When looking for HustleKnockers—those who fight constructs and really shake things up—I knew I’d end up online. That’s where I found emerging web czar, Rick Calvert doing his thing.
Rick Calvert is co-founder and CEO of BlogWorld Expo, one of the most popular tech/web conventions in the world today. In the web world, Rick’s one of the key people who connects the people that connect everybody else to each other.
He’s doing big things and has some interesting insights on the web, technology and how we can all use it better. Check it out.
1. Okay, Rick. Please tell our readers about the BlogWorldExpo. What is it exactly?
BlogWorld is the largest Blogging and New Media conference and tradeshow in the world. Thousands of bloggers, podcasters, internet radio and TV broadcasters all come to Vegas for three days of fun, business, education and a complete blogging geekfest 8).
2. What inspired you to start this event?
I just wanted to attend an event like this and it didn’t exist. I wanted to learn how to make my blog better, how to grow my readership, learn about advertising and affiliate programs and meet all of my blogging friends and heroes.
3. What are your goals for the event? Where do you see BWE 3-5 years from now?
We want BlogWolrld to be the event for the industry. We want BlogWorld to be the place where all bloggers, podcasters, internet radio and TV broadcasters from beginner to Rock Star come to get the education and tools they need to improve their content. It doesn’t matter if they are an independent blogger, or creating content for a new media network, a traditional media company, or a company blog. We see BlogWorld attracting tens of thousands of bloggers from all over the world coming together for several days of learning, networking, doing business and having fun. Think of it as the Consumer Electronics Show of new media. I like to describe BlogWorld as the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) of the future with a good dose of ComicCon thrown in for fun.
4. Have you always been a “tech person”? What got you into the online space and web technology?
No I haven’t been a tech person and I’m still not a tech person. I was attracted to blogging through politics. I am a news junkie and I like arguing about politics. I think that is fun. After the 2,000 elections there were so many charges about voter fraud, and a stolen election, and then 9/11 happened. Blogs were doing reporting that you just couldn’t get in the traditional media. From the top political blogs on both the left and right, and then the military bloggers are absolutely the place to go if you want to know what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, how troop moral is doing etc. That sucked me in to blogging and over time you realize just how powerful this medium is. How it is a true meritocracy. If you create good content and you keep doing it you will build an audience. That realization got me passionate about the tools of new media like blogging, podcasting, internet radio and video, social networking, and now microblogging applications like Twitter, Plurk and Pownce. We are seeing Magazines, Newspapers, Radio and Television all being reinvented right before our eyes and to me that is a very exciting thing to be involved in.
5. Gaming’s now an 18 billion a year industry with sales eclipsing Hollywood and the music industry combined. How relevant is the gaming industry to what you’re doing with online communities, the BWE specifically?
Well in part having started blogging in part as a way to stop my video gaming habit I think it is a great analogy. Gaming is another fairly new industry that demonstrates exactly how quickly new technology can revolutionize our lives, grow into an multi-billion dollar industry and integrate with traditional forms of media. There are countless films that have been turned into video games and now you have video games being turned into films. All of those properties spur merchandising from T-shirts, to toys and collectables.
6. Many of our readers are familiar with conventions, but don’t know what it’s like behind the scenes. What’s it like to put together a convention/conference?
It is a lot of work. There is an old saying “Lieutenants think tactics, Generals think logistics."
Putting an event together involves tremendous amount of logistics, from the venue, to the general service contractor, to the AV, to the service and internet, to electrical, to catering and lots of other contractors you deal with for any event. That’s the back end that no one sees. Then on the front end you need to identify exactly who your attendees, exhibitors and speakers are. You need to have some sizzle and some steak.
You need Rock Stars there and some entertaining elements to make people want to attend. Then you need to provide value that helps them improve their business or their lives so they have to attend. That includes vendors selling products they need, or educational sessions that help them become more efficient, or learn about new technologies and trends in their industry. If you can put all those things together you have a successful event.
7. Some of our readers are college kids, recent grads looking for fun careers. If they wanted to get into conventions/conference work, what can they do? Is there a course of study in college or a networking/professional organization they can join?
There are a few universities who offer courses on event management and hospitality like UNLV. Then there is The International Association for Exhibitions and Events (IAEE). It is the association for tradeshow people and offers lots of training including their CEM course (Certified Exhibition Manager), and they host the annual tradeshow for tradeshow people called Expo Expo. Other than that I would advise anyone thinking about the tradeshow, conference and event business to visit a variety of events and ask lots of questions. If you are serious about it you need to participate as an attendee, or as an exhibitor to truly understand what your customers are going to experience. Honesty a lot of people cannot handle the pressure but people in the business usually love the business and wouldn’t consider doing anything else.
8. How does starting your own venture, such as BWE—contrast with being a vendor/ subcontractor for the companies you normally help set up conventions and conferences for?
Responsibility. At the end of the day you are responsible for everything and there is one else to blame if you fail other than yourself.
9. What’s your take on the issue of Net Neutrality—potentially paying more based on the bandwidth of the site you’re accessing?
Honestly I am not smart enough to answer that question. My gut tells me it’s a bad thing to make people pay for more bandwidth and bad for new media content creators but I have heard some very smart bloggers say it is actually good for new media.
It is also more complicated than that in that as I understand it in involved forcing ISP’s to not restrict the content their customers want to view either particularly by their competitors. For example, let’s say a broad band provider like Comcast wanted to restrict content from Google because they had a partnership with Yahoo. That limits their customers choices and sounds like a monopoly to me therefore a very bad thing. That’s how I lean but I am open to being convinced otherwise.
10. What responsibility if any do you think ISP’s have for the content of blogs/sites/communities utilizing their infrastructure?
Again I am not an expert here so this is just my opinion. Should they be criminally or civilly liable for content their customers produce and host with them? I don’t think so. But they should cooperate with authorities and aggrieved parties who are being threatened or having their content stolen. If an ISP actively helps a content producer threaten or harm someone, or steal their content then yes they should be held liable.
FOR MORE INFO ON RICK CALVERT AND BLOG WORLD EXPO, PLEASE VISIT: BLOGWORLDEXPO.COM
