Invitations to 50 events. Means I am professional event attender? Means I earn money attending events? No? Ok bye.
“But brand team would like to meet you. Please come to event.” I’d love to meet too – please schedule business meeting.
“But we want to include you in our celebration of the success of X campaign! Please come!” I wasn’t part of the campaign dude. Neither do I know anyone at the brand or at the PR agency handling the brand. I’m just a name on a list for you, I’m not interested in attending your event. Congratulations on the success nonetheless!
Blogger is not = Magazine Editor. Latter may attend because advertising money. What advertising money are you giving to the blogger? Also magazine editors draw a salary, independent bloggers don’t. Attending an event is WORK. It better be paid.
From the literally hundreds of events I’ve attended, not ONE has resulted in any form of professional work discussion leading to work. 90% of the times, the only reason I’m being invited is because “social media update”. That is work. I get paid for work. I have attended many events in the past because of the fear that if I didn’t show my face, no one would want to work with me. It’s untrue. Professionals who see value in working with you will hire you regardless of your event attendance. Events are almost always a numbers game. How many “media people” attended? How many resulted in “features”? Bloggers must know this. PR folks are under immense pressure from brands to up attendance numbers at events. I refuse to have that pressure passed on to me. Most don’t care who you are as a person or as a professional. Most have NEVER visited your blog & they will say that to your face.
Chilling at home in chaddis, drinking chilled beer, working on next blog post is WAY better than “attending event”. (unless paid attendance)
More anecdotes and stories in the #WTFNaina series. ( These are all true stories by the way. Some written emails, some from face-to-face meetings. They have all been piling up for years now and I’ve decided to put them to use! )
2 comments
I completely agree. But I am usually torn between attending and not attending, because you end up making some acquaintances from these events.
None of which might yield results , but then again , have to give a try at least.
I understand Priyanjana. But there are business meetings that can be setup for discussing actual work. This would, however, involve more time and effort to get to know the blogger and their audience and whether they are suitable to the brand and then the decision to invite them for an in-person meeting. Inviting to an event is the most non-commital, non-engaged, least-effort thing anyone can do. Do I know you from Adam? No. Have we ever interacted earlier? No. When I had gotten in touch with you earlier expressing interest in working with you and your client brand, did you cock-block me? Yes. You say “have to give a try at least” – try what exactly? Getting new business? Go to brand offices and try to set up meetings – THAT will get you business. Not attending events. That’s been my experience. I’d rather we spend time working hard on things that might get results than waste time attending events that we KNOW will not get any results. I am not torn anymore. I’m done.
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