While Thinking about the Next One

So, iBlog’s over but I can’t stop thinking about the next one.  We should plan it better. Raise more money. Still make it FREE. Get more content. Encourage more people to BLOG BLOG BLOG.  

In the beginning, our conference chair said “If you build it, they will come.” Okay, what it lacked in originality, it made up for in prophecy. Even Sassy Lawyer had her doubts.
 
Myself, I said I’d be happy to have 50 people show up.  In the end, 300+ signed up and 155 shed their anonymity for a day.

The conversion rate for i.PH was even better with about 70+ sign ups. Which leads me to a sticky issue that people might be concerned about. i.PH is a company owned by my brother, the ccTLD administrator and owner of dotPH, perhaps the most popular on-line company in the country. dotPH is also a client of mine.  You get where I’m headed?

The answer is NO:  WE DID NOT ORGANIZE IBLOG TO LET I.PH PUSH THEIR PRODUCT.  If so, we would have had them pay for everything.

The fact of the matter is that we thought either or both of the cellphone carriers would grab at the chance to sponsor iBlog. We didn’t think we’d need i.PH. After all, didn’t both cellcos have mobile blogging services?  So, we tapped into our contacts in both companies. I was so surprised that they wouldn’t even return or answer our calls.

Meanwhile, i.PH was shaping up to be the sole sponsor who’d fork over some cash (San Miguel gave the free rinks).  Even then, they were asking for an Internet connection as a condition to the sponsorship.  Thankfully, NISMED had some ports to spare. Otherwise, we would be screwed big-time.  I did point out to the i.PH people that sponsors usually provide their own Internet connection but you don’t want to piss off your one and only major sponsor a few days before the event.

We were worried because our Conference Chair had advanced something like P20K for things like the poster, the bloghosting, the backdrop and the T-shirts.  We also announced the free admission and impliedly, the free lunch.  To be honest, we were sweating pretty heavily leading up to the event. At the last minute, YDS came in for a minor sponsorship and after the dust settled, we just about broke even.

So I was floored when Abe Olandres informed me he was willing to sponsor the event.  I then wondered why we never sent him a letter.  It turns out we considered it but we thought it would be rude for us to ask for a sponsorship after we’d invited him to speak.  We thought it would be like blackmail.  We were dead wrong.

Next time, we won’t make mistakes.  We’ll get as many sponsors as possible to keep our promise to make this a FREE event designed to get bloggers to dialog about blogging and to get more people to BLOG.  I’ve got some ideas how to get the most from those folks.

The Bloggers who helped spread the word deserve part of the credit for iBlog’s success. We hope we can count on you, too.