Man … if you had told me in the very beginning, that I would one day be announcing The 21 Convention 2011, I simply would not have known how to respond.

To think that something so raw, so out of the blue, would continue for five years straight – man that would be phenomenal in it’s own right.

But then to tag on that it would be The 21 Convention 2011 of London … WHAT!?

And obviously, it doesn’t end there, as T21C London will be our second convention in Europe.

Where do I even begin?

Suppose I’ll begin by saying that my original announcement date for London was after T21C 2010 of Orlando Florida, so as to not take away from any of the Orlando “thunder”.

However, the more I thought about it, the more silly that idea seemed. Orlando is rocking out no matter what.

At the same time, tickets have already ...]]>

Man … if you had told me in the very beginning, that I would one day be announcing The 21 Convention 2011, I simply would not have known how to respond.

To think that something so raw, so out of the blue, would continue for five years straight – man that would be phenomenal in it’s own right.

But then to tag on that it would be The 21 Convention 2011 of London … WHAT!?

And obviously, it doesn’t end there, as T21C London will be our second convention in Europe.

Where do I even begin?

Suppose I’ll begin by saying that my original announcement date for London was after T21C 2010 of Orlando Florida, so as to not take away from any of the Orlando “thunder”.

However, the more I thought about it, the more silly that idea seemed. Orlando is rocking out no matter what.

At the same time, tickets have already been selling for London*, and I can only hold the prices at mega early bird rates for so long.

*I announced London to Stockholm attendees a short while ago.

Why London?

Well, I’ve actually thought for some time now about The 21 Convention 2011 (Europe). I remember the thought first crossing my mind on my transatlantic flight to … well technically, and ironically, London, where I had a four hour lay over to Stockholm in early May.

The idea was exciting, but at the time, very little attention could be allotted to it. My eyes were on Stockholm and Stockholm alone (not counting the beautiful Swedish women, of course).

However, on my tour throughout Europe to promote the Stockholm convention, I began to give the idea some more thought by keeping it in the back of my mind, specifically, which city it should be held in.

Out of all the cities I traveled to while on my speaking tour, Amsterdam stuck out the most to me as a potential 2011 location.

For one, an amazing convention called the Real Man Conference had been held there a few years back, and bar none, it was the biggest event this “community” has ever seen.

What’s more, the locals I met while in Amsterdam, were really cool people, and very supportive of The 21 Convention, much like in Stockholm and elsewhere around Europe.

And perhaps above all, Amsterdam is a pretty unique city, that I’m sure a lot of people want to visit almost regardless of any event being held there.

+3 for Amsterdam

Yet, here I am announcing the convention in London – a city I spent less than 5 hours in on my way to Sweden for the 2010 convention.

What gives?

My nose.

Uhhhh…. what?

Yep, my nose.

Over the years I have done my best to use my brain – my logic, my reason – for hosting this convention. When times get tough, rather than bitch and moan, I think.

And that usually works, but not always.

Sometimes I simply have to go with my gut, or, “follow my nose”. This works best when times are especially tough. When people like to tell me to “back off”, “get realistic”, “slow down”, and more or less conform to the invisible rules of the world, set by no one, and observed by nearly everyone.

Well, sometimes these people are right, and I need to calm myself down. But other times, it’s time to say fuck the rules, and make my own as I go along – which perhaps, in part, is what this convention has been about since the very beginning.

This type of action results in all sorts of fun. For example, this spawned The 21 Convention 2007 when people were screaming for me not to host it.

To back off, and let someone “more qualified” do it.

Hmmm …

Making my own rules also led me over 4,000 miles across the Atlantic to host our first ever convention in Europe.

A lot of people told me not to go, to play it safe, etc …

Well, that turned out to be one of the most profound moves of my life, and seemingly this convention’s as well (if we can be so generous as to view it under an individualistic light).

Hmmm …

Point is, using my head has it’s advantages – when used appropiately and during the right span of time – but sometimes you just have to do things in the spite of overwhelming odds.

Fortunately, we have the best of both worlds when it comes to London.

For one, my gut says “London”. I don’t know how else to explain it. I simply SEE this convention happening in London next year – almost literally if I sit back and try to envision it.

Perhaps more importantly, if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture … there are so many potential speakers in the United Kingdom, and so many people I’ve spoken with over the years from there it’s astounding.

Fans of the convention, readers of my blog, family, friends … even e-mails from people coming from the far reaches of the internet, the list is endless.

London has another really important factor going for it as well … ready for it?

The city of London drives more traffic to this site than any other city on the planet. In fact, it drives more traffic than the next three cities combined.

It’s ridiculous. London is just this giant, fat dot on the Google Analytics map.

And so what? People in London watch the free videos. Big deal.

Well, here’s the interesting part – we’ve never hosted The 21 Convention in a city that has significant traffic to the web site. As such – and this is probably news to some – we’ve never had a significant local turn out for an event.

This is totally, 100%, grade A backwards from every other convention in history, that was in any way related to “the community”. The local turn out is always massive, and then you have some guys fly in from far off places.

Not so with The 21 Convention. In both Orlando and Stockholm, the bulk of people who attend fly in from all over the place. And by bulk I mean like 90%.

Well, I’d like to change that.

Why?

It’s my dream to bring this convention to it’s fullest potential, and I don’t believe it’s there yet. Part of that potential is bringing in hundreds if not thousands of people for the convention – be it in Florida, Europe, elsewhere, or everywhere.

In doing so, this frees up a lot of financial wiggle room for the event, while keeping the ticket prices lean and accurate for what you guys are willing to pay.

Financial wiggle room means more ability for cool projects like The Community Tapes, and more bonuses for attendees – like an inclusive dinner after the event.

Perhaps more importantly, lots of people, and more financial wiggle room, gets us in the ball park for some seriously bad ass speakers.

People tell me I’m nuts, but I think this is the event for guys like David Deida – author of The Way of the Superior Man.

People tell me I’m nuts, but I think this is the event for guys like Tim Ferris. (Not to mention he included me in the revised edition of The Four Hour Work Week – come on Tim, where’s the love?).

People tell me I’m nuts, but why should we stop there? Why? Why can’t Anthony Robbins speak at The 21 Convention?

Seems like a pretty successful dude to me, with great ideas to share, don’t you think?

So, people tell me I’m nuts, and I ignore them, while pressing on, sincerely believe these guys not only would speak under the right circumstances at the event, but belong there. THIS is the outlet for them to reach new audiences, and connect in new ways.

Just gotta get on their radar a bit more. Being able to cover their flight and hotel expenses helps for sure, which becomes a reality with higher attendance. Just gotta make it happen!

Details

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering about more specific details for the event. Well, here they are, as they currently stand.

Dates: June 1st-5^th 2011

June 1^st will be a meet and greet as we are doing here in Orlando this year. The main event will begin Thursday June 2^nd, and run until Sunday June 5^th – a full four days.

Location: London, England, United Kingdom (think I wrote that right)

A final conference room will be decided on this Fall after speaking with some locals and negotiating with various conference centers and hotels.

Potential speakers?

Yikes, this is going to be a long list.

• Anthony ‘Dream’ Johnson (that’s me)
• Dharam (2010 convention speaker, Pua Training Master Instructor)
• Jared ‘Ratisse’ (multi-year convention speaker)
• Dejan ‘Zebra’ (multi-year convention speaker)
• Vince Kelvin (2010 convention speaker, founder: Pua Summit)
• Richard ‘Gambler’ La Ruina (2010 speaker, founder: Pua Training)
• London Keychain (Love Systems)
• Jeremy Soul (Love Systems)
• Frederik “Satisfaction” (2010 speaker)
• Alex May
• Neil Natura
• Smooth Doc (2010 speaker, founder: Real Man Conference)
• Dj Fuji (multi year convention speaker)
• Andy Yosha (Pua Training Master Instructor, founder: DayGame.com)
• Tynan Smith (also known as ‘Herbal’ from The NY Times #1 Bestseller The Game)
• Dodger ‘Hshudo’ (multi year convention speaker)
• Steve “El Topo” Mayeda (multi year convention speaker)
• Orlando Owen (2010 convention speaker)
• Keiza Noble

And the list could go on, and on, and on … and these are only (well mostly) people that would speak about dating, relationships, sex, and so forth.

I will also be inviting people to speak on topics outside of the ones listed, opening up a whole new can of worms as it has here in Florida.

Anything else I should know?

Yep. I plan on doing a speaking tour around Europe once again to help get the word out about the convention. Most likely in late April/early May. If you would like me and potentially some other speakers to come to your city, please shoot me an e-mail at Dream@The21Convention.com with “London Tour” in the subject heading.

Beyond that, know that I now have the experience of four conventions under my belt – nearly five – and I am no longer a newbie to Europe.

This is the world’s #1 men’s convention, and I intend to put my money where my mouth is next June in London, the online heart beat of The 21 Convention.

Tickets are already on sale, and 2010 Stockholm attendees have already signed up. You can reserve your seat below, and join the Facebook event here.

The cost to attend The 21 Convention in London will be £ 500 if you do not sign up online beforehand.

If you sign up by July 18^th 2010 the cost is only £ 150, which is the most inexpensive a ticket will ever be for the event.

This may sound like semantics, but the door price to the event is the real and final price. Purchasing your ticket online saves you money. Buying in advance saves you even more, and at the same time, allows us to track attendance for the event, calculate budgets, etc.

It’s a win/win, and I hope more people take advantage of it this year rather than waiting till the last minute.

That’s all for now guys. See you next Spring, and see you in London.

-Anthony ‘Dream’ Johnson

As most of you have noticed by this point, I prefer to communicate and keep in touch – both personally and for The 21 Convention – through social media, and this website.

Blog, forum, Facebook, Twitter, in that order.

It wasn’t always like this however. We used to be solely focused on e-mail, before I realized that attaching my name to this convention was not only “okay”, but highly beneficial, in the sense of the transparency and authenticity it adds to the whole che bang.

That is my real Facebook account with real activity on it, created over 4 years ago. Paradoxically the convention takes up most of my time now a days, but never the less there it is, and all corresponding activity.

Anyway, social media is all well and good, but I have been keeping a tally of requests I get for an official “news letter” ...]]>

As most of you have noticed by this point, I prefer to communicate and keep in touch – both personally and for The 21 Convention – through social media, and this website.

Blog, forum, Facebook, Twitter, in that order.

It wasn’t always like this however. We used to be solely focused on e-mail, before I realized that attaching my name to this convention was not only “okay”, but highly beneficial, in the sense of the transparency and authenticity it adds to the whole che bang.

That is my real Facebook account with real activity on it, created over 4 years ago. Paradoxically the convention takes up most of my time now a days, but never the less there it is, and all corresponding activity.

Anyway, social media is all well and good, but I have been keeping a tally of requests I get for an official “news letter” or e-mail list from and for The 21 Convention ever since we abruptly stopped sending e-mails en mass – and it’s broken my personal threshold.

Actually, what really tipped the scales were the in person requests I got while I was on my speaking tour of Europe to promote T21C Europe. Stockholm, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Munich, and Vienna.

Read about it here on my blog and see pics here.

In Munich and Vienna for example, I got close to half a dozen – in each city.

This to me, was an omen. Time to start the news letter back up, and do it right this time. How are we going to do that?

1. Make it voluntary

No forced “opt ins” for our content. When I say “free”, I actually mean it, and mark my word, our event and documentary footage will never demand your e-mail address or any other contact or personal information. Free means free, not “fair”.

2. Structure the $hit out of it

Rather than send out randomly organized blocks of text, thoughts, and links, the T21C news letter will stick to a structure – ever evolving as it is.

Dodger and I need to work on this a bit more, but I’m currently thinking of including the following in each news letter, in the listed order.

• A. Important announcements
• B. Favorite article or video of the week (on site, from all time)
• C. Favorite article or video of the week (from T21C speakers, their sites, current)
• D. My answer to a reader’s question
• E. Dodger’s answer to a separate reader question
• F. Repeat of important announcements

Want your question answered on the very first news letter? E-mail your question to info@the21convention.com

3. Bring on Dodger for the news letter

My responsibilities and duties with The 21 Convention are constantly growing, expanding, and changing – rapidly. As such, I am going to bring Dodger aka “Hshudo” on board for the news letter. Long term there’s no telling what will happen, but potentially Dodger could one day run the news letter completely and I would only be there to answer a reader question each e-mail.

Why Dodger you ask?

Because he’s awesome, brings a lot of value to the table, and is a guy I trust (aka he’s responsible) to do something as important as this news letter – and do it right no less.

He may not be the only one of course, but for now it’s Dodger and I that will be doing this.

4. Create one main news letter, and two smaller announcement only lists.

For now there will only be one main news letter for The 21 Convention, however after The 21 Convention 2010 of Orlando Florida we will create two more, dedicated to announcements only. One for all things T21C in North America, and one for all things T21C in Europe. People on those lists will be contacted less frequently.

So if the main newsletter is a twice per month mail out, the geographically focused lists will be once per month, or even bi-monthly depending on the time of the year, what’s going on, etc.

…

And that’s it. You now know what’s in store for our news letter, and I encourage everyone and their grandma to hop on board for the main one starting TODAY. Your information is safe and secure with Aweber, and I promise never to spam your inbox with useless products or services, or even too many e-mails for that matter pimping our own awesome, relentless stream of free content.

We’re doing it right, and that means quality, not quantity.

Anthony Johnson is the founder and director of The 21 Convention, and author of The Dream Lounge where he blogs regularly about proper exercise and nutrition. He was 20 years old at the time of filming, and currently attends UCF for a degree in entrepreneurship, health sciences, and education. You can find the books mentioned in his speech on his blog here.

Post notes and view further discussion of this speech on the forum.

“Dream” is the founder of The 21 Convention, author of The Dream Lounge (popular blog), as well as The Dream Way. Dream also formerly instructed one on one weekend workshops via Under 21 Lifestyle and Dream and his Angels. He currently lives in Orlando Florida and attends UCF.

Post notes and view further discussion of this speech on the forum.