Grand Rapids-based Rob Bliss, 21, has a pretty impressive resume. He hosted a giant pillow fight in September 2008 and 3,000 people showed up.
A month later, he broke the world record when he hosted about 4,000 people in a zombie walk that started at Rosa Parks Circle.
Then he gave life to a Sidewalk Chalk Flood in April 2009, inviting residents to let their creativity run wild, turning downtown into a work of art (He considers this event his favorite.) That same year, with 2,000 people and 40,000 water balloons, downtown Grand Rapids was turned into an Independence Day water balloon fight.
In September 2009, he dropped 100,000 paper airplanes in his city on Monroe Mall — his submission to Art Prize — which is part arts competition, part social experiment.
And then came the 500-foot water slide.
This time, he caught the attention of The New York Times, constructing a waterslide anchored to the asphalt between Ransom and Division avenues in downtown Grand Rapids. About 30,000 people made the trek to visit this fete of engineering and 10,000 were actually able to go down the slide.
So what’s his inspiration for these events?
“I’m just trying to show off that downtown Grand Rapids can be a really cool place, that it can wear many different hats, serve many different roles,” Bliss said, adding that it’s a great way to support downtown businesses.
He also makes it a point to involve the city in all of his events — run through the nonprofit organization Rob Bliss Events — so instead of surprising them by having thousands of people descend on a certain location, he invites them to be a part of it.
“He has vision, creativity and he has lots of tenacity,” Sharon Evoy, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, told The Grand Rapids Press. “We love the element of spontaneity of Rob’s events. They’re a little bit quirky.”
This latest event, he said, involved more than 500 man-hours and a massive fundraising effort — about $50,000 — to make the waterslide happen.
“I wasn’t really sure if I would ever have the money for it,” Bliss said.
Speaking of money, surely such a large undertaking involves a massive advertising campaign to get the word out.
“I’ve never spent a dollar on advertising,” he said. Instead, he relies solely on his Facebook page, which he says makes things really easy for him, and the reputation he’s built with previous events.
“It’s good because it allows people to find out about new ideas without it having to come from a big corporation, a big media company,” Bliss said. “It’s the transfer of ideas instead of agendas.”
Right now, Bliss is working with WOOD-TV8 to elevate its social media presence. The station is currently “liked” by 35,000 people on Facebook and followed by 4,700 people on Twitter.
And after such success, you might think Bliss has a bit of an ego. But within five minutes of talking to him, you realize that’s not the case.
“I don’t consider myself to be super special or unique or amazing,” he said. “I don’t have fantastic connections — I’m just a 21-year-old guy.”
In fact, he says, if people take anything away from his events besides just a good time, he hopes they realize that there’s nothing he’s done that they can’t do themselves.
“I strongly encourage others to hopefully do similar things and pick up the ball. It’s totally doable and people love fresh ideas,” Bliss said.
“I encourage people to run their own events and do their own thing and believe in themselves.”
Post by Erica Finley, senior journalist at The Urbane Way and @Erica_Urbane on Twitter. At The Urbane Way, we specialize in social media marketing and PR and lifestyle branding. How can we help you?
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