As someone that has been to several BlueGlass events I have to say that the experience is extremely rewarding on many levels. The size of the conference gives you the ability to hang out with a small group of people for long periods of time. You not only get a chance to get to know people a lot better, you also create long-lasting friendships. Attendees also get the chance to spend time with those they deeply respect in the industry in a relaxed setting.
I have always recommended the BlueGlass conferences on a personal level and now as an editor of a site with a lot of traffic I feel completely comfortable with recommending them in a professional sense. The next BlueGlass conference is on April 23rd and 24th 2012 in LA. I contacted Chris Winfield, co-founder of BlueGlass and asked him some questions about the upcoming conference:
What excites you the most about the BlueGlass LA 2012 Conference?
I feel like we finally have the right formula down. Everything just clicked at BlueGlass TPA. The sessions had the perfect amount of speakers, we coordinated with the experts far ahead of time so they really were able to bring their A game so to speak. And so much business got done due to the networking.
With the upcoming show, we’re just taking all of that and making it even better. We were able to start planning things so much earlier than ever before so we got the exact venue we wanted, all of the speakers and so much more.
Tell us why you sell a limited # of tickets.
We don’t think of our shows as traditional conferences, they are ‘Internet Marketing Experiences’ and part of that experience is giving everyone who attends a good shot at really getting to know the speakers and each other. When conferences get too big, that becomes impossible.
What benefits have you found by limiting seats?
In addition to the things I already mentioned, a big benefit is that keeping the sessions to one track. That is huge because it helps people to network better because you know that everybody were in the same sessions you were all day and learning the same things.
What is the #1 thing each of you loves about the BlueGlass conferences?
By far my favorite thing is hearing from attendees and speakers the good things that have happened to them as a result of attending one of our shows. I have had people tell me they got new jobs, keynote speaking offers, book deals, new clients and lots of new business relationships. That’s the stuff that makes me the happiest! We even wound up hiring three people who attended TPA which was so cool.
How did you accumulate such a great list of speakers?
Calling in lots of favors!
Any special events planned? Any secrets?
Now if I told you they wouldn’t be secrets anymore right? You are a member of the Secret BlueGlass Conference Group so you will actually get to hear about a lot of the stuff we have planned. One really important thing is that we don’t want to shortchange our attendees is any way. This whole thing is an experience that can’t be replicated through live blogging, tweets or even videos. That’s why we don’t release any videos of sessions, it’s not fair to the people there and it’s not going to be able to replicate the experience.
But to answer your question (in a very long way) — yes we have a lot of special stuff planned :)
BlueGlass LA Speaker List and Sessions
- Greg Boser – BlueGlass Interactive
- Chris Brogan – Human Business Works
- Brian Clark – Copyblogger Media
- Joost de Valk – Yoast
- Peter Shankman – Help A Reporter Out
- Sonia Simone – Copyblogger Media
- Hiten Shah – KISSmetrics
- Mark Suster – GRP Partners
- Jason Nazar – Docstoc.com
- Marty Weintraub – aimClear
- Tony Adam – Science, Inc.
- Loren Baker – BlueGlass Interactive
- Alan Bleiweiss – Click2Rank
- Justin Briggs – Big Fish Games
- Michael Dorausch – Planet Chiropractic
- Fouad ElNaggar – BS Interactive
- Dennis Goedegebuure – GeekNet
- Jon Henshaw – Raven
- Pamela Lund – BlueGlass Interactive
- Tim Mayer – Heddle
- Selena Narayanasamy – BlueGlass Interactive
- Andrew Norcross – BlueGlass Interactive
- Jeff Preston – Disney Interactive Media Group
- Michelle Robbins – Third Door Media
- Adam Singer – LEWIS PR
- Jamie Steven – SEOmoz
- Marcus Tandler – Tandler.Doerje.Partner
- Chris Winfield – BlueGlass Interactive
- Richard Zwicky – Chairman of the Board
Personal Questions
- Mac or PC? – Mac
- Tweetdeck or Hootsuite? – TweetDeck
- iPhone or Droid? – iPhone
- Favorite drink/beer? – Water
- Star Wars or Star Trek? – Star Wars
- Favorite Sports Team? – NY Giants
Melissa Fach
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I’ll keep saying it… I’m really excited about BlueGlassLA. It’s a special group and I think “networking” doesn’t really describe what goes on in person. It’s far deeper than that. Like Chris says, it’s an experience. Stoked that’s it’s back in LA.