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Expos. They always sound so interesting, but who can really afford one? Carsonified has a bunch of expos, and even they think they’re not affordable (certainly not early entrepreneur-affordable). To help us out though, they’ve put together a great marketing campaign, the participants of which will be entered to win a flight / all access pass combo to their 2009 expo series. You have to write a post (this one) that links to their site (like this post does) and drum up 25 comments (so please leave one) by October 1st.

I’ve been working on blog marketing a bit these days and think Carsonified has nailed it. I’m happy to write this post (and would love to attend their events) so I’ll do them one better. I’ll link to their Carsonified Golden Ticket campaign and to their next Future of Web Apps Expo event in London from October 8-10.

For a little fun with the rest of the post, I’ve put together my Willy Wonka-inspired reasons for wanting to see events like the ones at the Future of Web Apps Expo event in London from October 8-10

Willy Wonka: It happens every time, they all become blueberries.

Enter Venture is all about early entrepreneurs. I want to help Enter Venture readers avoid becoming blueberries by listening to what Edwin Aoki of AOL has to say in his “Web apps are dead, long live web apps…” talk.

Willy Wonka: It’s Wonkavision.
Grandpa Joe: It could change the world.

Is this Internet TV thing going to happen or what? I need Ron Richards to tell me how the industry is “Bringing Internet Television to the Masses”.

Willy Wonka: The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozzberries taste like snozzberries.
Veruca Salt: Snozzberries? Who ever heard of a snozzberry?

How am I going to scale internationally? I don’t know the language. Blaine Cook and Joe Stump can help me avoid pitfalls with “Languages don’t scale”.

Willy Wonka: [singsong] There’s no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going / There’s no knowing where we’re rowing / Or which way the river’s flowing / Is it raining? / Is it snowing? / Is a hurricane a-blowing? /

Those iPhone Enter Venture posts have been doing well for me. I want to keep up and know “How the future of the mobile web is going to change everything” from Stefan Fountain of Soocial.

Willy Wonka: Oh, well then you know all about it and what a terrible country it is. Nothing but desolate wastes and fierce beasts. And the poor little Oompa Loompas were so small and helpless, they would get gobbled up right and left. A Wangdoodle would eat ten of them for breakfast and think nothing of it. And so, I said, “Come and live with me in peace and safety, away from all the Wangdoodles and Hornswogglers and Snozzwangers and rotten Vermicious Knids.”

I know I have to take care of my community, even if I think they’re a little short, orange-faced, and wear strange green clothing. Kathy Sierra can tell me “How to grow and nurture my community”.

Willy Wonka: So who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the Oompa Loopa’s for me, not a grown up. A grown up would want to everything his own way, not mine. That’s why I decided a long time ago that I had to find a child, a very honest, loving child, to whom I could tell all my most precious candy making secrets.
Charlie Bucket: And that’s why you sent out the golden tickets.
Willy Wonka: That’s right. So the factory is all yours, Charlie. You can move in immediately…

Children are in charge in both Willy Wonka’s factory and the web industry these days. Mark Zuckerberg’s Fireside chat should set that straight.

Posted in Marketing, Shameless