11A self-described event organizer, musician, public speaker and “social media expert,” Bliss grew up in Rockford, Mich., but has lived many of the greater Grand Rapids areas.

The Lanthorn sat down with Bliss, from Rockford, Mich., to talk about how it all got started, what it’s like to be here and where he’d like to end up.

Lanthorn: What were you like in high school?

Bliss: I would say I was somewhat social, still kind of a quiet kid a little bit though. I was definitely no big leader or anything like that. It was just sort of a role I had to take upon myself because it was required to do what I needed to do.

Lanthorn: Sort of like Harry Potter?

Bliss: Yes…you could think that analogy. I was probably a little bit quieter than most people think I am. A lot of people think I’m some crazy, extremely eccentric kid. I’m really not at all. I’m pretty introverted if you actually meet me, but pretty transparent, I guess. I was relatively quiet, creative; I wasn’t the best in school at all. I was pretty unmotivitated – the opposite of what I am now – apathetic, uncaring…teenager-ish.

Lanthorn: Where did the whole social experiments thing start?

Bliss: The real start of that, before I even went public with anything, was an extremely nerdy beginning; that’s funny to even talk about. There was a game in West Michigan and at Western (Michigan University) that I heard about where they re-enact zombie outbreak with nerf guns over a whole week and 10 thousand plus kids play and I was like, “That’s sweet, I’m in high school, I wanna do that.”

So I tried to find a way to bring that and do that here in Grand Rapids so I got started with that, trying to recreate that in a public park. It was seriously just me and like 17 other dudes, but that grew over time to be like 120 people. Once it got bigger and bigger and I was living downtown I thought, “Wow this is really crazy” and could I do anything public with it, you know, downtown. Then I got into flash mob type stuff, I would say. And all of that was run through Facebook. I didn’t want to just do that because that can get so old so quick and in my opinion it’s just not that cool anymore.

Lanthorn: Was there a moment where you decided to make it less of a hobby and more of a venture?

Bliss: The name change from Rob Bliss Urban Experiments to just Rob Bliss Events was one that I very quickly disliked … I’m very boring with my names; I like to be really direct with what I call things, and that’s kind of ambiguous. All of my events are like pillow fight, zombie walk, water slide – because that’s what it is. And to title something really ambiguously is not something I was interested in doing.

It all just got more serious and I guess that’s because I’m not that kind of person who thinks it’s okay to just do something and do it a million times over and not really get outside of your comfort zone so I was trying to build in size, scale, budget, attendance, etc. to what I had previously done. That all required me to get more serious about things and to start a non-profit around what I was doing. If I didn’t take myself seriously then other people were not going to be able to and I wouldn’t have been able to do some of the cooler things that I’ve now been able to do that I’m pretty proud of.

Lanthorn: What were your initial hopes for Rob Bliss Events and how have they measured up?

Bliss: Honestly, they were not serious goals at all at the start. I didn’t even take it that seriously, I was just like, “Yeah, this is kind of cool and fun, I guess I’ll run with this.” … I feel like I’ve achieved a lot of the goals I had with the events, proved what I wanted to prove and done a lot of things I wanted to do. Just like starting out with the pillow fighting and trying to do something bigger, I’m always having dreams of moving up and achieving more than I am now. There’s a little bit of a glass ceiling now with the things that I wanted to do and I can’t see getting a million dollar budget unless I wanted to dedicate my life to this, and I don’t. I don’t think I’ll be here doing this in five years for sure, but for now I’m having a lot of fun … and having fun with other people is really what it’s all about. While I may not be able to always do these events I’m starting to plan and set them up so that they can sort of be passed along to other people so even if I leave they can still be around.

Lanthorn: So where would you like to be in 10 years?

Bliss: Honestly, I can’t even predict where I’ll be in two years, so it’s kind of hard to say that. But it would be fantastic to make a living playing music. That would be enough. If I could have what I have now, based off of simply playing music, I would be as content as can be…I do think I’ll probably be very ready to be performing a bunch and showing off a lot of work, I would estimate, by December or January.

Lanthorn: So you work at Wood TV8, correct? What exactly do you do there?

Bliss: Well my title is “Multi-platform Account Executive” but I’m confused as to what the heck that means. Probably my biggest claim to fame is running a lot of the social media stuff… I wear a lot of different hats. I like to say that I work in the news department but my desk is technically located in the Internet department and I was hired for sales.

Lanthorn: Are you doing something for ArtPrize?

Bliss: I am not. There’s a bunch of different reasons for that… While I loved the event that I was able to do last year, my event’s aren’t something that’s meant to compete. It’s not like it’s better than or worse than someone else’s piece that someone put a lot of time into, it doesn’t deserve to win when someone else loses. The “brand” I guess, isn’t a competitive thing. I’m not trying to beat anyone and it is a non-profit, so from a legal standpoint that would probably make things difficult. There were some things I was considering for Art Prize but I just do not have the time and money… I’m still very supportive of Art Prize; it’ll be fantastic and I’m very excited.

Lanthorn: Not that you aren’t normal, but have you ever wanted to stop and just do nothing – be a normal college kid?

Bliss: Never. Never, ever, ever. It’s very restricting to be in college. While I defiantly think everyone should go to college, for me at least, I couldn’t go to college. It’s a schedule and I couldn’t do that because with what I was doing I needed to be very flexible with the events and if there was something – like a speaking engagement I was fortunate enough to be a part of – I would have never been able to do that because I would have gotten so behind on my school work. For me, at least and the route that I am taking with life, I know what’s going to get me a job and it’s not going to be college. I did go through a few years of schooling and learned a heck of a lot, but I achieved what I wanted to with those years – it was never about getting a degree or anything because for me at least a degree would not come close to getting me a job working on events while other stuff was going to. So I definitely don’t regret it. Things are just fantastic right now; I am seriously just having the time of my life.

Lanthorn: Anything else you want the students of GVSU to know?

Bliss: No, the only thing I’d like to stress is that I don’t consider myself to be special: I’m not rich, I don’t know anyone who is rich, I don’t have any connections to powerful people and I don’t have some amazing background or story. I’m simply just a kid who had some ideas of some things he thought could be cool and tried for them. I’m not a business man. I do some things very poorly, and I’m very bad at some of the stuff I do, yet somehow it happens and people like it. I think other people could do what I’m doing; they just don’t think they can. They could do really cool things with their life as well, but they just have to have the confidence to do so.

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