.tv.  He is a MUST see personality. He will tell you how to get a pulse. His enthusiasm, knowledge, creativity and revolutionary style is capturing national attention.  He's making waves on Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres, Mad Money, The Big Idea and Nightline.  Gary does what Gary is.

In what we expect to be an extremely entertaining and thought provoking keynote, Gary will give us his insight on how to Build Your Personal Brand in Challenging Times.

Connect NY 2009 is shaping up to be our best event yet.  If you haven't already done so, check out the conference program for an overview of our topics and speakers.

Connect NY 2009 will be held January 7-9, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.  Not Yet Registered?  REGISTER NOW!

Remember, Inman News' Premium Members save $100 off Connect registration. Join Today!

According to the latest rankings update from Hitwise, the leader in website and search tracking, Inman.com is now one of the Top 100 real estate websites.  Inman.com is ranked as the #85 website in the Real Estate category.  The site jumped more than 115 spots from August to September. 

Realtor.com continues to hold the top spot in the real estate category, followed by Yahoo! Real Estate, Zillow, ZipRealty, and Rent.com.  RE/MAX Real Estate dropped out of the top 5, slipping to #6 in the latest rankings.  

Joint Statement by Central Banks

Fed makes emergency rate cut (Inman)

As you can probably guess, I am a little partial towards Community Managers; which is why I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Trulia has brought on Frances Flynn Thorsen as their Trulia Voices Community Manager.  If Frances sounds familiar, that is probably because you've seen her around Inman.com leaving comments, participating in the groups, attending Connect, and being an all-around fabulous Inman Member. 

Congratulations, Frances!

According to the PA, luxury UK retailer Selfridges has launched a new premium chocolate it's calling "Credit Crunch".

It was launched to "tempt shoppers looking for comfort food amid a diet of news dominated by economic woe."

Your wallet may need a rescue plan after buying it though; a 5oz. bag costs over $7. 

Last month we launched the 2008 Inman News reader survey.  We had a great response from our readers and would like to thank everyone for their valuable feedback.  As promised, we held a random drawing of the survey participants for a chance to win a $250 Amazon.com gift card.

And the winner is:

Mari Tsukamoto

Mari works for LuxuryRealEstate.com in Seattle as an in-house Web Designer in the Technology department. Her company offers web and print marketing services, as well as events and conferences to a network of luxury real estate professionals worldwide.

Congratulations Mari!

Flickr photo by Ewan-M

UK readers, mark your calendars. On October 16th in London, industry professionals will be gathering with Inman News publisher Bradley Inman at 6pm at the Windmill Pub in Mayfair. It's being hosted by the good folks at Nestoria and you can read more about the gathering on the following blogs: Nestoria Blog, theRatandMouse, Globrix Blog and Renthusiast.

Similar meetups will be held in the following European capitals:

Amsterdam - October 23rd (stay tuned to nieuwbouw20 for details)

Paris - October 27th

Berlin - Date TBA.

We hope to see you there! If you have any questions about any of these events; please feel free to email joel [at] inman.com.

"Foreclosure Alley," a disturbing video by SoCal Connected that shows what is left behind in the wake of foreclosure.

"The anxiety we feel about rising prices, plummeting home values and a weak dollar is real. But perhaps we should take comfort in the fact that, historically, recessions are relatively short and they're usually followed by long periods of prosperity."

From a Brief History of Recessions by Harvard Business Publishing.