The countdown is on for the third annual New England Condo Expo, which is only  about six weeks away.  

 Be sure to mark your calendar for Tuesday, May 24, and make plans to get to the  Seaport World Trade Center in Boston from 10 am to 5 pm. The Expo is one surefire way to gather all the information you need, all in one day, all in one place. Free advice booths and a  full slate of information-packed seminars will be among the highlights of the  Expo, a free event that will also feature over 150 exhibitors from throughout  New England.  

 Seminars Running All Day  

 Free seminars are open to all attendees.

 They include:

 11:00 am to 12 noon:“Your Online Presence: Community and Management Websites and Social Media.” This seminar will educate HOAs about how to best use this new technology, along with mitigating legal  problems, like libel, and becoming compliant with Massachusetts’ tough new data protection law.  

 12:30 - 1:30 pm: “Collecting Common Fees and Enforcing Rules” will be presented by Dedham- and Providence-based Goodman, Shapiro & Lombardi, LLC, a well-known law firm with offices in Massachusetts and Rhode  Island. Attorney Ellen Shapiro will educate trustees on using legal procedures and enforcemen actions to protect  condos from financial disasters that can result from unpaid common fees.  Attorneys Henry Goodman and Frank Lombardi will discuss ways of dealing with  owners who don’t think the condo rules apply to them, including what to do before calling a  lawyer and legal sanctions to bring owners into compliance.  

 2:00 – 3:00 pm: “Pets, Pools, Parking, and Smoking: Bringing Your Bylaws Into the 21st Century.” Many condo bylaws were written decades ago and need updating to reflect changing times and current issues, like second-hand smoke.  

 3:30 – 4:30 pm: “Your Aging Condo” will feature a panel of experts offering answers to frustrating and  hard-to-solve maintenance problems common to condos today. The seminar will offer state-of-the-art solutions to problems with  parking lots, roofs, exterior walls, siding, windows and doors, decks, porches, balconies and other maintenance areas.  

 Three Giveaways Featured  

 No trade show is complete without giveaways. This year, three major prizes – two of them new—will be offered. JnR Gutters, one of New England’s leading home improvement specialists, will be offering one lucky association a  $2,000 credit towards exterior services, which could include gutters, decks,  siding, roofing or windows. JnR has four Massachusetts locations and three New Hampshire offices.  

 Essex Management Group (EMG), serving a client base ranging from Southern New  Hampshire to Boston’s Northern suburbs, will offer a $2,000 credit on management and consulting  services to a winning condo. EMG provides complete maintenance, project supervision and financial management services.

 This year will also mark the return of the Reserve Fund prize drawing, courtesy  of New England Condominium and Yale Robbins, Inc. One lucky board member will  win a $2,500 contribution to his or her building association’s reserve fund.  

 All offers are subject to terms and conditions. For complete terms and conditions of the show offers, go online at www.ne-expo.com/conditions.  

 For more information on who is exhibiting at the show, to sign up as an  exhibitor, or to register for this one-of-a-kind event, go to www.ne-expo.com.