November 4, 2011 34 Comments

That VIP Feeling

Party at BlogWorld LA

Last night, I attended a welcome party for BlogWorld LA, along with a few hundred other people. It was held on a rooftop with great music, plenty of space to stretch out and mingle, good looking food, and a lot of wonderful attendees. What struck me, looking around at all my nerd friends and blogging enthusiasts was that we had all been treated like VIPs, velvet ropes and everything. It was a great feeling.

That VIP Feeling

The cost of providing that VIP feeling was minimal. There was already an event planned. The velvet rope and the professional staff at the venue ( Icon Ultra Lounge in Los Angeles) were already paid for, and the detail touches, like the delicious looking food and tequila samples and Heineken beer, the DJ spinning really fun mashups of danceable songs, were all elements that required some consideration, but were doable. The event was sponsored, so that made it cost-effective for people (they had to buy drinks other thank tequila and Heineken), and so all that was left was to make sure everyone felt like they were part of something.

When you look it all over, the trick was in ensuring that the hosts (the BlogWorld staff) did what they could to set up a venue that felt exclusive (we had a gorgeous outside party with a view of the city), and that they mingled enough to introduce the stragglers so that everyone felt like they had something in common. Lara Kulpa, community manager at BlogWorld, made that happen all night long. So the gold in all this, from my perspective, was in Lara and team making us all feel like VIPs, and I mean everyone.

What Does That Buy?

I’m not intending to speak for everybody who was at the event last night, but from the people I had a chance to speak with, they all felt good. People at the event felt like they were welcome, like they were part of something. It was a good sensation.

Going into the rest of BlogWorld, my assumption is that these people who were treated like VIPs will be able to smile and nod at a few more people in the halls. They will have a sense that they are part of a group, and not just attendees. They will feel as if the people sitting alongside them in sessions are peers and not just strangers. That’s a value worth thinking about, because it keeps everyone engaged, keeps everyone interacting, and it forms friendships that can turn into business, but also that encourage people to come back for another event.

And if you’re Rick and the gang at BlogWorld, making people feel like they have a place where they belong means having some nearly-guaranteed follow-on revenue for the coming years. What’s that VIP feeling worth? Lots, I’d venture.

Do You Offer that VIP Feeling To Your Community?

How are you building out that VIP feeling for your community? Do people feel like they belong to something when they interact with your business? What would be the velvet rope, swank location, and flowing tequila of your business be? It’s fun to consider.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

Genesis Theme Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

Become a StudioPress Affiliate

  • http://rickmanelius.com Rick Manelius

    I haven’t yet fully implemented it into an official component of my business strategy, but I have been making great strides on improving my communication skills with clients.

    It’s amazing how simply things answering phone calls in a more positive way can completely turn around a business relationship and make it more cooperative instead of us versus them.

    My wife is finally going to join me in my business, so we’re already planning on better ways to communicate and assist our clients to achieve their goals. But I like your way of phrasing it… how do we make them feel like they are the most special people we work for?

  • http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

    Dance clubs without velvet ropes are hard to find. Just saying.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

      Right, but the point, such as it were, was that we were BEHIND the velvet rope, meaning we were the VIPs. 

  • http://exciramedia.com Shannon Steffen

    I always get that VIP feeling when there is an event at Swig in Milwaukee. The staff go above and beyond while the decor is very warm. I wish other places understood that is costs very little (if anything) to make their customers feel like VIPs – increasing the opportunity for return business.

  • http://twitter.com/CineAny Aniceris CS

    Wow, that is true, making people feel welcome and important is a great asset to have in gatherings of any size. One thing I pride my self in my home ( and will implement in my own business) is that I take the time to make my guests feel important and comfortable. In parties I usually have to boot out people because they HAD too much comfort and fun, LOL(a boot-out with a smile of course)

  • http://bit.ly/qXCn0D Konrad Rutten

    i have the ultimate vip story for you Chris,

    ( time to give a little back, for you past three great articles )

    i went to the dentist yesterday.

    my most wonderful hygienist asked me :

    when’s the last time you’ve been to the dentist ?

    my palms started to sweat ,

    i felt that burning wave come over me,

    i was drawing a blank.

    mind you,

    she’s very cute and sweet,

    and i had that feeling, 

    a person would have walking up the stares to the guillotine ,

    wincing, knowing, i was going to be water boarded by a complete babe.

    like the kid in christmas story,

    i thought fast,

    ah,

    “before memory”

    she busted out with a laugh!

    wiping my forehead,

    thinking to myself,

    lets get her in my mouth while she’s laughing.

    maybe that will save me from her utter disgust.

    maybe ,

    i can short circuit  her gage response .

    holly crap,

    it worked!

    maybe i was completely buffaloed, very likely ,

    but i never in my “wild fantasies” would have imagined,

    water boarding could be pure bliss !

    i had the perfect foil !

    i could druel and get away with it!

    i hhad her so close to my face and even in my mouth,

    laughing at my desperate attempts to distracter from my utter fright.

    i even had to stare at the ceiling to my eyes from rolling back in my head. 

    to make a long fantasy  short,

    she pulled the cord on her water drill,

    and blasted away at my utter neglect and mouthful of horrors.

    i didn’t feel a thing but utter joy!

    she even came out and huged me,

    i felt like a babe that just got his butt powdered.

    the other babe at the front desk slipped me the bill and i said how soon?

    vip babe!

  • Anonymous

    I agree that everyone at BlogWorld has been very friendly and welcoming. As a first time attendee I thought I would be staying in the shadows watching all the “cool kids” mingle and have fun. Boy was I wrong. Everyone working the event and all of the attendees have been great at engaging and making sure people feel welcome. A few us were talking this morning about how this is different than any meet or networking event that we’ve been to because of the ease and excitement of meeting others. A big thank you to you Chris for encouraging people to talk with you and making us feel at ease when we do!

    • http://twitter.com/blogworld BlogWorld Expo

      Thank you Joel. I am very glad to hear you felt welcome. Because you are. More on that in just a bit.

  • http://www.online-business-virtual-assistant.com/ Virtual Business Assistant

    Hi this is so true when we make people more comfortable and settled down by giving them a good welcome will encourage them to actively participate in every thing…

  • http://cashwithatrueconscience.com/rbblog Ryan Biddulph

    The quickest way to build a community is to make people feel special. I personalize each interaction as much as possible Chris. Giving someone the gift of your undivided attention makes someone feel like a Very Important Person.

    Thanks for sharing!

    RB

  • http://www.blurbpoint.com/directory-submission-service.php Directory Submission

    My Girl Friend makes me feel I’m a VIP…….

  • http://www.freelancewriter.co/ Harleena Singh

    Sounds so interesting Chris!

    I do know a few people who have also gone to attend BlogWorld- all lucky ones :) I guess anything that touches our hearts makes us feel like a VIP- you get the same kind of awesome feeling as if you are on top of the world! For me it could be my kids smile, my husbands time and attention, my friends care- in-fact just about anything that moves me!

    Thanks for sharing :)

  • http://www.blogworldexpo.com Lara Kulpa

    Chris – You’re the sweetest. Thank you so much!

  • http://www.postcardmania.com Ferris Stith

    I totally missed out on all the parties, so bummed, but I was pretty wiped by the end of the day. However, I’m so happy (and lucky) I got to meet you in person and somehow became the unofficial “Brogan groupie photographer” :)

    Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to come out and speak at BlogWorld. You’re truly a genius!

  • Katherine Bull

    Chris, sorry I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye and thank you for coming to our party. I hope you also felt like a VIP there. Heck “I” felt like a VIP and these were my co-workers. Even better when your co-workers go out of their way to make you feel important at an event. 

    It was a fun time! Next excuse to have a party: “Google+ for Business” Yay! 

    • Katherine Bull

      Shoot, used the wrong account with my picture. Should have used my Pearson account. 

      Anyway, so great to see you and Jacq and Rob. 

  • http://www.jeffreysass.com sass

    Nice. Wish I could have been there.  The notion of VIP treatment is along the lines of treating your customers as “Guests.”  As I recently wrote about at Dadomatic, two of my kids work in the restaurant business and both of their companies make it an enforced policy to refer to customers as “guests” and treat them accordingly. Not a bad approach for any business!

  • Melissa Metcalf

    I want to thank Deb Ng for my VIP experience. I hadn’t eaten all day and felt very dizzy. I might have fainted if Deb didn’t notice something was up and help me find a seat. She then went all the way upstairs to the speaker room to bring me a bottle of water and a snack to get my blood sugar back up. Thank you, Deb. I didn’t get the same experience with Lara. I tried to get her attendion once but she was too busy gossiping with her friends and when she finally did notice anwer my question it was to give me the wrong infomation.

    This was my first time at BlogWorld and I was very impressed with the attentiveness of most of the staff and the programs. It was a big investment for me and I felt guilty about spending money on a convention but I now know it was well worth the cost.

    • http://www.blogworldexpo.com Lara Kulpa

      Hi Melissa – I’m extremely sorry you felt ignored or if I gave you incorrect info. I actually barely saw my friends at all, as I was trying to get around to as many attendees I DIDN’T know that I could. I’m really sorry if I made you feel like I was too busy for you, that’s never, ever been my M.O. :(

  • http://samedayessay.com/ custom essays

    gREAT ARTICLE! THANK YOU!

  • http://www.begun.ru/begun/collaboration/agents/detail.php?ID=3689 webpromo

    This is a good article and offer some helpful information for me,thank you!

  • http://twitter.com/blogworld BlogWorld Expo

    Joel and Melissa,

    I am very happy to hear you both felt comfortable and ease attending BlogWorld. I can’t stress this enough, we want you and everyone else to feel welcome. We are all bloggers and content creators. We all have that common interest and passion. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking, attending for the first time, if you have a gazillion followers like Chris, or haven’t even sent your first tweet.

    The fact that you are there makes you a part of our community and as you can see by this post from Chris and so many others from speakers and long time BlogWorld veterans, they want to meet you, talk to you, and share our ideas, thoughts, successes and failures with each other.

    Thank you both for attending. I sincerely hope you come back again and again and help other first timers feel welcome.

    Chris,

    Thank you again for giving so much of your time and for the very kind words. It was great to see you having fun and enjoying the experience 8)

    • http://ItsDifferent4girls.com Linda Sherman

      @ChrisBrogan brings so much to each @BlogWorldExpo that he attends. His accessibility is one of his great gifts. One of the things that makes Blog World so special is that this generous attitude is shared by so many of the speakers and attendees.

  • http://WDWRadio.com Lou Mongello

    Great post, Chris, and I felt the same way at this event and the ones that followed. The folks at BlogWorld really make us all feel like an important part of the community. At the event, there was no “VIP section” for the founders or keynote speakers, as my talking with you for a while right by the bar evidences that fact. You’re right – we were all VIPs, in a place that we all felt welcome. 

    I always say that in this age of social media and interactions, nothing beats a handshake or a hug, and there were plenty of those for everyone during BlogWorld. 

    Great seeing you again. 

  • Heidi Cohen

    Chris–You make an important point that many event and conference planners overlook. You can help mold how your attendees feel about your event. By being proactive, you build community that colors how people feel about your event. Happy marketing, Heidi Cohen

  • http://www.businessandsoftwarestrategyforglobalisation.com Mae Loraine Jacobs

    Hi, Chris, it’s great to know you had a fantabulous time in BlogWorld LA. It does sound like a very cool event. DJ spinning? :) 

    I guess everybody loves to be treated like a VIP, and customers, even if they don’t say it, demand that from businesses, whether huge or small. I know BlogWorld has spent a lot of money to pull off such feat, but owners don’t have to spend tons of dollars to do that. For one, they can be more active, be more engaged, using social media tools. 

  • http://sosnovskij.ru/webpromo/ вебпромо

    Excellent website. Lots of useful information here. I am sending it to a
    few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And obviously, thanks for
    your effort!

  • Pingback: BlogWorld Expo LA 2011 – Woah! | Lara Kulpa

  • http://twitter.com/dirtbike_me dirtbikegamesonline

    excellent essay and this is interesting information I was looking for

  • Matt

    The sessions with my clients would be more fun with flowing tequila but perhaps a bit less productive ;)

    You ask a very interesting question, that I’ve never asked myself.

    I’ll ponder that!

  • http://www.i95dev.com Henry Louis

    It is interesting to read. Thanks for sharing your memories and experience.

  • Pingback: That VIP Feeling « Business Developement « Business Developement

  • Pingback: A Tale of Two Conferences

  • http://www.zip-repair.org/ repair zip

    Thank
    you for posting this info.Â