What Am I Doing??

Those were the first words I asked myself while we were in Tampa, when the idea for doing another conference in July on the other side of the country came up.

But yep, the rumors are true. We’re hosting another conference, practically right on the heels of our sold-out Search & Social Spring Summit in Florida.

I love our summits, but they do take up a lot of Search & Social’s resources, time and money. For a couple of months my team is diverted to planning, scheming, booking, organizing. Essentially just making 1000% sure we throw a good party where people also learn more than they could ever use. It’s hard labor. So why are we going through all of this again?

1) The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We’re super stoked to announce that Search & Social has teamed up with Chris Winfield’s 10e20 to jointly host Search & Social Summit’s new incarnation: BlueGlass LA.

Chris Winfield & me at Search & Social Spring Summit

Chris is a popular speaker on social media, and always kills it in his sessions and keynotes. He’s also always had great ideas for our past events, and so it seemed natural to bring him and his team on to take this conference to the next level. We’ve been working together like mad to leverage our combined connections to bring in the best speakers, book a killer location and set up an agenda that will be hard to forget.

2) I heart LA. We’re busting open the West Coast, by popular demand. LA-based online marketers always remark on the dearth of high-quality industry events in their neck of the woods. Calling all Angelenos, and all those who enjoy sea, sun and sand:  we’re bringing our inaugural BlueGlass Conference event to you. Don’t forget your shorts, shades and your A-game.

Marina Del Rey Marriott

3) All-access pass to an all-star speaker lineup. Don’t you hate it when you go to a conference, line up for 20 minutes to ask a speaker a question, then never see them again for the rest of the event?  Favorites and dark horses alike are in the BlueGlass LA batting order, all with fresh material and with plenty of socializing time to meet YOU. I’m looking forward to seeing crowd favorites like Ben Huh (the Cheezeburger guy), Neil Patel from KISSMetrics, Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz and Vanessa Fox (and MANY more) mix and mingle with the attendees over the two days of BlueGlass LA.

Tony Adam (2nd from left), Andy Liu, Neil Patel and friends

4) Tony Tony Tony! Big ups to Tony Adam, our LA local and featured BlueGlass LA speaker. He’s making sure the venue, the attendees and the overall conference are all dialed in, West Coast style. Say hi to Tony and ask him what’s new with MySpace (answer: lots!).

5) We’ve kept the costs down. Although BlueGlass LA is going to be the biggest, baddest event we’ve ever thrown, it will still be THE SAME PRICE AS PREVIOUS SUMMITS ($495 early bird – get yours today!). That gets you a ticket into the 2-day conference, and also includes three meals daily, networking and socializing events as well as the evening parties. Could we charge $1000 or more like other conferences? Totally, and we’d still get ‘em in the door. But we really want more people from both ends of the spectrum to have a chance to participate.

6) We’re limiting attendance. We talked about opening the rolls, inviting a ton more people and making more money off this thing. But one of the success factors from Search & Social Summit that I’m determined to keep is that a smaller group means a more impactful experience for the attendees. It’s a paradox: the less people you have in the crowd, the more people you will meet.

BlueGlass LA is going to be off the chain, and you need to be there. With all the reasons above, the real question is how do we *not* do this again?