Getting Ready for BlogWorld in Vegas
September 12, 2008 Posted by Tyler CruzI’m leaving for Vegas in 6 days to attend BlogWorld, which will be my first ever convention. I’m really excited as I don’t travel very much and it will be awesome to finally meet some people in person.
I’m taking Lisa and we’re staying for 8-days; BlogWorld is only 2 days (3 if you count the conferences) so we’ll have 4 full days to explore Vegas. I never count the first and last days as they comprise mostly of travel.
I’ll be taking two planes from sky aviation to get there. I live on an island in Canada and it takes 2-hours by ferry to get to the mainland, so in order to minimize travel time and stress as much as possible, I decided to splurge for a plane trip from the island to the mainland airport which will take 23-minutes instead of about 3 hours (ferry + getting to the airport). It will be the first time taking the plane from the island here, so it will be a good test ride to see if it’s really worth the added cost for the travel time saved.
The trip will be really interesting since it will be so exciting to the extent that it might almost be overwhelming. The last time I’ve been to the US (apart from a stop-over flight to South Korea in 2003) was when I was in high school and travelled to Moscow, Idaho for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival as I used to be in a few jazz combos and bands (I played piano).
We’re staying at the Monte Carlo, but it’s a bit of a shame since shortly after booking I found out that one of my poker contacts knows one of the owners at the Wynn and could have got us rooms for like 50-60% off. The Wynn is one of the nicest hotels in Vegas. Oh well, maybe next time.
I won’t be playing any poker in Vegas since I take care of any poker needs here in town at some private games that run underground here. They’re fairly big limits ($1,000 buy-in) so I’ll have no problems avoiding gambling there.
I have all my business cards ready for the “meet and greet” at the exhibit booths, and a couple days ago I bought a new suit, dress shirt, and a couple other things. I’m quite a quiet and shy guy, so networking may be a bit difficult for me at first – but it largely depends on the environment. BlogWorld – and Vegas – is right up my ally, so I should be able to come out of my shell fine. I definitely plan on visiting MarketLeverage’s booth and possibly partake in their Cashinator machine!
I don’t plan on attending any conferences or seminars at BlogWorld because I just believe there will be anything secret or ground-breaking in them, but rather just general information and advice. I’d rather spend my time networking and meeting people.
I’ve convinced my friend and guest poster Paul from InspiredMoneyMaker.com to come to BlogWorld as well, so we’ll probably meet up and maybe catch a magic show (hopefully Penn & Teller) since we’re both into magic.
I might also meet up with one of my ex-staff members and forum members of Movie-Vault.com since he happens to be vacationing in Vegas at the same time.
One of the things I’m really looking forward to is a private dinner I was invited to at the fine dining restaurant Envy at the Renaissance hotel which is being hosted by MarketLeverage. Dina and Deborah from the ML marketing department who I work with closely to bring you the big Affiliate Marketing Competitions will be there, as well as my affiliate manager Michael and MarketLeverage’s CEO himself, Mike Jenkins. I’ve spoken to them all on the phone and AIM before, but it will be nice to meet them in person.
In addition to some of the MarketLeverage staff, the following super affiliates and bloggers will be at the dinner:
- Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney.com)
- Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.com)
- John Chow (JohnChow.ca)
- Brian Clark (CopyBlogger.com)
- Zac Johnson (ZacJohnson.com)
- Jim Kukral (JimKukral.com)
- Ian Fernando (IanFernando.com)
It’s funny, because the total net worth of those at the table must be in the high 8-figure range.
It will definitely be a bit intimidating (to say the least) sitting next to all those Internet rock stars, but the opportunity is priceless. My goal is to establish at least 2 new relationships out of the 7 people at the table. I’ve already met John Chow in person and am friends with him, and have spoken to all of the others briefly here and there online, but would like to establish a closer connection than that.
It will be interesting meeting and talking to Shoemoney as he has never replied to any of the past e-mails I’ve sent to him over the past couple years, nor worn the shirt I sent him on his blog. This could easily be due to being busy and inundated with such things, but it could also be because he dislikes me (we did have a small kafuffle over a past blog link exchange). Hopefully our meeting goes well!
There will probably be literally 15-20 cameras and Flips at the dinner, including mine (I actually just bought a brand new camera this afternoon just for Vegas) so rest assured you’ll see some photos and video from the dinner. I’m going to try to take some photos of John Chow taking photos of his food, haha.
So… 6 more days and I’ll be in Vegas. Are you going to BlogWorld and want to meet up? If so, let me know and we can arrange for a meet and greet.
Ay, you Canadians… gotta take a plane just to get to the real airport??
I’m bummed I won’t be able to make it out to BlogWorld this year. That’s a killer roster of Internet marketers and bloggers and I’m sure it’ll be an absolute blast.
Have fun at your first conference, Tyler. Maybe I’ll make you do your humiliation video while you’re there. 😉
Tyler, you’re gonna wear a suit!? It’s the desert, I thought everyone would be wearing shorts and t-shirts at this kind of event.
Or is that for the private dinner function?
I’m also an introverted type personality, so we can meet up and walk around together if you want. It’ll probably be more fun.:)
However, if you’re wearing a suit, I’m gonna look like a bum wearing jeans and t-shirts. I’m probably going to go clothes shopping tomorrow, so maybe I’ll buy something more dressy, but the weather forecasts do show super hot weather so I was thinking t-shirts would be ideal.
Paul, you should get the t-shirts that have the dress shirt and tie drawn in. Pretty cool. http://www.snorgtees.com/necktietshirt-p-290.html
Damn, those are cool! It’s too late for me to order them now though 🙁
Yeah.. especially for us Canadians.. I like the cold and hate being hot and get hot really easily but ML told me I had to dress up for the dinner, and I’m probably going to dress up for BlogWorld, but possibly not depending on just how hot it is.
For the other 6 days I’ll be wearing just jeans/shorts and a t-shirt though, certainly.
For the dinner it totally makes sense. You don’t want to go to a fine dine restaurant and look like a bum.
For the conference though, I’m kind of thinking that the person wearing a suit will be the person who looks odd. As a Blogger I’m kind of against suits… suits are for people who can’t work from bed.
Maybe we should just wear our blogging uniforms… you know… the “just crawled out of bed” look, with boxer shorts, t-shirt and messy hair thing.
My thinking is that if we wear a suit, we’ll look the PC guy in the PC vs Mac commercials. 🙂
When I was much younger, and I was in business I remember wearing dress pants, shirt, tie etc. because I thought it made me look older and thought people would respect me more, but I’ve found that it doesn’t really work. It just makes you look even younger, and people think you’re a kid on a mission to prove himself.
Actually, you what’s funny? I’ve been in rooms with some fairly wealthy individuals, and what I actually found is that the richer they were the more casual they dressed. I’m not saying they wore cheap clothes, they just dressed down.
Anyway, I gotta go do some clothes shopping tonight…
You’ll have a good time Tyler! The Monte Carlo has a pretty good buffett, with the best Philly Cheesesteak this side of Philadelphia! (And as a Philly native, that’s saying something!)
I’ll be there for BWE on Saturday and Sunday, and would love to meet up with you at some point, even if it’s just to say hello.. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail with your cell #.. Later!
You’ll probably see me roaming around, I’m sure. Definitely be sure to say “Hi”.
Awesome, I hope you enjoy it.
I’m glad we’ll finally meet in person at BlogWorld! Hope to see you at the show too, Paul! You’re both invited to hop in the Cashinator, and if anyone else wants to guarantee a spot, you can pre-register on the Cashinator site mentioned in Tyler’s post. See you in Vegas!
Woo, the cashinator sounds like fun. I’ll definitely stop by your booth and check that out…
Hey Tyler, you don’t want to check out any of the keynote speakers? I know there typically isn’t any “secrets” there that we don’t already know from reading people’s Blogs, but I’m thinking there would still be some good value to listen to people like Shoemoney, John Chow, and Darren Rowse.
Darren’s flying in all the way from down under to talk, why not check it out? Or did you only get the “exhibitor only” pass?
I got the full pass, so I think I’ll want to at least check out the first few keynotes. If they’re all beginner stuff like “How to install AdSense on your Blog.” I agree there’s no point standing around. 🙂
I’ll probably just play it by ear when we’re there.
It’s posts like these that really make me think seriously about moving to the states. I would LOVE to be able to socialise at these types of events but the trans-atlantic flights are just too much. I might try and sneak our next family holiday to coincide with something though.
We were in Vegas a few months ago, as far as magic goes we really enjoyed Mac King, well worth a watch.
So jealous. Hope you enjoy it though.
Are you going to any shows? Whuts your budget? You wont want to bore Shooey. AND FIX MOVIE VAULT, FOR CRIPES SAKE! [PLite pouts.]
I really want to go BlogExpo but it is really far from me..
Good luck Tyler Cruz..
I think you are expert blogger now..
This will be our second time there and based upon Shoemoney’s brief advice last year, (Don’t miss Pubcon and Stay at the Renaissance) we’ll be staying at the the hotel this time.
Hope to run into you.
I’m making the jump into Affiliate Marketing from several years of web design and blogging and I’d be interested in getting some additional details on your recent experience with it.
All the best,
Thats cool Tyler. Hope you have a good time. I just started blogging 2 days ago and have 3 subscribers, yesterday I was like “YAY!” lol. It feels good when you get your first subscriber.
Ahh man. that just too far for me ato attend any conferences like that. Wish I was going. Hope you have fun Tyler. Go with the suit all the way
Nice, your first trip to Vegas is always the most memorable. 8 days is pretty exhausting though without some breaks in between. Drink lots of water 😉
I hope you have fun a BlogWorld. Too bad I won’t be there. 🙁
I’ll be there, so look out for me or drop me an email and we’ll meet up. I think I’ll be at the pool-side thing on Friday. If any of the after-hours stuff is anything like Affiliate Summit West was, you’ll love it.
Looking forward to meeting you there.
Hey have fun and good luck learning new things