Podcast 20: Rick Calvert: The Godfather Of Blogging Shares The Secrets Of Conference Success

Our guest today is the CEO and Co-founder of New Media Expo, so quite frankly I could have called him the Godfather of Podcasting and blogging. So I better be good on this episode, no pressure there then! Although an obvious entrepreneur in heart it wasnt always the case. He has been involved in the trade show industry since 1996 serving as sales manager and director of sales for three of Tradeshow Week's top 200 events.But his interest in blogging and online content really hit home during the explosion of the political blogosphere around the 2000 election season.Seeing content come online day after day, minute by minute, feeding comment and discussion worldwide, he knew that the future was all around us and it was time to get going himself.However every guest on "Join Up Dots" have found their path in life after a period of transition, and quite often it will be a lot longer coming than they probably would have considered was necessary looking back, and it seems to be the case here too.As even though he saw the positives, and excitement that new media could offer in 2000, he was finally inspired to launch his own blog in October of 2005.And it was a great success, even though he claims it was "unexpected success" and with his political blog gaining more and more ground online, he began searching for the blogging tradeshow to link it with. Amazingly he realized no such event existed, so he and his business partner Dave launched BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas in November of 2007, and it went onto attract 1,600 attendees straight away.He had found his path and had started joining up those dots.So how did he do it?How did he manage to create something that was literally an overnight success? And more importantly, why did it take him so long to get started on the path to success that he was so obviously made for? Well lets find out as I introduce to you, the one and only Rick Calvert.