Why I No Longer Attend Blogger Events

When I talk about "event" I mean like Media Event and Parties. Like being "happening". We always look very happening for the 5 secs for the picture but actually most of the time we were just looking into our phone twitting, updating Facebook and all.

Looking fancy and all cool on social media to tell people like "hey~~ my weekend is cooler than yours"

Don't get me wrong. I mean event was fun. Especially like when you get to attend beauty event with 10,000 other beauty bloggers and they are all female.

And most of the times you get to go places that people don't get to go and meet famous people.

Not to mentioned booze, booze and you get to make new awesome friends. You don't even know when the friendship will escalate until you can meet her without makeup and all. And also sometimes some interesting work opportunities.

Despite all these perks and all it seems that I haven't been attending event much and I am getting questioned about these 1 time too often these days.  "Eh, you going this event or not" "How come I never see you there" etc etc. So below are my replies. I don't wish to sound like diva or cocky so if I do in this post, I am not sorry. :X (kidding lah. I am sorry.) 

1. Readers Are Bored With Event Stories 

We go lancing lancing and meet new people. Photo by William I think. 

It was a cool and shiny new toy. For awhile. Readers were entertained by the fact that we can go to events and do cool things. They find that the things we do are interesting and they want to grow up and be like us. I mean also attend the event when it is open to public but these days I find that, or at least for my readers, events blog post are getting very little attention. Partly because these days everyone(events and product) build their own media in terms of their own FB pages, own Instagram where mass audience can find information easily on official accounts instead of having the need to read it off a blog.

2. Events are getting too predictable 

Attend event and found my long lost younger brother.

Events can get a bit too predictable these days. I am not saying because they are boring but events are very costly. To make things worst, I have been in the industry for almost 9 years now. Not just attending event but event planning as well. Nothing impresses me more than the fact that I can be in my boxers at home in front of my PS4 these days. I can recite a typical event flow with my eye closed, drunk and balancing two bottles on my shoulders but I shall not bore you with the details. But you get my point.

3. Age Gap 

Just a random event photo. These people also not very young.

Besides the fact that I am growing old. It is inevitable that we get young people into the field year after year. The topics we talk about are different and we are just mostly different people from different part of our lives with different ideology about things and blogging. Given an event is a short period of time and very likely I might not even see you again because you drop off the whole blogging thing as you can't get freebies anymore, so we might not see each other again and I find it very tiring to pretend like I am involved in a conversation with you. (generally you, not exactly you. Don't get offended pls)

I might have shared this story 1 time too many but I got people asking me at event about how to get better readership, how to get more sponsors, how to become famous instead of how to write good content. Maybe because they find me as a very popular "celebrity" over a talented man. Both not true. Okay. I shall go back and cry now.


4. I am married 

Do I sound like I am complaining? NoooooOOoOoOooOOo.. Just in case. I am not. Being married means 2 become 1 (I bet you are humming the tune) where you don't just manage your time. You have to manage two individual's time. Those and also because when you are married, it doesn't give you a lot of ROI to go to event and hit on girls anymore. So events gotten way way way less fun when you are off the market and should not be hitting on girls. And also because (everyone knows I am married. It was on the papers.) too many girls out there knows my wife thus she has a lot of eyes watching me.

5. I have nothing to wear 

I'm not even kidding.

This is legit. When you go event you need to respect the event and also look nice but suiting up is not funny in Singapore. And also sometimes you are very worried about overdressing or underdressing especially with invites that says stupid things like "SMART CASUAL". I mean smart is who I am and how I look. So casual is like flip flop and slippers to me. A shirt and pants don't make me smart, it makes me look formal and stupid. So smart casual is like polo t-shirt and pants? That makes me an uncle unless I am tiger woods.

6. Lazy 

Meeting cool bros and doing funny things together. 

Lazy like really lazy. Lazy to dress up, lazy to drive out on weekend, lazy to find parking, lazy to go and entertain and lazy to blog there after. It is true. This has to be the bottom of all reasons. Sometimes I am actually very interested in the event or product that is gonna be launched but going to find out a product which is like 20mins I need to travel 1hr two ways, I need to talk to people and go through some programs that I have no interest and pretend to smile for camera for 3hrs. Not even sure if I'm lazy or I'm being calculative with my time. So sometimes it really works better if you send me release, send me product and I will tell if you I need to visit your place if I want to do a story or feature.

7. Budget Cut, no event 

This is the kinda event I really liked. Many pretty girls and got famous people. #Practical 

As practical as it sounds I believe it is true and it may actually be for the better. Many clients felt that wining and dining the bloggers leave them with very low returns. No doubt they do gain a lot of intangibles like brand image etc and more importantly a close relation with certain key influencers but it is just not enough for some or even most of them. You really have to see the objective of the event, where you are standing, what is your product etc. I am not saying that all events are pointless or low in ROI

To paint a better picture let me give you some example which can be a little long.

For example,

A decent event launch you will need host, decor, FnB, goodie bag, event team, sound system, PR notes, program etc will easily drop a bomb on you from 5 - 20k. If this budget comes out from a bigger PR budget where you get to invite key investors, other business partners and then bloggers might be a good thing cause your dollars are spread across the people but if you are doing it only for bloggers you might get a low return especially with drop out rates.

For those interested, typically if you want to have 20 bloggers at an event, you will send invite to a good 50-40 pax. (Unless your event is like event of the life or you are very close to them) with maybe 30 pax showing interest and only 20 pax eventually RSVP-ed. 10 of them might not turn up and out of the 10 who turned up, maybe only 4 will give you a post on time, 2 with IG or late post and other 4 just gone into the air.

With the work and logistics and what not, for the convenience of calculation, maybe you spent 4k on the event and that basically means each post cost you $1,000 which is way more expensive than a sponsor post to most bloggers unless you are talking XX, LIC, DFD etc.

You do the math.

8. Not Famous Enough. No Invite 

I mean there's nothing much to explain here. Just me being not famous enough cause ROI too low and also maybe I don't fit the product or party. But I am happy cause I can spend time at home slacking playing my game or play some ball with my Half Court Heroes. 

You should still invite me. 

To be honest, I am not saying NO to everything. i still attend event where I get to hangout with some of the familiar faces which sadly rarely happens these days. Some became mother while some just fall off the grid entirely.

You should still invite me so that I can reject you because there are still some events that get me interested.

For example, recently I attended the launch of the Huawei P8 which I totally should do a review but I am procrastinating. I really want to share with you about the phone because it is pretty cool and also because I left early from the event and went and meet Jac and my Wife. Thus not able to tell you how fun it was on the boat ride they actually did for the guests! : X

Anyway, so if I offended you in anyway because going events is like your calling and you need to be at every event invite, invited or not. I am very sorry. So are you still a big fan?