Pathetic or Smart: Begging Your Way into Events?
I’m astonished with every passing day at the lengths some people would go to to attend a blogger’s event and sadly we’ve seen with our own eyes bloggers that no one had heard of before because they just started yesterday shamelessly asking the event organizers shamelessly to be invited as well or even fighting and acting all haughty and offended when they didn’t receive their invites.
I still remember the years when I was literally an unknown blogger. I poured my heart and soul into the blog, I checked popular bloggers posts on daily basis trying to figure what made them appealing to the readers, I watched the well-known bloggers of that time as they were invited to review restaurants or try something new sent their way. I wished that the day would come when I would be recognizes for my efforts and sought out to do the same. I worked harder and harder each day for years until one day it happened to me, my humble blog’s name was not virtually unknown anymore.
Then the event’s mania began and poof, everybody wanted to become a blogger. Technically speaking everybody on planet earth can become a blogger, just open a blog and write away. But working hard and posting and trying to make a distinguished name for your blog is apparently too time and effort consuming to get you into an event. After all, you didn’t open the blog to share some knowledge, or rant, or try to inspire people with your talents. Its opened just so you can say you have a blog, and the best way to fill it up with information is that you go to event, click a few photos, and write about them. But you are not invited to events because you don’t technically register on the blogsphere radar yet, so what can you do? Beg to be invited of course.
How does the begging happen? You either learn that there is an event coming up by company X or event organizer Y and you call them up saying you are a blogger and want to attend. Or you contact them in front of their followers in the social media outlets, hinting that you are wishing for an invite, or ask them shamelessly to send you an invite as well, or fight with them after or before an event on why you didn’t invite them to that event since she/he is a blogger too. Sometimes the event organizers would ignore those blunt event-crashers but many times they seem too embarrased they apologize and send an invite right away. Voila, you opened a blog yesterday and invited to an event tomorrow! Easy no?
In Arnold’s Schwar. Book, he had a chapter with a list of rules a the end and one of them was “Don’t let your pride get in the way”. I myself have let my pride get in the way a LOT of times. For example, if I’m not invited the first time around, I won’t attend the second time around. I stil don’t consider myself an IT blogger and I’m still working on developing my blog so one day I can sit back and think to myself “Now I’ve made it”. Have I been wasting my time all these years? Trying to build a name for my little blog in hopes that my blog’s good reputation would open the doors for me? Should I have just asked and shown my face?
Pathetic vs. Proud? I’m not really sure anymore.
But I think its worth it to arrive at an event with a sense of entitilement, that you’ve earned entry to this event. That when you shake hands with the event organizers and introduce your blog’s name, someone would actually tell you how much they love your blog and how they read it first thing in the morning rather than give you a blank stare with a big fat question mark flowing inside an even bigger bubble that says “Come again?”. Yes, I choose pride that comes from hard work. I’m still hungry, and will still try and work my way to the top.
What about you, fellow bloggers? Do you think its smart or pathetic to beg your way into an event?