Throughout Travel BlogCamp in 2008 I was quite relaxed knowing that it was the first event and if it didn’t go down well I could at least say that it was worth trying. This year, I felt added pressure because it had a lot to live up to, so imagine my relief when the night went by without any hiccups.

Lost networking opportunities

I would have liked to have chatted to more people, but, running around like a headless chicken meant I got very little time for networking which from my perspective is a shame. So, apologies if I didn’t get around to chat to you or if I looked distracted. It was another occasion where I was out of my comfort zone.

Highlights of Travel BlogCamp

The night had to be kept informal and I spoke to a few people before the event and they were concerned that because it had more sponsors that it would become corporate. The Q&A session with the sponsors meant that the audience could interact and it was very well moderated by Kevin, and it was kept informal.

Challenges for independent travel agents

While all of the speakers were great, the highlight of the night was listening to Murray Harrold and his experiences with the internet and social media. Listening to an independent travel agent talk made me realise the challenges that they have to take their business online.

His humour and passion really shone through for me.

Twitter and paid travel content

The rest of the night we discussed twitter (a lot) which you would expect considering 90% of the people there were regular users of the social media site. I’ve been to both the PhoCusWright ITB and Travolution conferences this year and Facebook was hardly mentioned in comparison to Twitter.

An interesting debate started about paid and free content. Would I pay for travel content? No, they are so many places on the internet where you can receive travel content. I don’t enjoy public speaking but my libel issue earlier in the year made me want to warn bloggers of the dangers.

Reviews of Travel BlogCamp

You can follow the discussions that took place on Twitter by searching for #tbcamp or feel free to read the posts below which review the night. Thanks to everyone who wrote a review because like any event it’s important to receive constructive feedback to improve further events.

Social media tips at Travel Blog Camp
Travel Bloggers’ meet-up
Travel BlogCamp 2009 review
Notebooks not needed: Travel Blog Camp review
Travel BlogCamp 2009 review
PR’s view of Travel BlogCamp
Review of Travel BlogCamp
Thoughts on Travel BlogCamp

If you have written a review but I have not included it here please get in touch. I will be sending out a survey to everyone this weekend as in the spirit of social media, it is important to receive feedback on the event so that I can improve any future Travel BlogCamp’s.

Thank you to

Firstly a massive thanks to the brave sponsors for the Q&A session; I think this does prove that the travel industry has finally started to realise that they have to grasp social media and interact with people both online and offline.

Chris Clarkson – Sunshine.co.uk
Hugo Burge – Cheapflights
Zoey Chant – Essential Travel
Alberto Knapp – I Wanna Go There

A special thank you to all of the speakers did a fantastic job at raising questions from the audience and interacting with them. The moderation on the night I am sure you will all agree was great, and the conversation was kept informal and relaxed so that everyone could join in.

Murray Harrold – Advantage Travel
Joel Brandon-Bravo – Frommer’s Unlimited
Guillaume Thevenot – Hotel Blogs
Eva Keogan – Lastminute.com
Kevin May – Tnooz

Throughout the night we experimented with live blogging, so thanks to Alex Bainbridge, for running that.

I think next year we will be looking for a larger venue so that we have a little more space, but, it will be kept to a small group of people so that it is kept informal and relaxed. I hope you enjoyed the food, I didn’t eat any I was that nervous about speaking.

Hopefully, I’ll see you next year at Travel BlogCamp 2010.

• Countdown to Travel BlogCamp 2009
• Travel BlogCamp 2009 registration opens
• Travel BlogCamp tickets nearly sold out
• Bloggers view of the travel and tourism industry
• Travel companies twitter behaviour – Part 1

 



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