I wrote and highly supported the midwest unconference taking place in chicago in a couple weeks… Only problem is nobody there is returning my emails and now I am getting emails from other people asking me if its going to happen or trying to make plans.
As much as I love to support these free or low budget events the only downside is a lot of times they flake out =(.
I had to make a decision this morning to make other plans since I have not gotten any response from the original organizers.
Hopefully they are just busy and it will still happen… but I wont be there =(
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{ 61 comments… read them below or add one }
I suppose making other arrangements was the sensible thing to do if they can’t make time to get back to you.
you should only attend big conferences to keep your name big
The thing is top users dont talk much about other top users.
if event is small he will get all attention and gals.
Do many ladies go to small free conferences?
why are you looking to pick up some hottie affiliates?
Hopefully their Unconference is still going to happen – the midwest can use a few good events like that. I’d actually love to see one in Omaha or KC sometime. KC is nice and central for folks flying in. And Omaha, well, that’s a short commute for Shoe!
You are right. The Midwest really could use some of these events. There are not a lot of them currently so would be nice to at least get one going. Too bad they weren’t acting as professionals though.
What about California? Seems like there are NO events here at all! Only SHoe can afford to fly all over the country…;-)
That’s sad to hear.
Good luck to the organizers of the conference anyways, it’s great for them to hold free conferences like this.
Man that sucks there’s not a TON of conferences in the Midwest that are low cost (let alone free). Sad to see this one fall by the wayside shoe…maybe next year.
chicago is known for throwing a lot of events in their space, but they don’t quite have the pull that the west coast does with blogging events anyway
It’s a shame they havent replied as im sure it would have been quite a plus for them to have you there shoe.
Are there any good confrences and event in th UK like that? I’d love to get out there a bit more and meet some people face to face.
Check this one out. A4u Expo London
That’s a shame, I hate it when things like that happen!
Yea its horrible when people don’t get back to you by email
Sorry to hear that.
I wonder what happened to them.
Well, if nobody bothered to answer your e-mails then I see no problem in making other plans.
Exactly what I’m saying, if I had Jeremy coming to an event I wouldn’t leave him hanging
I agree it would have a been a great addition to have him there
No kidding! It just seems so unprofessional. I don’t think anyone wanna be part of an event that is unprofessional especially Jeremy.
That is too bad find so many free tool intiernet to make money online and
no free conference to meet some others bloggers.
Any way good luck for “windy conference”…
Well, when things are free…
You did the right thing.
Free conferences just don’t make sense to me anyways. I could see little get-togethers like what John Chow does when he goes out to eat with other bloggers, but free conferences I can’t see.
Well, you get what you pay for.
I guess not answering Shoe’s emails is a bad business decision…
I agree with mrkbsm. Lets bring more events to the midwest
Then I could afford to go.
Ditto I live in NW Indiana so a conference in Chicago would be like a 45 minute drive for me. I would be all over it.
I hate it when people think it’s fine to just ignore e-mails
This is unpleasant, but it happens all the time.
too many events to close in between i think.
How good can a conference be if it can’t even remain organized enough to get A-listers in their industry, who have already showed interest and support, an answer on scheduling.
I guess they just killed that unconference. Probably alot of people that were going but aren’t know because of this.
And now that they’ve ruined their rep, they will probably never be able to get it started again.
Did you try to call the coordinator?
If it wasn’t dead already you announcing your not going will most likely kill it.
They need to stay on top of things.
If they can’t even bother to reply to your emails, why would you.
It is not a good.
Go another activity that will be the best solution i think.
sounds like they need to beef up their customer support… which is probably like, one guy.
I am confident they’ll be kicking themselves whenever they get to your emails. What promoter wouldn’t want you in his corner?
Disappointing that this event doesn’t appear to be happening. I had wrote it in on my calendar but after seeing this post, I went back to get the details (venue, etc.) and found out that they haven’t updated their website since the last time I was there… looks dead to me… oh well…
Of all the social media people I have met, you are by far the most stand up guy. I hate flakes as much as you do, but that is the price of being Mr. Reliable. Hopefully it works out for the event. Great things happen when like minded people get together.
Some of these smaller Un-Conferences should just start as MeetUps. Less pressure and more flexibility.
I totally agree with you Ben. “Conference” and “free” dont mix too well. “Meetup” and “free” mix very well.
Sometimes these events that are free have that as the problem. Perception is the key here. Ones that cost at least something say 10.00 at the door does some good. Plus, like most things a good idea will be a bad one if you don’t excecute. There have been many times that I have got a million dollar organization saying that they would put their name on it but not knowing what i was doing of really not know what it took to get it done it went no where. As a result, those that I broght it up with will most likely be more hesitant to partner up with me b/c i didn’t follow through
If they don’t reply to you that means they don’t care much about you. Why should you care? You are also a very busy man, I believe – busier than this free conference organizers.
You would think that they would have better communication skills for an organization planning to hold such an event.
Well that sucks! This was supposed to be somewhere thats like 3 blocks from my office…and it was free!
I’ll still probably swing by in the hopes that it is still going on. We’ll see though.
I would like to look at it. Unfortunately, I will be too far away.
too bad, that’s a big commitment from someone like you to go all that way and they didn’t even seize the opportunity.
Shoe, I was just looking at the AGENDA and It has ur name under sat. oct.18th at 2:30 PM …Wtf? haha
On the other hand, I’ll probably be there so come say hi to me every1 thats going
Ah well time is money, can’t waste your time waiting around for other people.
Yea especially a busy guy like Jeremy, they should have got back to him
Midwest conference!?! How did I miss this and why can’t they get it set up right. I can only hope that this will eventually happen as I would love to meet some of these guys as Chicago is in my backyard.
adam
That sucks that they haven’t got back to you, its the right thing you booked other plans, its their loss
Unfortunate that there was no response. Customer service is really going downhill.
How unprofessional, but I’m not surprised for some reason.
Note to self. Answer Jeremy’s e-mails.
Actually.. some irony..
http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/09/11/why-dont-you-respond-to-my-emails/
Hope they respond to you soon.
I hate it when people think it’s fine to just ignore e-mails
I even “sponsored” this event and never heard anything when I wrote emails. Never got a response when I asked for the $$ back either, fancy that.