TBEX ’13 : What worked and didn’t work? #TBEX

It’s official … TBEX ’13 is finally at a close. I’m glad that I was in Toronto for the last couple days and not at a client’s site in some other city, since I would have missed out on an incredible learning and networking opportunity. After getting home last night and thinking through all my notes and looking at feedback received on my previous post : 7 lessons learned from tbex 13 – I thought I would close the loop and list out what I thought worked and didn’t work at TBEX ’13 in Toronto. By figuring out what worked, I’ll list out my pros and cons of attending a future TBEX like the one in Dublin.

What didn’t work well

• Travel Blogger Speed dating:
  I found this to be an exercise in futility. After some conversations with other bloggers, the consensus was one of a “Your mileage may vary” perspective. The effectiveness of this exercise had nothing to do with your preparation or how great your pitch was, but rather timing, what you looked like and other extraneous factors.
  • I spoke to 10 different tables and the worst of the bunch were two luxury tables : Four Seasons and Langham Hospitality/Eaton Hotels. They seemed completely unclear as to why they were actually there or what their mission was. If I could articulate what I was about, my demographic/focus and some personality in 8 minutes, why couldn’t they replicate this.
  • Public relations people aren’t all the same. Many are very engaging but I found that many of them, just weren’t professional or could convey their brands.
  • I heard a story about the PR reps from Maui … making statements like “You’ve made the first cut!” … like WTF? It’s goddamn Maui … it’s an island and you’re a PR rep selling your brand, but you’re not exclusive, else you wouldn’t care to sell your brand. So the reps from Maui can go F$$% themselves.
• Evening Event Networking
  I’m very social and once I know one or two people, I can go out and expand that network. I saw many people who were out of place and trying to make contact. It would have helped to have a 30 minute ice breaker at the evening networking socials. Sponsoring a party with 100’s of people from out of town will ensure some cliques or people who know each other, but there will be a lot of people like me, who didn’t know anyone. If you didn’t attend the Wednesday or Thursday evening social events, then it would have been exponentially tougher to meet people.

What did work well

• Great PR People makes a win for everyone:
  When you have PR people who are articulate and passionate, it’s a win for everyone. For instance I met up with Guy and Natalie from Parks Canada – meeting them and learning what they do to support travel bloggers, completely made coming to TBEX worth it. When I layer in the contact with Janine from Central Newfoundland Adventure and Pam from Visit Nova Scotia, I was very glad I made time to visit and chat with them.
• Informative Sessions
  There were many very good speakers and lectures. The vast majority of speakers were succinct and articulate in their presentations. The feedback was great on many of them, and the keynote speeches were quite inspiring for many in the crowd.
• Event Organization
  The entire series of events and programs were very well run. Everything seemed to be flowing well and I didn’t hear of any major mishaps or “fails”. The Toronto Convention center is a vast venue, but the location was central and allowed attendees with easy access to side events and/or their hotels.
• ROI Value for your time and ticket price
  I bought a “Super Early Bird” ticket ($55 USD) from another travel blogger. My ROI on that ticket included
  • Discovery Canada pass from Parks Canada (136$CDN value … which made the financial price of my ticket worth it right there)
  • At least 4 tourism board supported trips to Atlantic Canada this year. I didn’t get to meet the New Brunswick rep, but I’m going to find the media contact for sure.
  • Discount on my Antarctica adventure later this year
  • Conclusion : Completely worth the attendance fee and the time.

What I’m going to do immediately

• Learn THE Twitter
  When you work in corporate, you try to minimize anything that creates a stream of consciousness communication. Your digital reputation is as important to your career as your resume. I’ve avoided twitter for years, because I didn’t truly see the value. That changed this weekend – I think it will be my primary vehicle to correspond with the travel community. It’s immediate and is an easy dispersal communications vehicle.
• Continue to optimize my old posts
  SEO is a big thing. It’s a buzz word, but ensuring that your content can be found, is just as important as writing quality content.
• Continue pushing my Facebook page
  https://www.facebook.com/AhTriniTravelogue. I’ve gotten tremendous engagement from my facebook presence, now I have to tie twitter into this.
• Create an “Advertise with me” page
  Although I’ve resisted overt banners and advertising for years, if I want to work with companies and create those experience, they at least have to know that I’m open to being pitched and reviewing their products. I know … DUH!!!!