Update 6/2/2011: A few weeks after writing this post here on my personal travel blog, I accepted a position as the host of the Canada travel guide at WhyGo.Com, part of the BootsnAll Travel Network. It was a chance TBEX encounter with Sean Keener, the Big Boots at BootsnAll, that led to the position. The next TBEX conference will be held in Vancouver, BC, June 10-12, 2011.
I’ve just returned from the Travel Blog Exchange conference–aka TBEX10–in New York.
If you are a travel blogger, or a travel writer whose traditional media markets are rapidly drying up, or a travel industry PR person looking to keep your career currency high, then you were there too.
Or you should have been.
Depending on how active you are on Twitter, you couldn’t really miss the buzz about TBEX10. (Search #tbex to see what I mean.) You put 300-plus travel enthusiasts in a Manhattan theatre for a weekend and there’s going to be some chatter.
The dynamic sometimes reminded me of a high school dance: you had the the popular kids, the wallflowers, the class clowns and the stoners. (Do they still call them stoners?) Everyone quickly found a gang to hang with. Or drink with.
Whatever.
TBEX is still in its teething stages. Conceived by Chicago-based powerhouse Kim Mance and raised thus far by a savvy grassroots team, it promises to become a formidable player on the professional development circuit in the next couple of years.
It was sort of charming that this social media conference didn’t offer wifi, let alone coffee. Fortunately the next conference will be held in Vancouver, BC with some organizational assistance from the Canadian Tourism Commission and Tourism BC–two groups that have years of experience hosting large events for travel media.
My feeling about these sorts of conferences is that if you walk away with even one nugget that you can immediately apply to your work, it’s been a good investment of time and money. I’m pretty sure everyone walked away with a whole bag of nuggets.
Here are my 10 top favourites:
1. Your blog is your storefront.
- Sheila Scarborough made the point that “your blog is your storefront for whatever it is you really do to earn money.” It reflects your personality and your professionalism. Cast a critical eye on your wares and how they are displayed to make sure they are attractive to potential customers.
2. Don’t go all emo.
- In a discussion regarding how to use analytics to help increase traffic, Andy Hayes urged bloggers to “take the emotion out of the formula and keep trying.” As you begin the arduous task of building volume, don’t give in to the feeling that no one loves you, everybody hates you and you should go sit in the garden and eat worms. Make like the tortoise and keep steadily tweaking what you’re doing based on the evidence gleaned from your analytics.
3. “Co-opertition” works.
- Bootsnall’s Sean Keener was credited with this phrase during one of the panel sessions. The idea is that the web is a big place and there’s room for people who could be seen as competitors to actually cooperate to build traffic to both of their sites. You need high-value–that is, authoritative and relevant–incoming links to build your Google rank. And sometimes you just need to ask respected peers for them.
4. Ethics equals credibility.
- Spud Hilton said it. I always knew it. But it was good to hear it again–especially considering how fussy the FTC is getting about disclosure. (For the record, here’s my disclosure statement.)
5. Find your focus.
- Various PR reps claimed to be more interested in a blogger’s “sphere of influence” than their traffic volume. So you want to dig an online niche for yourself and you want to dig it deep across the social media spectrum: Twitter; Facebook; YouTube et al.
6. Stop, absorb & observe.
- Don George, the eminence grise of travel writing in North America, reminded everyone that people want to read stories–not itineraries. And the “telling detail” is the key to any good story–but you have to slow down long enough to really observe what’s going on around you. (On the way home I stopped at Union Square and sat on a park bench for a while. At dusk, I saw little children chasing fireflies. I have always wondered about what it would be like to raise a child in Manhattan and in that moment I found something of an answer.)
7. Live in a thank-you economy.
- Annemarie Dooling used this phrase to reinforce the message that the currency of the blogging world is collaboration and cooperation and (especially) giving credit where it is due. (I still see a lot of resistance to this notion amongst my old-school media colleagues who still value “the scoop.”)
8. Practice the slow sell.
- Annemarie Dooling made this point as did Tourism BC’s Janice Greenwood-Fraser during a panel discussion about working with PR people. If you’re just starting out, don’t expect to be hosted by a destination just because you’re keen and earnest. As ever, it all comes down to relationships. It takes time–and demonstrated results–to build trust. Once you’ve earned it, you’ll be able to close future deals more quickly.
9. Be an accessible expert.
- Jessica Spiegel observed that travel blogs are the modern-day Baedeker offering accessible expertise to would-be travelers. It reminded me that almost half the traffic to my Canada travel blog comes from Google searches–people looking for information about travel to Canada. I am in service to a real reader, with real needs–and that realization will help shape my future content.
10. Play the long game.
- Way back before some of the people attending TBEX10 were even born, Canada’s Evelyn Hanon created Journeywoman to help women travel more confidently. Evelyn is a 70-year-old granny now, and her popular web site is, by her own admission, completely outdated (and some might even say ugly). But still the clicks come. She got a laugh with her explanation of why she won’t bother to do any cosmetic enhancements to her site: “It’s like visiting grandma’s house. At your grandmother’s house you know exactly where everything is!” But the truth is, Journeywoman ably proves the old adage that “content is king”–and just about every other point on this Top 10 list too. Evelyn is a pro who knows when to self-promote and when to advocate for others; how to ask for the support she needs and then return the favour; and when simply to trust that things will work out. In a room crowded with hipsters, it was nice to take a lesson from the grey-hair.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts about TBEX10 below and hope to see you at TBEX 11 in Vancouver–my beautiful hometown!
Mariellen Ward
on June 30th, 2010Great post, Julie. You zeroed in on some of my favourite moments ( I wrote about Evelyn on my blog, too).
I loved it when Pam (Nerdseyeview) said “quality is success.” And Alison Stein Wellner saying, “Take your experiences seriously, but not personally.”
Also liked Sheila’s quote, “Write for humans. Don’t write crap for computers.”
Yeah, there were some good moments. I’m so glad I went. I came home with lots of food for thought and new ideas, and some clarity about what I want to concentrate on.
Would definitely liked to have had much more “quality” networking time — not in a bar. I am dreaming of themed , moderated break-out groups of smaller numbers of people. Maybe next year?
Looking forward to TBEX 11 (or TBEX eh, which is what I am affectionately calling it.)
MArieleln
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on June 30th, 2010Oooh Mariellen, I love the themed breakout session idea. And I think we should make TBEXeh stick!
Darren
on June 30th, 2010Great post Julie
Anna
on July 1st, 2010I was greeted with this by my google alert this morning. Thanks for mentioning me twice- both concepts are borrowed from Gary Vaynerchuk, who I believe to be a human (as opposed to cold and robotic) marketing machine. You might enjoy his book, Crush It.
Very honest post and yes, tbexeh sounds about right.
A
Kara Williams
on July 1st, 2010Such a pleasure to meet you at TBEX, Julie! A great round-up. See you in Vancouver, if not sooner!
pam
on July 1st, 2010Possibly my favorite list of TBEX takeaways so far. And I’ll confess here that I swooned over Don George’s five senses approach. I spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to be inside his head, or what it would be like if we could sit in the park with Don George, quietly — and then, follow that up by doing a writing workshop with him to see what we observed, what we missed…
But never mind, never mind. Julie, you’re my up the road neighbor, and while I regret there was no time for us to have that missing coffee together, I hope we’ll get to sit down together in your fair city and do exactly that. I mean, with the actual coffee.
Audrey
on July 1st, 2010Nice round-up and summary of many of my takeaways from the weekend. I also liked Shiela’s point with the storefront that it’s not just about making things look pretty, but to make it easy to “buy” – make it easy for the reader/company to find out how they can work with you.
I second the notion with breakout groups as it would be great to talk with people in smaller groups and not when you’re screaming over the ambient noise of a bar. Also, not all bloggers have the same interests so those in a similar theme could learn from each other.
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on July 1st, 2010Pam, I will vote early and often for your Don George breakout writing session idea! Thanks for the high praise–you were one of the first travel bloggers to inspire me and it really is because of your enthusiasms for things such as TBEX and Passports with Purpose that I put down the money (and, yikes, it was a lot of money what with hotel and airfare) to make the schlep to New York. I’ve been writing travel for 20+ years now and now I’m just trying to figure out a new way of communicating so I am definitely in this for the long game and I think we’ll definitely find a way for that “missing coffee”! I live in Coal Harbour now (right downtown) so let me know the next time you’re coming through!
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on July 1st, 2010You too Kara! Would have enjoyed more time to chat, but really appreciated the chance to connect…look forward to a proper visit next year if not sooner…
soultravelers3
on July 1st, 2010This is one of the most honest and useful summaries about TBEX that I’ve read. Thanks so much, Julie!
We’re traveling in Europe, so not able to attend, but as one of the first members to join TBEX, it’s been fascinating to watch it grow along with the massive increase of travel bloggers in this “new economy”.
I’d love to see more interactive global teleseminar type events to make it more accessible to all the travel bloggers who can’t make it there in person.
Amy @ The Q Family
on July 2nd, 2010What a great recap and I have to agree with you in most points!!
I wish we could have met in person. I believed I sat behind you during the community keynotes session.
Well, for what it’s worth I found your blog now and I hopefully will see you in Vancouver. 
Sheila Scarborough
on July 2nd, 2010Thanks so much for this summary; it really hits the TBEX highlights and your observations were much the same as mine. I really liked the 5 senses idea, too….
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on July 2nd, 2010Thanks Amy. That was one of my regrets too–there was very little quiet downtime for quality networking (being epileptic I don’t drink much, so that severely limited my networking opportunities
) But I do hope you will come to Vancouver and we’ll meet then–and I will be posting here about recommended budget hotels, etc. as TBEX11 gets closer so maybe sign up for the RSS feed if you’re interested in getting that sort of info? All best, Julie
Julie Ovenell-Carter
on July 2nd, 2010That is such a compliment coming from you guys who make “honest and useful” posts your daily business! I think it’s a very good idea to make the panels available by Skype or even upload them to the TBEX web site or something. You should mention it to Kim Mance and I’ll mention it to the BC organizers (since I live in Vancouver, site of next year’s event). Will you be back in North America then? Safe travels! J.
Authentic Seacoast Resorts
on July 2nd, 2010What a great recap, Julie! We love the comment that we live in a “thank you economy”. So true. We enjoyed the opportunity to finally meet in person to thank you for your friendship and support over the past couple of years. We’re looking forward to meeting you again in your backyard when we bring Canada’s East Coast to the West Coast for TBEX 2011. Doug
Laura Byrne Paquet
on July 5th, 2010Really great post, Julie! You zeroed in on many of the same points that leaped out at me, particularly Sheila’s comment that a blog is a storefront for what the blogger is actually doing to make money.
And your comment that we needed quieter, more focused networking opportunities was spot on. I love a good party as much as the next person, but I came away from TBEX hoarse AND regretful that I didn’t connect with a number of people I’d hoped to meet. But overall, I found the conference incredibly useful. I’m already saving my pennies for TBEX 11!
Boomergirl
on July 6th, 2010Kids chasing fireflys in Manhattan… Love it. What a great image you’ve created for this gal.
I would have loved to have been at TBEX. Read the chatter on Twitter. Sigh… maybe next year!!! And I agree, http://roadstories.ca is our storefront. It allows people even potential clients to get a feel for who we are and what interests us. Love posting and even though it eats time, it’s worth it. Walking my hometown as World Cup fever began to take hold was so much fun. In the space of an afternoon and an evening, I talked with Korean, Portuguese, Italian, Brazilian, Greek and English soccer fans and discovered some fabulous places serving good food and cold beer.
The Travelling Mom
on July 7th, 2010Great recap! Thank you for sharing your favorite moments & tips for those of us who were not able to make it to NYC for the fun & networking. Already looking forward to TBEX 11 in our home town of Vancouver! Cheers, Claudia
Meryl Pearlstein
on July 26th, 2010Your how-tos are really smart and helpful. It was great to meet you in NYC. Hopefully we’ll meet again in Vancouver. Meryl, Travel and Food Notes.