Yelp Elite Events: What's the deal?

I spent last week in New York: visiting our team and office in Flatiron, meeting with partners and press, and attending the most recent Yelp Elite event there.  This particular event was a Mardi Gras themed affair with a few hundred yelpers at Bubble Lounge.  Friends and partners often ask me something to the effect of: "What is the deal with these Yelp Events?"  So I figured I should give that answer a shot here.

To start at the beginning: the Yelp Elite Squad is made up of the best and brightest yelpers.  You'll know an Elite yelper by the red or gold "Elite" badge on their profile.  You can read about some of the requirements for Elite-dom here, or see my Elite badge as an example of what this looks like in action.

Elite yelpers get invited to occasional events like the one I attended last week.  We started hosting these events back in 2005 to meet our fellow yelpers in San Francisco -- and we were pleasantly surprised to discover two things: (1) meeting in person tended to keep everyone more accountable and civil in their online communication than we were used to seeing in other online-only forums and (2) the events were fun because the well-written, local adventuring people who were attracted to Yelp made great company.  So we kept hosting events like this, started branching out from San Francisco, and we currently host Elite Squads in 24 metros.

Since the point is simply to meet one another and talk in person, an Elite Event can happen anywhere people want to go.  Past event venues have included places like museums, restaurants, parks, beer gardens, art galleries, bookstores and at least one aquarium.  Sometimes we provide food; oftentimes we'll provide drinks ranging from wine to slurpees.  Sometimes Yelp foots the bill directly for the venue, food or drink; oftentimes we look for sponsors to help defray those costs (e.g., Peroni Beer comped the beer I drank last week in New York).  The venues themselves typically provide the space, some staff and sometimes food or drink.  This arrangement is great for yelpers because we can visit a new place and meet each other affordably.  And it works well for the venues and sponsors because they get exposure to a group of local adventurers who, if they like what they see, may become future customers.

You might ask at this point: do yelpers write reviews based on just that one, usually free, experience?  And does that give venues an unfair advantage or disadvantage relative to other businesses?  Well, in early 2007 we hosted an event that was rather chaotic, and host venue Supperclub bore the brunt by receiving 21 rather critical reviews based on experiences of the party that were probably not representative of their business overall (Supperclub now has 648 total reviews).  Shortly thereafter (in 2007), we started listing events separately from the business so that yelpers could give us their feedback on the party... but without reviewing a host venue until they return for a separate, more typical, customer experience.  So for last week's Elite Event in Chicago, you can see these reviews for the event separately from these reviews for the venue.  About a month after each event, we then remove the event from search results so that consumers don't get confused when they go looking for the venue listing.

One of my fabulous teammates is hosting an Elite Event this evening at an art gallery in Orange County.  I unfortunately can't make it tonight, but I'm looking forward to getting out to another one soon.  It's always a pleasure to meet a kindred spirit who loves exploring his/her city and sharing those experiences as much as I do.