Travel Bloggers Unite – Our POV
My mind is abuzz after Travel Bloggers Unite in Italy.
From our side of the weekend’s events, we can state that it was a rousing success. Spending the Saturday leading and attending sessions for Industry professionals was one of the highlights of the event. Now, two days later we are more motivated than ever and have come away with the feeling that the future looks bright for Travel Blogging in Europe.
So, let’s get started on our round up of the sessions we attended during Travel Bloggers Unite, 2012.
Oliver opening TBU 2012 in Umbria
Let’s Get Down to Business
The conference kicked off with a bang during Jeff Jung’s (of Career Break Secrets) opening Key Note Speech. His energy was intoxicating and he is a natural key note speaker. He’ll go a long way baby! Jeff started with so much energy; my energy was lifted with each word he spoke. He stated that it is time to monetize your expertise and start thinking about yourself as travel experts.
Jeff Jung rocking the opening Keynote in TBU Umbria
By referring back to his pyramid of success ”Influence, Relevance and Expertise” he showed different ways that travel bloggers are achieving success by leveraging these three points. In our opinion a Key Note Speech should be about motivating and inspiring the audience and Jeff did exactly that. We were all pumped to start learning from the experts throughout the weekend.
Panels
It was then on to a panel discussion with Industry and Bloggers. Katy of Intrepid Travel and Ryan of House Trip were true leaders in the community. They know the value of working with travel bloggers and offered valuable insight into developing relationships to work with social publishers on a long-term basis. The biggest round of applause came when Ryan stated that they don’t give any bearing on the measurement of Klout and have their own standards by which they measure travel influencers.
Industry.
We had a very different day than the rest of the delegates and spent the afternoon discussing possibilities with industry. We hear that we missed some awesome presentations, and hopefully other’s will be able to give you a round up of their experience.
The brilliant Andy Hayes of Sharing Travel Experiences kicked off our day, he talked to the tourism industry about different ways to find travel bloggers and how to make sure that they find the right travel blogger to suit their needs. As someone who has run a successful online business for years, he really knows what he’s talking about. I found it very informative for myself, as there were industry measurements that I had never thought of before.
We then took the stage to talk about all the different ways that brands can work with travel bloggers and then were followed by an interactive session led by Janice of Solo Traveler and Keith of Velvet Escape on working through the pain. I loved Janice and Keith’s idea of making the session interactive and talking with the floor rather than at the floor. This session created a dialogue between bloggers and pr that has never happened before. There was a small mix of Travel Bloggers such as Abigail King of Inside the Travel Lab, and Melvin of Travel Dudes and Yvonne Zagermann of Just Travelous to listen to the industries concerns and discuss how we can work together.
Juliane from Wilde & Partner PR firm in Germany
Excellent ideas came from Debbie of FourBGB, Juliane Fischer of Wilde and Partner PR and Pleasance Coddington of Cheap Flights about building relationships, creating a spreadsheet of case studies and working on communicating at a higher level with the travel blogging community. Budgets need to start shifting to online media.
Ryan of House Trip and Katy of Intrepid Travel led the way once again as the people who are already working with bloggers and know exactly what they are willing to give and what they expect from us all. Having come from a background in both marketing and pr Ryan raised the point that PR companies don’t handle the money and that there needs to be a dialogue between them and marketing. PR has to prove to the client the blogger’s value before they can allot the budget. Ryan is ahead of the curve coming from different industries that have already embraced online media such as food and fashion. Katy believes in the value of building a relationship and then discussing partnership. Unlike other companies that don’t value or compensate their bloggers, Intrepid takes their time to find the right fit and work on a long-term commitment creating a mutually beneficial partnership.
The biggest problem industry has with bloggers are how they feel entitled to receiving money when they have yet to prove themselves and the biggest problem bloggers have with the industry is they aren’t being compensated for what they deserve. We feel that we are all pioneers in online travel media and it takes time to build relationships and trust with companies. We worked with Intrepid Travel for 2 years before signing corporate sponsorship deals and American Express and Expedia.com approached us by doing their own research as to us being a good fit with their brand. We have never sat down with a company that didn’t approach us first and demand money before building a relationship, and yet Travel Bloggers are doing this every day.
If companies don’t know who you are, how can they possibly know what your value is? When a company approaches you with a press trip, it is their way of getting to know you and learning your value. An organized blogger will keep track of their page views, tweet reaches and interactions and should be sending the company a package once the trip is over to help them measure success.
It is time for Travel Bloggers to be proactive and give these brands and agencies the tools that they need to sell them to their clients. Debbie of FourBGB has never received a pitch from a blogger before!
What the final consensus was is that PR Companies and Brands do want to work with travel bloggers and pay them money, but they have a lack of knowledge regarding measurement tools and how to sell the Blogger to the marketing department.
As we said in our presentation, it is up to the blogger to give them the tools that they need by including successful case studies, statistics and endorsements in their media kits so that the pr department has the ammunition to sell you to their marketing division. It is also up to the blogger to make yourself known to the PR Agencies and brands and start building those relationships early.
Day 2.
Beth Whitman
We didn’t have the chance to see a lot of day two because we were presenting an intermediate and advance session, but we had the privilege of sitting in on Beth Whitman’s informative and inspirational talk. We have admired Beth from afar since starting in the travel blogging business and respect her business mind, corporate empire and outstanding work at Wanderlust and Lipstick. Now that we have gotten to know her, we love her fun attitude and sense of humour too.
Beth Whitman with her amazing presentation on Monetization
This woman is a natural speaker who is engaging and entertaining and can really hold a room. Discussing all the different ways that Travel Bloggers can make money, she gave me more information in one session than I have learned in 3 years of working in this business.
I took countless notes and came up with so many ideas, that I need a month off just to start implementing her suggestions!
Other Stand Outs for Us
Kirsten Alana – Lucky for us, we had the honour of spending 3 days in Rome with Photographer extraordinaire, Kirsten Alana of Aviators and a Camera. She is the leader on iPhone photography (albeit an outstanding photographer as well) and not only that an incredible woman. She is so open with her knowledge and willing to share everything about all that is possible with taking amazing photographs on the iPhone. We are seriously considering only using the iPhone for our photos in Florence as a experiment to see if we can come up with as great of shots as she takes!
Hanging out with some new found friends
Rachelle Lucas – Coming from a TV Background, Rachelle of The Travel Bite knows what she is talking about. She set up interviews at local markets with local people so that her students of her video walk could practice their ever important on camera interview skills. Unfortunately the tourism board of Umbria highjacked her session and ended up taking her group up a trolley instead of all the super places she had lined up, but to pick her brain and listen to all her information and ideas regarding video and travel blogging is inspiring. She is leading the way in making video blogging, more than just vlogging.
Abigail King – Unfortunately our sessions were going at the same time as Abi’s but we had the chance to talk to her outside the conference and pick her brain. Coming from a journalism background, she is the leading travel writer in the industry at Inside the Travel Lab and I would have loved to sit in on her session, to learn from her expertise.
We heard excellent things about Mike Snowdan’s writing workshops, Chris Richardson’s WordPress talks, Yvonne Zagermann’s video sessions and super stuff coming out of the speed networking sessions although most of the PR professionals we talked to said it was too much and too long. How can one-person listen to a solid 4 hours of pitches and give the proper focus and attention that they need? Great idea though and something to work on for the next TBU.
Note: There were so many other great speakers that we didn’t get the chance to either see or pick their brains and I know other people will give a round up including those that we missed. I wish I could have sat in on everyone’s session and really meet and strategize with them all, but alas, we could not but there is always next time!
Wrap up.
All together, I think that Oliver did an excellent job bringing together to travel blogging community and travel industry of Europe. He choose his speakers wisely and for the sessions I sat in on, I was impressed with the information shared.
There was some lack of information and communication so most people were going through the weekend wondering what was going on. I think that the schedule should have come out all at once on the first day rather than in piece mail each day. Instead of thinking that everyone would rely on the sketchy Internet to look up the day’s events, we should have all been presented with a welcome package outlining the schedule for both PR and Bloggers.
We never did receive a Saturday schedule for the Blogging talks because we were on the PR panels,and I know that PR never did receive a schedule for blogger discussions. They had to ask us when we were speaking to sit in on sessions. Plus, I think that the more advanced bloggers could have really benefited from sitting in on the PR talks had they known that they were going on and that they could indeed sit in and contribute.
The location was fine, if not a little out of the way and spread out but other than the grumpy restaurant manager who seemed to dislike travel bloggers by not even allowing us a glass of water, the staff of Valle di Assisi were extremely friendly and helpful.
I think that the future is bright for travel blogging in Europe and that we are going to see a huge surge in brands working with bloggers in the year ahead.
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Thanks for the summary guys, we’ve only just got into blogging in preparation for our round the world trip, so hearing what happens at these conferences is really useful! Glad to hear you think the futures bright, we’ve had a lot of advice and support from the travel community over the last few months and we’re really impressed with the sharing and support given within the community! Especially you guys!
We’d love to attend something like this in the future, but for now we’re focused on getting prepared for our trip! Thanks again for the summary!
Hi Barry, thank you so much, we appreciate your kind words. You are right, the travel blogging community is very supportive and if you reach out, people are always willing to help. I think that events like these are very important to attend but I think that you are wise to prepare for your trip and head out to a TBU in the future when you are ready. After all, travel comes first in our mind and if I had to choose between a conference and traveling, I’d choose the traveling for sure:)
The lack of communication is a recurring problem. It happened during the last TBU too. But I think a conference of this size is pretty hard to manage and I am more than willing to forgo this flaw, although it needs to be remedied in the future. I’m glad I decided not to go to TBUMBR for several reasons, but mostly because it seemed really out of the way – as opposed to super central Innsbruck with loads of things to do outside of the conference rooms.
All in all I think TBU is really informative and useful for networking, and I will definitely be attending the next one.
Agreed, It isn’t a huge problem as everyone got to the sessions that they wanted to see and everyone made it to dinner eventually. I think that Oliver and his people will remedy this in the future. I enjoyed TBU being in Italy since we’ve only been here once before for a short time in Cinque Terre but yes, I think that we needed some other options for meals etc than the resort. Albeit, the resort took very good care of us. The breakfasts were excellent, the dinner on Saturday night was outstanding and even our Thursday night pre conference dinner was a good deal. For me 18 Euro for a 3 course meal with wine included was a good deal and I was very satisfied.
Great wrap up – especially for us newbie bloggers. Thanks for passing on some of the inspiration
Thanks Holly, good luck with the new blog and if you ever need any advice, don’t hesitate to ask.
Deb and Dave, it was so lovely to finally meet you guys face-to-face. I hope our paths cross again, sooner rather than later.
Looks like we missed a great event! Thanks for the recap!
Great meeting you too Isabelle, It definitely wasn’t long enough. Hopefully we’ll get some time in the near future to sit down and have dinner together to really talk.
Great roundup–this actually sounds like an industry event that I’d be interested in attending!
Christine, I think that you will be very pleased with TBU. Everyone was very approachable and open to discussing ideas. The event wasn’t so big that you were overwhelmed with where to begin, but it was definitely large enough that every level of blogger could get something out of it. Hopefully we’ll see you at the next one!
I won’t lie that I was skeptical about attending TBU before showing up, but I came away more inspired than I’ve felt in a long while. Really glad I got to meet you two there and spend some time meeting so many other bloggers and industry folks. The event was definitely worth my time—however short it was!
Can’t wait to see all the projects that bloggers and PRs are likely to start after this event!
I’m glad that it exceeded your expectations Adam! I agree, we came away inspired as well. I think that PR companies are definitely going to start putting projects together, we have already started receiving emails asking for our case studies and slides and ideas for ways to work with bloggers. The PR firms and brands seem to have come away from TBU just as inspired as the rest of us!
Thanks for the great round-up, guys! Exciting things are definitely happening in travel blogging, and it’s great to be a part of it all. I can’t wait to see how things progress at TBEX later this year!
I attended TBU in Innsbruck but am sorry I couldn’t attend Umbria! This was a great round up and will definitely look into attending the next one. Yes a lack of communication and organization was an issue in Innsbruck but I’m sure Oliver is working on all details of the event to keep improving each one.
You are absolutely right. For only the 3rd event this was very impressive and I am sure that he has read this and will take the feedback into consideration. If this is the worst thing that I could complain about, it’s not so bad. I think that communicating is the easiest thing to fix, so I’m expecting the next one to have those kinks ironed out for sure.
Great summary! Hoping I can make it to the next Travel Bloggers Unite conference
Awesome round-up, guys – thank you for putting this together. So sad to have missed TBU this year; things have just been too hectic with our move. Sounds like it was a great time with lots of knowledge exchange in the industry. Very exciting!
Sounds like a great experience to learn from!
Thanks for giving us a taste of how it went! Matt and I have only been blogging for 6 months but would still like to attend the next TBU conference, hopefully be able to learn lots from more seasoned bloggers! Thanks again for the wrap up!
HI Caro, I think it would do you a world of good to attend the next TBU. It will inspire you and give you ideas that you wouldn’t think of otherwise. Plus it is very important to create that circle of friends to help support one another. As your blog progresses, you will find that you will want a support group and a circle of peers to bounce ideas off of. I think these conferences are invaluable for that.
Wow, very very interesting. I’m now tempted to visit one of these conferences!
Roy, it really was a great experience. We have been disappointed with conferences in the past, but I really think that the people that Oliver rounded up were very excited to share their knowledge and very open to giving advice. I think that is the key. As the industry grows, people have more knowledge to share and more information to give. I’m excited to attend the next one and I am excited to head over to TBEX as well because it is a very exciting time to be in travel blogging and we are all learning together. The more you can collaborate with your peers, the better our industry will become.
One of the highlights to my weekend was meeting you guys, enjoying your session as well as Deb’s killer dance moves on Friday night.
Dalene, it was so awesome meeting you too. We’ve been big fans of Hecktic Travels. Now we just need to meet Pete! We’ll have to think of some sort of Canadian Couple’s Travel Tour and head out together. I know we’d have great fun traveling with you!
Oh, we’d be SO down with a Canadian Couple’s Travel Tour…!!!
Alrighty! We’ll do some brainstorming. Hope to you see you soon.
Great summary of the most important things to come out of the conference. And it was fantastic to finally meet you guys too. The most valuable thing I found was the chance to meet everyone IRL and have a great chat about blogging, their blogs, and a whole bunch of completely unrelated but super fun stuff. If there are travel bloggers out there who have never been to a conference, I highly recommend you go. Those personal contacts (and dare I say ‘friends’) are what matter most in this industry!
Great meeting you too! And yes, you can say friends. We came away from this conference with new friends and more inspired than ever. The level of bloggers is increasing each year and to see the caliber of people attending is really impressive. We can all learn from each other. Many of the bloggers attending as delegates could have ran their own sessions! It was humbling to be in front of so many people that we admire and wonderful to meet everyone in person. Now we can have more fun when we tweet together!
Great wrap up. I also thought the speaker line up and enjoyed meeting industry professionals and other bloggers. I agree that the organization could have been better and this is especially important when PRs and other industry reps are present and we are trying to show how professional travel bloggers are. Wonderful to meet you guys and hope to see you again soon. We’ll always have Rome
Hi Laurel, I’m so glad that you got a lot out of TBU, I think that it is a very good conference for not only educating bloggers but collaborating with the PR industry. It is a great size. Not too small and not too large so that you could really speak to everyone that you wanted to and not feel overwhelmed. I think that the organization will improve. It is probably the easiest thing to fix. Just a bit more communication off the top and it is all roses. I really do think that a full schedule on the first day should be handed out to everyone and then we can all plan our sessions accordingly.
I missed out on TBUMBR unfortunately but this round up makes me feel like I was there. Thanks for so much detail, opinion and analysis of what sounded like a great event for all involved,
Bird x
Hi Bird, I’m glad that we could give a comprehensive round up. Like I said, we missed a lot of sessions as we were in a completely different space during the first day,and we were presenting the next, but we found that we got a lot out of what we did attend. I am looking forward to other people’s round ups to see what we missed, but I do feel that we got a lot out of our sessions and discussions and having that inside scoop into the industry discussions was very helpful. They really do want to work with us all.
Thanks for summing it up Dave and Deb, I couldn’t make it to TBUMBR but I WILL be at TBEX in Colorado, looking forward to meeting you guys there!
That is fantastic Victoria, looking forward to meeting you! We’re looking forward to TBEX in Colorado ourselves and hope that it is as much of a success as TBU. Cheers.
I have learned a lot by just reading your blog but I wish I could have attend and hear it personally. So envy you to listen to the expert in travel speak.
I was pretty skeptical about TBU, having been to several similar conferences in the past, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the whole event. Sure, there were hiccups, but I thought the quality of the speakers and networking far outweighed the issues. Plus, I finally got to meet the Planet D which was obviously a highlight =) Looking forward to crossing paths with you guys again in the future!
I agree Angie, this conference exceeded my expectations. Oliver put together a great line up of speakers and yes, there is always room for improvement. TBU has the organization down and the great speaker line up, now with a good welcome package and information posted on a board for everyone to see at the next one, it will be Ace! And yes, a highlight was meeting you! I had so much fun on both House Trip and at the conference with you miss Angie Away. Been a fan of your blog for some time and now a fan of the person behind the blog. See you soon!
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Wish we could have been there. Going to our first TBEX this year and hopefully plan on hitting up WTM in London as well. Looks like you guys learned quite a bit!
I love you guys, great to meet you both.
It was a fantastic event, and I’m very exciting about the next one.
All the best,
Simon
Thanks Simon, it was great meeting you and Ryan as well. Looking forward to the next TBU and House Trip event the next time round:)
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Nice post. I know that your association will still grow in the future. Keep up the good work and more power to you!!
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