Ruslan Defends High-Priced Children Tickets, $75 ‘Meet & Greet’ at Upcoming ‘Bless God’ Conference
Christian YouTube creator Ruslan has responded to criticism of charging $75 for a meet and greet with him and other speakers at his upcoming conference and high price tickets for children, pointing out he’s losing money on the event and that the higher prices for premium tickets help subsidizes lower ones and provides for free scholarships.
Ruslan is hosting the ‘Bless God Summit’ conference in Carsbad, CA later this month, where speakers such as Ruslan KD., Dr. Sean McDowell, Lila Rose, Trizzle Fitness, Jeff & Erin Moors, Allen & Jen Parr, Whaddo You Meme??, and Preston Perry will discuss “how to live a better story, and build a better Christian culture. From health and wellness to how proper belief can lead to industrious living, we will inspire you to live a life that Blesses God.”
Naturally, this costs money:
In particular, some folks are irked because his price scheme involves charging children nearly the same price as an adult ticket, and because there is a $75 meet & greet add-on.
We’ve clashed with Ruslan in the pass giving passes to Modalists like Marcus Rogers, mocking John MacArthur, doubling down on dissing us over a John MacArthur/Julie Roys article, praised some pornographic TV shows, and joined up with Joel Osteen and several NAR false prophets for a scammy ‘Prosperity & Wealth” seminar whose sole purpose seems to inject you with bad theology while pressuring you to pay them money. Oh, and after he appeared on The Lead Attorney’s YouTube stream where he claimed he hasn’t lied in 8 years.
The Revealing Truth channel has been highly critical of Rusland and this event in his episodes “Ruslan is all about the money,” Ruslan Wants F.U. MONEY, and Ruslans Greed And Arrogance Is Worse Than Imagined, where he emphatically insists, among other things, “no Christian for any reason should be charging money to meet them.”
In his video responding to the critics, Ruslan noted that they had a rough experience hosting a smaller event years ago that resulted in his guests having a less-than-great time, at least in some regards. As a result, he wanted to have an event that was “a little more polished.”
He reveals that conferences are frequently expensive to host, much more than most people think, and they’re well over six figures for this one.
He also reveals that they expect to lose between $20,000-30,000 at the end of the day, but he still wanted to put it one for the value he believes it will bring.
We did our very best to offer almost everyone who applied for a free ticket, a free ticket. Now what does that mean? That means all those people who are going to be there, in the space, need to be there. We want them there. We want young adults there. We want people there with young families that can’t afford a $300 conference ticket. That’s what we want.
Yet that has to be offset with the expenses. Those folks are going to be offset by the people who are willing to pay a premium to offset some of those expenses, so that’s what the VIP is for. They got a special lounge, they got some other stuff. and so most of these events run and are profitable because of the premium prices.
As for the $75 Meet & Greet, Ruslan says that those who purchase this add-on similarly offset the costs of scholarships, and that the fee includes access to a nice lounge and lunch, as well as access to other speakers.
Anyone that’s ever ever been at anything I’ve spoken to will tell you, for decades, I’ve been the guy that stood out and met every single person, shook every single hand, took every single picture.
But in an event where I’m speaking multiple times a day and I’m entertaining people who are here within the speakers and making sure they’re accommodated and I’m overseeing the entire event, I can’t also be accessible the entire day for everyone. That just impossible for me to do that.
So we said ‘hey folks who want a time to come hang out and to get a picture, talk with me and some of the other speakers they can do that. No one’s forcing you to go to this event, no one’s forcing you to upgrade to a VIP, no one’s forcing you to get a $75 meet and greet ticket.”
Regarding the children’s tickets, he offers that in the same way children have to pay for airplane tickets and meals at restaurants, so too is there a cost to attend the event and unique expenses accrued to have a smooth experience.
“We actually have a separate family lounge for families that’s going to have their own snacks, their own live stream, their own area where they can hang out, and if they have kids they can be in there with their own space.
That requires us to put someone there to make sure that everything is running, that the live stream is working, that there’s food, that all those expenses are being covered. All of that costs money. I wish we could do a free event but that’s not how anything works.”
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I will never understand why people are drawn to these type of “Christian” celebrities. Mega church culture and big eva has done so much damage to the Christian world.