We’ve only got a few days left before we head for Toronto and TBEX, so we wanted to take a moment to highlight just how awesome our list of sponsors is this year. We have 120 companies on board ready and eager to meet with travel bloggers!

Starting with our Global Partner Expedia and our hosts Toronto, Ontario, and the Canadian Tourism Commission, we are thrilled at their support of new media and overwhelmed by how excited they are to network, do business with, and learn from the TBEX community. Among the 120 companies, there are 62 destinations, 21 technology companies, 19 tour companies, 25 travel service/product companies, 14 companies involved with providing accommodation… And that’s just the beginning.

Here’s a list of who bloggers and industry professionals will be meeting with in Toronto, in alphabetical order. You can find out more about each and every one of these companies from their profiles in the Blogger Bridge system.

.ME Registry/Dynadot
Adventure Central Newfoundland
Adventure Life
Adventure Travel Trade Association
Air Charter Service
Allianz Global Assistance
American Express/Starwood
Aubrey Daniels International
Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel
Big Island Visitors Bureau
Blue Mountain Resort
Booking.com
BrownBag Marketing
Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts
Central Counties Tourism
Clothing Arts
Couchsurfing
Demeure
Destination British Columbia
Development Counsellors International
DK Canada
DocuSign
Dominican Republic
Expedia
Explore! North America
Failte Ireland
Flagstaff CVB
Four Seasons
G Adventures
German National Tourist Office
GetYourGuide
Gogo
Google Travel
Groupe Germain Hospitalite
Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism
Hampton, Virginia
Harley Davidson
Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
HouseTrip
Hyatt
Idaho Tourism
IFWTWA
Illinois Office of Tourism
Israel Tourism Commission
IZEA
Jordan Tourism Board
Kensington Tours
Lafayette Travel
Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana CVB
Lake Placid, Adirondacks CVB
Langham Hospitality Group
Laura Davidson PR
Lexington, Kentucky CVB
Liftopia
Lou Hammond PR
Maui CVB
Meet Minneapolis
MSC Cruises
New Brunswick
New Hampshire Division of Travel & Tourism
Niagara Parks Commission
Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp
Norfolk County
North Carolina Tourism
Northern Ontario
Northstar Travel Media
Ontario Tourism
Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization
Palace Resorts
Palladium Hotel Group
Parks Canada
Passports with Purpose
PhoCusWright
PR Newswire
Puerto Vallarta
Quebec City & Area
RoamRight Travel Insurance
Room77
Santa Barbara CVB
SATW
Skyline Hotels & Resorts
Social Media Monthly
Sonora Resort
South Australian Tourism Commission
Spectacular Ink
St. Louis CVC
Steuben County CVB
STM Bags
Sunny AZ (Chandler & Tempe)
Sunset.com
Think! Social Media
Tilley Endurables
Toronto Tourism
Tourism Canada
Tourism Quebec
Tourism Winnipeg
Tourisme Montreal
Tourist Office for Flanders
Travel Alberta
Travel Manitoba
Travel Massive
Travel Underwriters
travel42
TravelAds
Traverse City, Michigan
TripAdvisor
TripIt
VadoVia
Vail Resorts
VIA Rail
Viator
Visit Baton Rouge
Visit Berlin
Visit Bloomington
Visit Buffalo Niagara
Visit Denver
Visit Indy
Visit Milwaukee
Visit Philly
WeHostels

Will we see you at TBEX Toronto along with all these great companies? There’s still time to register!

Will TBEX Toronto be your first TBEX? If so, we put together a TBEX Newbie’s Guide for you – but we’re not stopping there. For the first time, we’re also going to have a Q&A session for TBEX newbies during the conference.

We’ll have an informal gathering in the American Express Lounge right after Trey Ratcliff’s opening keynote address on Saturday morning, starting at 10:15am. We’ll give you a few tidbits of information we think are important to know, and then we’ll open up the floor for your questions.

Want help figuring out the differences between Speed Dating and the Open Marketplace? Not sure which sessions to attend? Need to find out when there will be snacks available? On the lookout for the nearest electrical outlet? Just need to be reassured that TBEXers are a super-friendly bunch who really do welcome the opportunity to meet new attendees? Whatever your question, whatever your concern, bring it to the TBEX Newbie Q&A – we’ll get you taken care of.

What: TBEX Newbie Q&A Session
When: 10:15am, Saturday June 1st
Where: American Express Lounge at the Metro Centre (exact room number will be announced on site)
Who: any TBEX newbies who have questions!

(And if you’re not comfortable asking your question in front of other newbies, no sweat – send me a message via the TBEX Facebook page, Twitter, or email (jessica@tbexcon.com). I’m here to help make sure your TBEX experience is the best it can be, so don’t hesitate to ask whatever question you have.)

Huge thanks to American Express for letting us use the lounge for this session!

One of our TBEX Toronto sponsors, G Adventures, is preparing to welcome us to their city with open arms. They’re hosting a party on Wednesday night, May 29, for people who get into Toronto early before the conference. Is that you? Here are the details about the party, including the all-important RSVP link.

What: Pre-BEX Party, G Style!

When: Wednesday May 29th, doors open at 7pm

Where: Tryst Night Club – 82 Peter Street (around the corner from Base Camp)

Hosted by our blazer boasting G Adventures Mayor Todd Rogerson, this hump night party will have food catered by the Gourmet Gringos Food Truck, drink tickets for $5 with all proceeds going to our non-profit organization Planeterra and G’s very own DJ Leo Love dropping beats.

The party is open to any TBEX attendees who are in Toronto the evening of May 29, but capacity is limited – so be sure to RSVP in order to reserve your spot!

About G Adventures
G Adventures is an adventure travel pioneer offering the widest selection of affordable small group tours, safaris and expeditions to more than 100 countries on all continents. It was the first adventure travel company to offer 100% guaranteed departures in 2013. Powered by an international team of passionate travellers, the award-winning trips embrace authentic accommodation, exotic cuisine and local transport to put travellers on a first-name basis with the planet’s people, cultures, landscapes and wildlife. The intimate, authentic and sustainable approach to small-group travel introduces travellers to the highlights of a destination while offering the freedom to explore it on their own. Whatever age, interest, ability or budget, G Adventures has a genuine life-changing experience. For more information please visit www.gadventures.com.

For every person who is active on Twitter and loves it, I find another who says, “Yes, I have an account, but I really don’t get it.”

What if I could find one thing that pleases both? Something that helps the tweeting aficionado step up his/her game AND that helps the 140-character-challenged twoosh with joy (a twoosh is a tweet that is exactly 140 characters.)

I’m talking about Twitter chats.

Chats Are For Beginner AND Advanced Users

For the 200 million active Twitter users who already sling the “@” and “#” with abandon, a chat is an opportunity to plug into discussions and networking with entirely new groups.

For those who still think Twitter is a time-suck about what you ate for lunch, chats are a surprisingly efficient way to do a huge amount of learning and professional development in a short period of time (one hour) plus meet and network with other chat participants. That’s important because the value of Twitter is in finding and following smart people, then learning from them.

Breaking news: we are ALL smart, so don’t be intimidated and don’t spend forever lurking. Jump in!

Chats Are Good For Market Research

When I co-founded Tourism Currents with Becky McCray, I needed to learn a lot….fast….about the tourism/hospitality industry and specific issues related to destination marketing. One way to do that was by listening carefully to the people in our market, so we began following hashtags from tourism conferences and participating in #tourismchat when it launched in early 2010. What we’ve learned there – directly from the people in our industry – has been invaluable to growing our business.

If you’re interested in learning more about a topic or finding experts in a field, there’s a chat that can help you. Here are a few examples:

• #TNI / Travelers’ Night In and #TTOT / Travel Talk on Twitter are full of travel enthusiasts.
• #AgChat is popular with farmers, ranchers and those who live in small towns and rural areas.
• #BuiltHeritage appeals to those interested in historic preservation.
• #SoloPRchat is helpful for independent public relations professionals and consultants.
• #BeerChat is for anyone who wants to know more about the burgeoning craft brewing scene.

Chats Can Make Money….With Some Caveats

What a lot of people don’t know is that Twitter chats also offer an opportunity to get paid for connecting brands and audiences. For example, one of the biggest and longest-running chats is author and consultant Mack Collier’s #blogchat – it has had a series of sponsors including Paper.li, OfferPop and Club Med.

Mack is very careful about who sponsors the chat. If he doesn’t think a particular brand can bring value to his #blogchat community or just isn’t a good fit, he doesn’t accept the sponsorship.

He says,

“My advice is if you want to monetize, make sure there’s a clear benefit to your community from doing so.  I have turned down several sponsorship opportunities simply because I didn’t see how the sponsor’s involvement would benefit #blogchat and make it worth the community’s time.”

Twitter has a long cultural history of being rather resistant to advertising, and users are often ruthless in calling out excessively spammy intrusions into their Twitter feed. Always serve and protect your audience above all; you don’t want your chat to be seen as selling your community’s eyeballs to the highest bidder.

BIO:  Sheila Scarborough is co-founder of Tourism Currents (training in social media for tourism and hospitality) and a proud founding blogger with the Perceptive Travel blog. Hear more about chats in her session How to Create & Use Twitter Chats Effectively.

Photo credit:  Jay-P via flickr

At Tilley Endurables, we have always believed that there is much more to travel than simply checking sights off a list. From the sounds, the smells, the food, the culture, the people you meet, to the journey to get there, there are so many travel experiences through which we can learn valuable lessons. Here’s a selection of things we’ve learned from our own travels and those of our clients.

Unexpected Friends Can Have a Big Impact

Travelers are fortunate to get out and see the world, and we meet some pretty interesting people along the way. Sometimes it’s the most unexpected new friends who have the biggest impact on us. In 2005, company founder Alex Tilley had the opportunity to go to Ecuador and see the work of Street Kids International, which gives vulnerable kids the tools they need to get jobs or even start their own small businesses.

The kids Alex met on that trip changed his perspective personally and contributed to a change in the way he ran his business, too. It’s because of that trip that, every year, Tilley donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of our Hemp Hats to Street Kids International. You just never know when travel can change not only your life, but the lives of others.

Helping hands

It’s Good to Be a Tourist

We’ve all read about how to avoid looking like a tourist – and yes, fitting into our surroundings can be an important way to stay safe in unfamiliar places. But we’ve also learned that it’s important to not let our fear of looking like a tourist interfere with our sense of adventure, fun, or wonder.

The Taj Mahal will take your breath away. The Pyramids will astound you. The majesty of California’s Giant Redwoods will make you question what you really know about the world. And it’s perfectly okay to stop and gasp, ooh and aah, and generally behave like a tourist. Take your “silly” pictures, point at amazing things, and please do stop, stare, and enjoy. The world is far too interesting for us to play it cool all the time.

Requisite silly ‘tourist’ photo when visiting India.

Better Safe than Sorry

Sadly, some of the stories we used to hear often from clients were about trips that had been soured when a pickpocket had made off with a passport or a wallet had fallen out of a pocket when running to catch a train.

Over 25 years ago we began designing our travel clothing with secret pockets that were secure and hidden for valuables like passports, hotel keys, and spare cash. We also include fasteners like Velcro, zippers, and buttons on most of our pockets. We would like to brag that we’ve never seen the need for all of that, but our clients have been proven right time and again.

Better safe than sorry, because you just never know.

Being a Practical Traveler Doesn’t Have to Be a Pain

One of the packing tips we have always offered clients is that if you can’t imagine wearing something less than three times, it’s not worth the extra bulk in your suitcase to bring it. At the same time, who among us hasn’t had the unhappy experience of laundering something in a hotel sink, only to have to pack it the next day while it’s still wet?

We learned a long time ago that our clients wanted travel clothing that not only looked and felt great, but that also washed up easily in the sink and dried overnight. That way, even if that romantic moonlit dinner ends with as much pasta going on your shirt as into your mouth, you won’t wish you’d packed even more stuff or need to shop for emergency duds. You’ll be washed and dried in no time, ready to keep enjoying the journey, and still packing light.

Where did I put the soap?

About Tilley Endurables

Tilley Endurables: Oh The Places You Will Go…

No matter where you go or what you do when you get there, everything we make at Tilley Endurables – from our famous hats to our travel clothing – is designed for the rigours of travel, and still versatile enough for everyday adventures.

Our clothing is wrinkle-, stain-, and pickpocket-resistant, squishable to fit in your carry-on bag, and easy to wash in a hotel sink. With some clever mixing and matching, day looks transition into evening, and business becomes bohemian chic. And, with a few zips, pants or skirts turn into shorts, while jackets turn into vests.

We guarantee so many of our items for life because we make them right in the first place. And we do that right here in Canada – from start to finish. The result is world-class quality and middle-of-nowhere-class durability. How Canadian is that? Tilley.com

Kicking off TBEX 13 in Toronto will be keynote speaker Trey Ratcliff, renowned HDR photographer. We’re very excited that Trey will join us, challenging and encouraging us to look at the world around us through the eyes of an artist.

Trey Ratcliff is a photographer, artist, writer and adventurer. Each day, Trey posts a new photo to his website, StuckInCustoms.com, which receives over half a million monthly page views. Trey has over 9.5 million social media followers via Google+, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. His photos and stories capture the beauty of exotic travel destinations and the humor of bizarre situations he often finds himself in. There is always something new, unexpected and beautiful to see.

Trey is often called a “pioneer of HDR photography.” HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, a technique whereby multiple levels of light are captured for a particular scene and then combined into a single photograph. The resulting images are richly detailed and more closely resemble what you recall of the scene in your mind.

Trey’s photo, Fourth on Lake Austin, was the first HDR photograph to hang in the Smithsonian. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and the BBC, and his photos have accumulated about 1 billion views. His best-selling book, “A World in HDR” sold out on Amazon in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Using a unique teaching style based on curiosity and discovery, Trey has taught hundreds of thousands of people the secrets to his photography techniques.

Trey grew up blind in one eye, which changed the way he has come to experience and visually map the world. This, combined with his degree in computer science and math, has shaped his unique, algorithm-like, approach to capturing a scene that evokes more palpable memories.

Trey is also a successful entrepreneur. His endeavors include popular iOS and Android apps such as 100CamerasIn1, Stuck On Earth, and Photo Voyages. In addition he launched Flatbooks.com, which is a rapidly growing eBook publisher.

We know that many in the TBEX community are familiar with Trey’s HDR photography, and now we’re bringing you this opportunity to hear and meet him. Not registered for TBEX Toronto yet? What are you waiting for? Register now to hear Trey and take advantage of a diverse lineup of education and networking opportunities.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Trey Ratcliff

TBEX Conference Director Mary Jo Manzanares was on the This Week in Travel podcast recently talking about the upcoming TBEX event in Toronto. You can listen to the audio on the bottom link, or watch all the participants chat on the video. We’re particularly excited that veteran TBEXer and travel writer Jen Leo had to say about it:

This is the first time I’ve been psyched about a schedule. The workshops and content that you’re bringing this time is just a step up for veteran bloggers. I think everybody is going to ramp up their game after this TBEX even more than they have before. It’s difficult for someone in this sphere for more than 10 years to learn something new that’s not from a keynote speaker or from an advanced level panel, but I was going through the schedule and thinking, “Oh, I want to go to that one! Oh, I want to go to that one!” That’s what makes me especially excited about this year.

Are you excited about the schedule, too?

Video

Audio

Greetings and salutations!  I’d like to be the first to congratulate you on your courage and bravery.  It takes guts to be able to lay it all out there for us to observe and critique, but stepping forward is the first step to a better blog or website.

This year marks a first for the TBEX conference: a live website critique.  You’ve heard throughout these conferences about all of the theoretical things you can do to your site to make it harder, better, faster, stronger; now it’s time to take what we’ve learned and see the transformation of a site.

So, what will I be checking for?

We’ll start with the overall design – how do the colors, fonts, and layout work with the content being presented?  Is it easy to read on all devices and screens?  Is it responsive, or does it have a mobile layout (either a separate one, or one at all)?

Then we’ll move into the back-end coding – does the theme effectively use the right HTML tags to best display the content? Is the site responsive?  How quickly does the site load?

And finally, a good ole fashioned Google Search. We’ll take a few select keywords that the authors want to rank for and see how that actually plays out in a Google search result.

Would you like to have your website reviewed?

Of course you would!

I’ll have time to review 3-4 sites during the session, but YOU can make sure one of them is yours. Here’s how you can get your blog reviewed:

• Send a tweet to @studionashvegas with the hashtag #tbexcritique.
• You have until  May 28 at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) to send the tweet.
• You can enter as many times as you want – within reason, of course.
• On the 29th, I’ll choose 3-4 lucky victims participants to display their site live for the world to see at TBEX.
• Participants will be chosen by ”http://www.twitterdraw.com/” to ensure fairness.

Have questions about WordPress?

If you have questions about WordPress, blog design, usability, how to make your site the very best that it can, please ask. Any and all questions can be tweeted to @studionashvegas on or before the day of TBEX! I’ll try to cover and answer as many questions as possible during the course of the live critiques.

Good luck, and (once again) I salute any and all of you that put your name forward.  The first step to a better blog is knowing you want to make the changes necessary.

Who goes to TBEX?

Do I have to be a blogger to attend? What if I’m a podcaster?
TBEX is about “the future of travel media” – and that’s media of all kinds. We welcome bloggers, podcasters, videographers, photographers – as well as people who want to learn more about any of those things. TBEX attendees also include travel industry representatives such as destinations, PR agencies, tour companies, travel products, and more.

What level of experience do I need to have for TBEX to be worthwhile?
TBEX welcomes attendees at all levels of experience. With sessions and topics focused on different skill levels, you’re sure to find something that’s just right for you – wherever your skill level or interest area might be.

How can I find out who else is going to the conference and connect with them?
When attendees fill out Twitter names during registration, giving us permission to use it, we create Twitter lists of attendees for each conference, which you can follow and scan for people who interest you. Not everyone fills out a Twitter name during registration, so although these lists don’t represent 100% of the attendees, they’re a great place to start. You can use and search through the #TBEX hashtag on Twitter to find other people talking about the conference, and check our other social media channels for discussions among fellow attendees.

The Twitter lists for Toronto are:

• TBEX Toronto Attendees 1 (we hit Twitter’s 500-person list limit!)
• TBEX Toronto Attendees 2
• TBEX Toronto Sponsors
• TBEX Toronto Speakers

What happens at TBEX?

I’ve never been to any sort of conference before. What should I expect?
TBEX has become a multi-day event that combines workshops, inspirational keynotes, and educational breakout sessions, with business networking opportunities. Our blogger sessions are built upon three core components: Content, Community, and Commerce. We also offer TBEX Business, a series of educational tracks for the travel industry.

Besides the keynotes and classroom sessions, what else happens during a TBEX conference?
We give attendees and sponsors as many opportunities to network as possible, during both Speed Dating and the Open Marketplace as well as coffee breaks, lunches, and evening events. Our host destination works with their partners to create tours, activities, and press trips before and after the conference. That list of events changes with each conference. There’s all the learning and networking going on during the conference, the special events in the evenings, and tours in the days before and after the conference. In short, TBEX is both serious – and seriously fun.

What is “Speed Dating” at TBEX? How does it work?
Speed Dating is a structured networking activity that’s become fairly common in the travel industry. Bloggers and sponsors create a custom schedule of meetings in timed eight-minute segments, each of which provides a chance to meet, start a relationship, and consider future business opportunities. Speed Dating is open to all bloggers, but only industry attendees who are sponsors or who have purchased a Speed Dating table may participate. Here’s the TBEX Toronto Speed Dating Guide, with links to specific guides for bloggers and companies at the bottom of the page.

What’s the difference between “Speed Dating” and the “Open Marketplace?”
Recognizing that the Speed Dating appointments won’t meet everyone’s needs, we’ve created the Open Marketplace as an unstructured session when bloggers and sponsors can network outside the pressure of timed meetings. We hope you’ll take advantage of the Open Marketplace time to meet with people with whom you were unable to schedule an appointment during Speed Dating.

Are there opportunities for press tours while I’m in town for TBEX?
The availability of press tours before and after TBEX varies by conference destination, as these tours are put together by each host destination. In order to make sure you don’t miss an announcement about applying for a press trip, be sure to sign up for the TBEX email newsletter and stay tuned to the TBEX blog and our social channels.

How do I choose which sessions to attend? I don’t want to miss anything.
With multiple sessions going on concurrently, you’re going to have to make some tough choices. This is where a buddy system can come in really handy. Divide the sessions you and your friend(s) really want to attend (so you’re not all going to the same ones), take copious notes, and then swap notes afterward.

How should I prepare for TBEX?

What should I do BEFORE I get to TBEX to make sure I’m properly prepared?

• Think about your goals, for your blog and for the conference. What do you want to get out of attending TBEX?
• Stay in the loop about possible press trips, tours, or other activities that require applications and/or advance sign-up. The best ways to do this are to sign up for the TBEX email newsletter, subscribe to the TBEX blog, and follow our social media profiles.
• Get business cards, and make sure they’ve got your social networks on them as well as site URLs and an email address.
• Consider preparing your “elevator pitch” and a media kit.
• Complete your profile in the TBEX Toronto Blogger Bridge system and browse the lists to see who you might want to connect with at Speed Dating. (You can learn more about Blogger Bridge, setting up your profile, and making appointments via the links to guides on this page.)

What should I bring to a TBEX conference?

• A willingness to both learn something new and share what you know, and a friendly attitude!

Other things that can be really handy to bring along:

• Business cards
• Media kit
• Fine-point Sharpie – This is so you can jot down notes on the business cards you collect, either descriptive information to jog your memory about who someone is or a reminder that you promised to send or do something. Any old pen may work, but with a Sharpie you know you’re covered regardless of what fancy card stock someone’s using on their business cards.
• Refillable water bottle – Yes, we work really hard to make sure you’re fed and hydrated, but it’s always good to bring a refillable bottle if you’ve got one.
• Notebook and pen – We also make every effort to have WiFi available during TBEX conferences, and many people prefer to take notes directly on their laptops or iPads. But keep in mind that when WiFi is burdened with a conference full of bloggers who are all logging in at once (and some of whom are doing things like uploading big videos) it sometimes gets slow or becomes inaccessible. So having a backup note-taking method is recommended.
• Camera and/or video camera – Even if your medium is writing, we’re pretty sure you’ll want at least a camera on hand.
• Power strip – Want to make friends at TBEX? Bring a power strip to the conference venue and share all those extra outlets you’re creating. We all need to recharge our phones and laptops midway through the day (especially given the extensive tweeting, Instagramming, and note-taking going on during the conference), and there never seem to be enough outlets. Attendees with power strips are welcome additions to any mass of bloggers huddled around an outlet, hungrily waiting their turn.

What should I make sure to do AFTER I get home from TBEX to get the most out of my time at the conference?

• Organize the information from all those business cards you collected. If you don’t already have a system for managing blogging contacts, this is the time to create one (or find an app that works for you).
• Follow up with the people you met. This is especially important when it comes to the companies with whom you are most interested in working.
• Did you go on a press trip or any tours while at TBEX that you need to cover on your blog? Did you review restaurants or hotels or anything else during your trip? Did you learn something so incredibly valuable that you can’t bear to keep it to yourself? Did you stumble on a story in the host city that you simply have to tell? Do you want to write a “what I wish I knew before I went to my first TBEX” post for the next newbies? Make a content plan for the posts you want to write – and if it helps you to create a schedule of when you’ll publish things, do that, too.
• And don’t forget – put what you learned into action!

Logistical Questions

How important is getting lodging close to the conference location?
It’s entirely up to you where you stay when attending a TBEX conference (lodging is not included in the conference pass). Many people find it easier to stay relatively close to the conference venue itself, especially when coming in from out of town and not renting a car. Wherever you stay, be sure to take transit time into account so you don’t miss morning sessions. Note that we’ve got accommodation partners listed under “Attendees > Lodging” on the main page of the TBEX website, many of whom have special discounts for TBEXers.

Are all the TBEX events within walking distance or should I rent a car?
The locations for various parties, tours, and meet-ups vary with every conference – but they are not always within walking distance of one another or the conference venue. We work with our hosts to make getting from point to point during TBEX as straight-forward and easy as possible.

Is there some kind of TBEX dress code?
Nope! We encourage you to be comfortable (you’ll be sitting in sessions for two days) and weather-appropriate (Dublin in October probably won’t require the same attire as the Costa Brava in September, for instance), and if you’re signed up for extra activities you’ll need to dress appropriately for those (it’s probably not a good idea to wear high heels on a walking tour, after all). We also think it’s smart to dress in a way that tells potential industry representatives you’re professional. What that means, exactly, is up to you.

How can I make sure I get all TBEX-relevant news?
The best thing to do is sign up for the TBEX newsletter (you’ll find the sign-up form on the right-hand margin of the TBEX website). It comes out weekly via email, and includes the latest from the TBEX blog, reminders about upcoming deadlines for things like press trip applications and ticket price increases, and other information we think is useful to the TBEX community. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow TBEX on our social channels, too.

• TBEX on Twitter
• TBEX on Facebook
• TBEX Community on Google+
• TBEX on Pinterest
• TBEX on Instagram

What do attendees say about TBEX?

Okay, obviously we think TBEX is worthwhile. But what do our attendees think?
Here are some round-ups of what attendees had to say about past conferences.

• Posts about TBEX 2012: Keystone
• Posts about TBEX 2012: Girona

If you have been to a travel conference or trade show of any kind, you know that you will walk out with stacks of business cards. Everyone you meet gives you one. So if you are like me, you put a rubber band around them and throw them in your luggage. Then what do you do with them?

First, you need to spend a few minutes organizing them. Pull out the handful of cards you need to follow up on right away. These high priority cards are obvious. Maybe you discussed specific plans with them when you met them at speed dating, or you talked to them at a party and you know you want to pitch them quickly. Set those aside to work on as soon as possible.

The sheer amount of business cards remaining can be intimidating, so let’s break them up into groups. You don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking it over. Break them out into manageable groups by whatever way makes sense to you. My suggested groups would be other bloggers, brands, and destinations.

Because you are a travel blogger, I’m going to make the assumption that you do not want to continue to carry around an ever growing stack of business cards, even if they are in manageable groups. That’s ok! They are hard to deal with in this form anyway. You need to digitize them!

There are all kinds of ways to do this. You could buy software made for content management, scan them or photograph them and keep them as image files. I found that these options weren’t the best option for me and went a different way. I set up spreadsheets in Google Documents. Not only are they easily accessible to me from any computer anywhere, but I can share them easily. You need to do what will work best for you, but maybe my method will help you get started.

My Spreadsheet Method for Contacts

I have one spreadsheet specifically for brands and one for other bloggers. To handle organization of destinations, hotels and PR companies, I need a more complex system. I have a spreadsheet for every region of the world (e.g. Africa, Pacific, Middle East). I also have separate spreadsheets for the US and Canada. I set up tabs for the countries in the region (or states/provinces).

Within each country tab, I list the contacts for that country. I list their name, title, what type of agency they are with (e.g. hotel, DMO, tour operator), the name of their agency, their location within the country, their email address, comments and whatever else I feel might be necessary. If they are a PR company that reps multiple clients in multiple countries, I copy and paste their information into all applicable tabs.

It might be a little work on the front end, but I have found this to be time well spent. When I need to access contacts later, I can do so easily with this method. If I’m planning a press trip, I can quickly pinpoint the people I have met and I can contact them personally to assist me.

Next Steps

You can choose to hold on to the business cards or toss them after digitizing them in whatever method you choose. I hold on to them, but I’ve yet to physically access the ones I’ve kept in my files. I’ll most likely throw them out in the near future.

Don’t forget that the most important rule of networking is to build relationships.  If you place a contact in your spreadsheets and never reach out to them, when you do need them they might have moved on.  Taking the time to follow up can help you gain opportunities you might otherwise have missed.

Photo credit:  SXC