Tips in accepting event invites for bloggers

New media and blogging is already big in this generation, and it's like encountering SMS for the first time and people are starting to hop on and join the fun, especially as being a blogger. I have discussed lots of issues and problems that we are facing since the other day, and this is my 3rd day discussing with different people with their reporst about freeloaders, doble karas, wannabes, gatecrashers that consider themselves as a bloggers (and yes they are bloggers) and because of their notorious attitudes and behavior, they just stained the image of us bloggers with mud.And now some entity and PR agencies are now avoiding us and filtering us because of their bad experience with these kind of people, and the bad part is... they are the same people.(hay naku)

But this blog post is not about those people, but this is a tip on how to handle and accept event invites. Just remember that being a blogger is not about events and freebies only. I'm an active blogger since 2002 and I specialize blogging and organizing events since 1999, that's why I'm very active and didn't expected that my blog will turn into a events and pop culture blog. This tip is not an officially way to deal with it, but it comes from my past experience and I know it is effective and helpful. Also a way to protect yourself from danger.

I'm doing this because a receive a phone call and an event invite for a fund raising event, and these people don't want to send the invite and details via email or txt, they want to send the invitation personally to my home and meet me. And they are asking an amount of P5,000 for the ticket as it will be for the benefit of WCC, which I googled and found that the fund raising event doesnt exist. And the the phone caller act as a cop and they represent for the event and they thought that I'm a political blogger, because they keep on mentioning that the event is not a political bloggers event. "Kelan ba naging PR ng event ang isang pulis?", I don't trust them so I told them I'm not available, but then they will call again tomorrow. I emailed my friends and got confirmation that this is a modus operandi in getting money from you, plus. if they will visit you at home, consider it as a prelude act for hold up, kidnapping or even murder. Let's be careful.

Receiving invites for the first time
1. Pls. always make sure that the company sends a formal invite via email
2. Always read the details of the event, and look for the company's office address and phone number
3. You can also call their office to confirm the event if it is legit. It will be better to contact the office first and then the contact person
4. If there's no office number or address, try to request it to the contact person to send it to you.
5. If the event is to be held in a hotel or other venues, you can contact the venue provider to check if there's an event booked there on a date specified in the invitations
6. If you received an event invite via SMS or txt messages, try to request a full details of the invite and event to send it directly to your email.
7. In the formal letter, I usually read - the event info, contact person, their office number and address, venue address, the date and time, attire and check if that event is fit for a coverage in my blog
8. If the event seems okay and legit, reply to their email and make a RSVP response.

Some other tips and warnings
1. Invitation should not be sent via txt (its okay if the sender is your friend and a legit company you know)
2. Invites should not be delivered to your home personally by an unknown person
3. If the event is fund raising campaign, try to look for the name of the foundation or organization that will handle the cash donation or event fee. Contact also the office of that foundation if there's such an event that exist that uses their office name.





( i will update this post later and add more tips. if you have other tips that you like to share, feel free to post in the comments board below, thanks and stay safe!)