As of today, 225 people have registered for the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference. We are well ahead of where we were in previous years and on our way to reaching our limit of 300 participants. Last year we limited the conference to 280 participants.
One interesting aspect of this year is we are receiving more registrations from bloggers and fewer from non-bloggers than we did in previous years. 79% of current registrants are bloggers – 81% if you ignore the five spots we have reserved for conference organizers and volunteers. This means, for those of you attending, eight out of ten people you meet will be a fellow blogger.
This compares to last year when 71% of attendees were actually blogging. The rest were organizers, sponsors, media, and wine industry members.
I am confident the difference this year is the conference is in Walla Walla and there are just fewer industry types living in that area than there are in Sonoma and Napa.
Now, I want to be clear that we invite everyone to attend the Wine Bloggers Conference. We don’t “screen” registrations at all. Our sponsors are super important, those industry members who sign up are very interested in wine blogging, and the conference wouldn’t run without our volunteers and our staff. We like the mix.
Having said that, it is quite fun to know that when you are on a bus of 20 people headed to a Walla Walla winery, 15 of your fellow riders are likely blogging about wine or the wine industry, just like you.