Blog Parteeh, why the exclusivity?

While I am away, a lot of questions have been thrown out to our committee team leads that needs to be specifically addressed by me. So, while we’re still at it, let me be frank and sort out some of the nitty-gritty details why the event may seem exclusive in the outset.

• Budget constraints. While we were very fortunate to have a lot of our fellow bloggers donating their hard-earned problogging cash to this event, they’re not overflowing with cash and so am I.
• Limited venue space. We looked hard and far to get several possible venues for this event. We even had several offers from corporate entities like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf as well as Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant, and we weighed the pros and cons of having the party in those venues. In the end, we grabbed the opportunity offered by FeedText to sponsor a private venue which will allow us to stay longer and have games and activities.
• Schwags & goodie bags. Again, related to point #1, we’re giving away schwags and goodie bags to everyone. Thanks to Krispy Kreme who will be sending 50 people with a box of doughnuts to take home. Unfortunately, the schwags will also be limited and so are the bloggers who can take them home.
• Personnel resources. I called out, several times actually, since December for volunteers to help organize this event. We got a dozen people but not enough to do crowd control of over a hundred attendees.
• Security. The venue we got had some strict policies on guests so we were asked to give them a list of names ahead of time. This prompted us to gather complete names of interested bloggers, their contact numbers and even arrange for them to get ID tags on the event itself. We’re trying to appeal that maybe the serial-numbered e-Tickets we’re sending as official invite is enough to pass security.
• Gate crashers. I tell you, this is a true story during last year’s BlogCon. Someone (a foreigner) came in National Sports Grille, registered his name, lined up for the buffet, sat down amongst the bloggers and ate his share quietly and left just before we started the presentations. We never traced who that guy was or what his blog is. Nobody else from our team knew him as well.
• Aye or nay? We wanted complete attendance, right from when we start at 2PM until we end at around 8PM. The previous meet-ups and parties we had before got a lot of people saying they’re coming but never really came. So, when we prepared for 60 people, just around 40 actually came. We don’t want to waste the extra food and giveaways to those who aren’t really sure to come. Thus the registration process was formulated.
• You know what I mean when I say active blogger, right? Who is a blogger and who is not? Who is active and who is not? These were questions we debated during our Steering Committee meetings. If someone started a blog and posted one (and only one) entry about the event just to pre-qualify for an invite, does he become an active blogger? Or what about that girl whose last post was way back in June 24, 2006? This blog party is about community, about networking and about getting to know fellow bloggers. We believe that by inviting only those who are genuinely interested in the Philippine blogging community, we create a better relationship online and off-line.
• Tag alongs. I hope we don’t offend anyone here but it was also discussed that this is a bloggers’ party and not a blogger-and-his-entire-family picnic. Unless your spouse and kids are also blogging, we can’t extend the invitations to them. See #1 & #2 above.

Blogging involves some technical hurdles and we thought very hard how the registration process be made as simple as possible — blog, link & tag — three very basic exercise we assumed a regular and active blogger would be already expert with.

We didn’t really want to explain the why’s of this event in the same manner that would-be couples do not need to explain why they ask their visitors to wear formal attire or barongs on their wedding day. Still, we’re all about transparency, right?

So, let’s all move along and spread the word. :)