The problem with most conferences (and my idea)

I’ve been to quite a few conferences.

I’ve been to super fancy and expensive ones like Traffic & Conversion in San Diego… where they have huge mixers, multiple tracks, multiple speakers and a helluva lot of Powerpoints.

And I’ve been to more low key ones… like the RV Entrepreneur Summit that I recently attended… which was in a campground up in northern Alabama.

One thing that tends to be common among them is…

Powerpoints and talks.

You go in. You listen. It is sort of a one-way flow…. a speaker talking to an audience. And you sit there… take some notes, snap some photos of the slides, yada yada.

Then what happens?

You go home. You return to normalcy. That excitement you had from the conference wears down. You may or may not even look at your notes ever again. It feels good to HAVE those notes, but in the end, you may not even look at them again. If you do, you sorta wonder what the hell they were talking about. šŸ˜‰

And so, many conference experiences end up being a bit of a waste of time and money.

Honestly, Traffic & Conversion is one of the best big marketing conferences out there. But, it is in San Diego (which isn’t a cheap place to be). The conference itself runs around $695 (at the cheapest). Then, you got flight out there, yada yada. Yet, every year… Digital Marketer SELLS the notes for like $50 or so (I forgot the actual price). Notes that blow the snot off anything you would take in person at the event.

So, unless you really need to be there in person for meetings or whatever, even a big conference like T&C is like… is there real value in attending?

Of course, there is if you’re a networking master. But, if you’re not, then it becomes a real question.

So, my wife and I had an idea while we were up in northern Alabama.

We dabbled with the idea of starting a series of in-person workshops.

Perhaps couple it with our RV travels. Hell… maybe even do the workshops in a campground. šŸ™‚ That’d be cool. No worries… you wouldn’t need an RV to come because we’d definitely choose places that had a hotel and meeting space on the premises (or close by).

But, our thought was that we would do this differently.

Not another Pointpoint job. Not just like any online training I’ve done, but instead I’m sitting there in the room.

My thought was that we’d make it a real workshop.

Something where you show up, we get some real work done, I’m there to help and assist all day, and you walk out of there with some tangible stuff done and ready to make some real shit happen when you leave.

This would be a WORKshop in the truest sense.

We’d probably have a meal together, too. šŸ™‚

Now, there’s a ton of stuff we could do with these workshops, in terms of material. It could be…

  • Build your blog and we actually get it up and running
  • Build a membership site
  • Plan out a sales funnel or marketing campaign
  • Develop an online business plan and path forward

I mean, I know some of the things people have expressed interest in.

But, I wanted to ASK YOU.

What you be most interested in? What do you think would be most valuable?

Click here to give me your input (Workshop Survey)

I’d really value your input as we put together ideas on this.

In-person workshops would be an entirely new field for us. Blog Marketing Academy has always been totally online. But, I think it could be quite fun. Plus, a nice change from the all-digital nature of most online training.

Oh, and LAB members may be wondering…

If I do this, there would be some tie-in to THE LAB. New LAB members would either get a ticket to attend one of these workshops for free… or get a discount to one. I haven’t decided. But, obviously, this would add a totally new angle to THE LAB. It would no longer be an online-only thing. We’d be meeting in person. Working together. Maybe share some S’mores around a campfire next to my motorhome. šŸ™‚

Anyhoo…

Click here to let me know your ideas.

– David Risley