[...] In the evening took part if the first “travel blogging bar camp” thingy. 80 people or so turned up to hear various people (including myself) speak. Good fun I think….. [Darren has written up the BlogCamp on his blog] [...]

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Hey Darren
I had a great evening. Very interesting debate and at some point am definitely going to stick a few thoughts on a blog post myself. Well done for organising it! I thought the whole thing went really well and had just the right balance – speakers with real credibility but sufficiently informal atmosphere to mean everyone felt comfortable chipping in… And the debate was really good wasn’t it!
Cheers
Jeremy

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Thanks so much for arranging the event yesterday, Darren – truly an impressive feat. Some very, very interesting views and ideas in the air. I’ll be very disappointed if you don’t repeat the achievement next year.

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It was great meeting you all. And the BlogCamp for me was definitely worth the trip from Amersfoort. Thank you Darren for this opportunity to meet all travel bloggers and guys from the industry. The conversation was firing up!

The industry really wants to know how to respond to web convesations and yesterday helped them and me understanding better what’s how happening online. STA travel buzz, Multi author blogs, do conversations online. It was good to be there!

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Absolutely fantastic evening, I just cannot believe how quickly the time went by.

Such a shame the debate regarding businesses getting involved in SM was cut short, as it was getting really interesting.. particularly when consider the ‘unnamed’ travel company who appear to be ‘ignoring’ their customers.

Anyway, would be really interested in the next one, please don’t leave it another year!

Perhaps a new year or easter blog camp? whatever – i’m there.

Simon

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Darren, thanks so much for putting last night together. It was quite interesting and a great mix of people attended. Do run one next year!

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Hi Darren,

What a fantastic evening last night. Just wanted to congratulate you on organizing it. I found it incredibly useful and insightful and look forward to it becoming an annual event possibly?

I’ll be looking out for any future events like this.

Very Best,
Nadine

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Hey Darren.

Thanks for organising last night, it certainly was fun and interesting. Now I know the difference between a blogger and a journalist. Or do I?

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a very intersting event…

and i love bringing in the journo-blogger debate. always gets a few people hot under the collar.

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well done darren – well put together with, as you say, practically no promotion. A reflection on you that so many people came. Roll on the next one!

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Thanks so much for organising it Darren, It was really great to network with some other bloggers & folk from the travel industry. I really hope we can run it again next year during the Travel Fair & If you find the organising abit daunting just shout – I’d be happy to help out & I’m sure others would too.

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[...] did, however, go to the Travel Blog Camp organised by Darren from Travel Rants last night. I must say I’m hugely impressed by Darren’s efforts and the fact that he [...]

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Hi Darren
I really needed a beer after the day at WTM, so the evening was great on that level but more importantly for getting us together in the same room. I’m proud to be a blogger / writer / editor / confused about who and what i am!

Honestly, it was fab. Let’s do it again.

I’ll definitely be writing about this on my blog and others because it raised interesting issues for writers and the industry.

Kelly / Sandwagon

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Darren,

Thanks and chapeau for arranging all this.

I reversed the order and did some shopping and siteseeing with my dw today and will be roaming around at excel tomorrow.

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Thanks for organizing the event. I really spent a good time meeting with you all. It’s true that I didn’t see the time goes by. We should maybe try to organize a next event in February around Business Travel Show. I could ask a representative of Amex to come along and discuss what have their learn from their social networking site https://businesstravelconnexion.com .

All the best,

Guillaume

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HI Darren
thanks for organising Tuesday, was a great evening and really nice to put faces to the writers of the blogs that I have been reading!
We have posted about the evening on our blog, hope to come again next year…
Anna

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thoroughly enjoyed it too. a passionate debate with lots of different perspectives gave a real insight into the world of travel industry blogging. There were also a lot of transferable lessons for creating a compelling blog generally – and how to avoid many of the pitfalls.

Thanks again for a great evening. Lyndon

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Here is a thought (one you have all probably had) how about creating a ‘travel blog camp’ group on linked in. So we can stay in touch easily with the people we met! What do you all think?

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A really good idea indeed. I’m in.

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Darren,

Congratulations on organizing such a successful event. It takes a lot of work to do this kind of thing so it must have extremely satisfying to have so many people attend. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to come to the next event in ‘09.

Mark

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Darren, thanks so much for making the effort to arrange the Travel Blog Camp, my only complaint is that it was too short and I didn’t have enough time to speak with everyone.

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Thoroughly enjoyed the evening, which I am sure, was useful to all those who attended. It was particularly refreshing to hear speakers and participants air their views in public and debate the issues. Like others who have posted, I agree, it would be good for another event to be organised sooner rather than later. Thanks again.

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Hi Darren
What a great evening – I am sorry I didn’t get to spend more time.
I can’t believe that after such a success you would even consider not doing it next year! Surely this has to become an institution! Any help you need, just email me.

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Interesting and main objective was a) to see what it was all about and b) to see what Darren looked like! Very pleased to have met you and thanks for the effort. Well done. It may be helpful, for the future, if one could make it clearer to whom this is orientated as I, as a travel agent, felt a bit left out – in so far as most there were travel bloggers talking about, er…. travel blogging (though it could really have been any old blogging), PR people (who always make me think of Douglas Adam’s Golgafringhiams from “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”) and a few tour operators – and then their marketing/ PR types (who always make me think about Douglas Ad…. Oh! I said that already, didn’t I?) If you are going to have a meet for the brick-throwers, contributors and others, that may need to have a different slant. Interesting to see how much can be said about the actual blogging lark though people banging on about the difference twixt bloggers and journalists seemed to me, as a travel agent, rather boring and irrelevant.

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Really enjoyed it, too… shame I had to rush off to catch my 21:45 train back to Somerset.

It has inspired me to write up http://www.afterwilma.info as a case study!

Thanks, Darren… and all.

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Thanks Darren for organising the event and a great turnout, was also nice to meet you and others too, interesting vedy interesting! Heres to next year!

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It was great Darren, thanks so much for organising and it was a pleasure to speak to a bunch of such clued up, opinionated and passionate people! Will be really interesting to see how it evolves, I think maybe laying out different issues for discussion beforehand might help to keep it focused/relevant but I also kind of liked the mayhem…

Quick roundup of my own here

http://www.statravelbuzz.co.uk/travel-blog-camp-08-hoorah-for-heated-debate/

Thanks again to Darren and everyone who came

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So how about starting a travel bloggers group on Linked In? I am willing to do it if you want, or someone else who is more ‘central’ to the movement can if they like….

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Great idea – please invite me if you do. http://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaraheberpercy

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I agree, good idea. I’d join in a jiffy.

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