If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, artist, you need to head down to Blogworld & New Media Expo, Nov. 3-5, 2011 this week at the LA Convention Center. If you can’t make it, then send your marketing manager, PR agent or social media guru… just don’t miss it. This is the event that brings Hollywood and the social web together under one enormous roof. Here is what Rick Calvert, the CEO and co-founder and creator, had to say:
Michael: This is the first time Blogworld has been produced in LA, why the move from Las Vegas to LA?
Rick: We moved to LA this year specifically to attract the entertainment and media audience.
Michael: I see Hollywood has a stronger presence this year with Jace Hall and Kevin Pollack, what is their message to your audience?
Rick: Traditional media and new media are just beginning to converge, Blogworld is perfect opportunity to foster the convergence, to introduce the different medias to each other and create new business opportunities.
Michael: I personally think all LA businesses, marketing managers and so called social media gurus need to attend your summit to improve their brands on the social web, what are your thoughts?
Rick: Absolutely, new media is changing where the consumer is getting new information and entertainment is getting news. Business are looking for new customers and new media does that more efficiently than traditional media. Any business owner that isn’t using new media is making a strategic mistake.
Michael: It is great to see major sponsors like Ford, Southwest and Century 21 supporting and speaking at Blogworld; these are brands that truly understand the power of the social web and are leveraging these tools, what can the small business owner glean from these Fortune 5s?
Rick: Small businesses can certainly learn from the larger brands. We have people from smaller businesses at Blogworld as well. I was looking at the prototype of small business owners and Ramon De Leon has one of the highest selling Domino’s pizza stores in the country and he attributed this to new media. He is one of the speakers at Blogworld and he is a dynamic and amazing presenter. He will talk specifically about how new media will reach customers. I think that Social Media allows big business to appear smaller and it makes small business, such as the local hair salon or pizza store to appear bigger.
Michael: I have been reading Darren Rowse, Michael Stelzner and Lisa Barone’s blogs for years, they, like most of the blogging community, are so generous… there are all about sharing. Isn’t that really the message?
Rick: That’s definitely part of the message. The message is if you give people value before they are ready to buy something then you’ve earned their business and good will. If you give value to others, the value will come back.
Michael: I love the agenda topics this year and I suspect the bloggers came up with many of these?
Rick: Yes, that’s true. We have open submissions for conference sessions. A lot of the ideas came from attendees and speakers. A lot of the ideas also came from us because we are bloggers as well (myself, the conference director, and bloggers on the site)
Thank you Rick!
