I’m one more to join the countless posts that are popping out this week about last weekend’s TBEX. For me TBEX was an amazing experience; not so much for the conference itself, but for the bloggers I met after so many months of interacting with them online. Plus, the countless new people I met and experiences I had.
The Weekend…
Let’s say that uneventful is the last word that can describe it. From minute one in NYC my trip started with a 7-hour delay. I later found out that, Kelley Ferro also endured the same painful flight. Sigh, you would have been a good chatting buddy during that looooong night.
That flight also had a side effect that almost left me sleeping on the streets of Vancouver. (hostel cancelled my reservation and every single accommodation was fully booked thanks to the Canucks game) Go Canucks!
Even though I had the luck (BIG luck!) to find a bed later that day on the same hostel, I’m grateful for all my fellow bloggers who offered me a corner of their hostel room and even their house (thanks Traveling Canucks!).
Canucks…
Say what? Not only was I in a foreign country, but I also was in a foreign sports’ dimension. I had no idea how die-hard are the Canucks with their hockey! Every single bar, pub, and street were filled with fans watching Game 5 when the Canucks won over Boston. 1-0 (Gareth… Ayngelina, Akila, and I won our bet!) I had no idea what I was watching, but I went along…
So… TBEX…
So what about TBEX? Hmm, mixed feelings…
First the good…
I have to say that Evelyn Hannon’s (@journeywoman) keynote speech was the highlight of the whole event. She opened TBEX with an inspirational story of how she started as a solo female traveler in the 70’s, her highs, her lows, and everything in between, and how up to this day she’s stayed true to what made her set out from the first time. BRAVO! Thank you for sharing your story! A great reminder to stay on track with your purpose.
Evelyn of Journeywoman
Some good advice from the sessions:
- Your piece is not about your trip; it’s about your reader’s trip. Use it to make your reader as if he/she is your companion and is traveling with you.
- Tell your story and look for things that define a place for you, not just the generic conception of a place. That’s why readers want to read from you.
- Use yourself as a window into a place, but don’t make it all about you.
- Read your stories out loud. It sounds different than reading it in your mind.
- Think like a 3-year-old to find new ways of experiencing and describing the things you see and experience.
- Try not to sound too wide-eyed. Show, don’t tell. Explore the details of the things you see and experience.
- Have an opinion. Being neutral all the time is boring.
- Don’t be afraid to do the opposite of what people might expect.
- Using negative headlines are good to get readers’ attention.
- And I reemphasize… It’s not all about you, it’s about your readers too.
Some of the sessions I considered to be good were the photography session with Kirsten Alana and Peter West Carey, the “Polyglottony” session with Benny Lewis, and even Gary Ardnt’s “State of the Travel Blogging Union” just saying things plainly as they are.
Now comes the bad…
Although I didn’t expect any magic beans that would bring me star blogger success, I sort of expected more of the sessions and workshops. While some of them were really good and interesting to listen (like the ones mentioned above), the others fell somewhat flat and talked about the generic stuff we read daily among different blogs. But it’s ok, I think they were good in a beginner’s level.
TBEX, care to give more juice on the following years?
And then there’s the ugly…
Who organized this?! Ok I know who did… but, what?
TBEX was so disorganized, lack of information ruled the day, and technical problems popped here and there. I didn’t go to TBEX NYC, but I had heard the same stories about it. Turns out, this year seemed to be sort of the same.
I recommend spending some money on hiring professionals who know how to plan events like these and keep them running smoothly.
At first I though I was the only idiot who didn’t know about or didn’t have the chance to attend “official TBEX parties”. Well, again, lack of information ruled and many bloggers were in the same situation. Just one more point… Private sponsor’s parties and events are one thing and are fine to have their limited attendance, but I think it’s kind of rude to limit substantially the entrance and not invite every registered attendee to official parties and other events in the official TBEX schedule. Anyways, let’s move on… I recommend reading Michael’s brutally honest opinion about TBEX. I totally agree with him.
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My take…
As I expected from the very first day I bought the ticket, TBEX for me was going to be a social gathering; and it lived and surpassed my expectations! From day one I had the chance to spend time with so many of my friends from the Social Media Connect group and other bloggers who I admire and follow. That was my biggest take from TBEX.
With Cathy of TravelingwithSweeney.com
Oh, and Vancouver! But I’ll leave this one for another deserving post.
BTW, here’s a funny post with hilarious pics of “TBEX Society“
Will I go next year?
I would if I could; only to see again the familiar faces I spent time with during this past weekend plus getting to know a few new more. I had an amazing weekend this year, to say the least, so I would repeat it again!
But for the moment, I think I will be in the other side of the world missing you guys…
Did you go to TBEX? How was it for you?
Images 1, 3, 4, and 6 by Kirsten Alana from Flickr’s Creative Commons.
A good post Norbert! I think there were a lot of good things to take away from this event. Meeting people and some of the sessions (like Robert Reid, Benny Lewis, and Gary Arndt) were really good. I really came away with a much better focus for myself. I really have worked hard over the last few days to really get a better direction for me so I have appreciated that.
There were some negatives and like you and many others, I read Michael’s post about it. I agree with many of his points and think it can definitely be improved. The key is to take the feedback given and get better. Really take it to heart. Like us travel bloggers, I think they are evolving and learning how to do things better as well. It’s not perfect by any means and I want to get a lot more out of it in the future. However, it was a great weekend overall! Great meeting you!
Thanks Jeremy! Yes, there were a lot of positive things about TBEX. In my case, the top one was getting to meet you all… by far! There were a few things during the sessions that did help create some focus and improvement, but I think that what took it to the next level was discussing it with other travel bloggers and getting their feedback.
I agree with what you say. the travel blogging “business” is still young (just like Gary mentioned too) and there is still a lot for us to learn about this industry and how to manage it properly, and that includes TBEX.
I had a great weekend and I had so much fun in Vancouver! It was great meeting you too!
Thanks for this post. I have my ticket booked for next year, and am incredibly nervous about the whole thing. This type of honesty helps me prepare for what I will experience.
Hey Erik! I definitely encourage you to go because the experience of meeting other bloggers is one of the best things you will take away from TBEX. From what I’ve seen, sessions can range from good and educative to flat. It all depends on your overall blogging knowledge. Some comments of this year’s TBEX was to create some advanced sessions, in addition to the basic sessions to speak to the different audiences that are interested in different things.
My recommendation for you is to go there with socializing and networking as your main goal… the sessions are an extra.
I didn’t make TBEX this year, but did in NYC last year… I couldn’t agree more, meeting the people make the event so worthwhile. Thanks for the recap from JourneyWoman, her point….
“Your piece is not about your trip; it’s about your reader’s trip. Use it to make your reader as if he/she is your companion and is traveling with you.”
… well that just changed my post tonight. thanks for that reminder.
stay adventurous, Craig
Thanks Craig! I wish I had gone to TBEX last year since it was right in my backyard…
Yes, JourneyWoman and a few other speakers gave some good points on narrative speaking and storytelling that are very good to keep in mind when showing your readers your experience about your trip.
See, you got something out of TBEX without even going there… lol
I appreciate the roundup. I wasn’t there so I was very curious to know how it all went and what happened. I want to go next year, do I need to book already like Erik did? I hope to see you there!
Hey Grace! I recommend you book it because a lot of people are doing it on the pre-sell. In case you don’t get a ticket now, they sell more tickets later and even people resell their tickets for various reasons (like it happened this year).
I would love to go next year, but there’s a high chance I will not since I “should” be somewhere in my RTW. But, if I can make a quick jump to Colorado (where TBEX is next year), I will definitely do it!
love the event wrap-up! i was there, and honestly i don’t know if i will get around to writing a post re: the conference. re: vancouver, absolutely. all in all, it was a good time. i feel you on those private parties. at times, i felt left out, but oh well, we made the most of our time and had fun anyway.
Hey Suki… Oh, we might have crossed eachother without even knowing… lol
I did have a great time over there since I had the chance to meet the people I was looking forward to meet. On the parties, oh well, at least I managed to sneak in two of them… lol… sneaky me!
I won’t go into the bad things about TBEX as numerous others have already done that, but I will say that despite the bad I am still very glad I went. I can certainly see how the bloggers that have been in it for a while found the sessions boring, as a newbie I found many of them to be very informative. I took away a lot of information in those two days! I think it would be really great in the future if they did sessions aimed at newbies and sessions aimed at pros, so that everyone comes away feeling like they gained some knowledge.
And of course, the networking was priceless.
Hey Amy! I agree with you. In future TBEX these should be basic and advance sessions so that everyone can get the most info out of what they really want to learn about. Like you, I’m glad I went because the networking was priceless!
Still, I wish I had met even more people…
Thanks for the roundup Norbert! The advice sounds so simple, but in reality it’s much harder than it seems. I don’t consider myself to be a good travel blogger, I just run a website that encourages people to travel because I love to travel so much and think everyone should do it. We have gotten submissions from “travel bloggers” that were so bad (as in they probably didn’t read the article out loud before sending it to us) we practically had to rewrite them. Hopefully, TBEX will continue to address improvement in the travel blogging/writing world. The photos are great. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hi Jerri! Thanks! I agree with you… those advice might seem simple but when you sit to write something and try to apply all or most of them it truly feels like a challenge. I hear you about the lousy submissions. I’ve had a few of those and I’ve even asked them to modify them because the quality was too low. In the end, what we want is to deliver a good and coherent message that inspires other to travel! This year’s TBEX did a decent job in speaking about narrative and non-narrative travel writing. BTW, I love your site!!
Thanks for the report. I’m considering going next year and hope some of the kinks get ironed out. I definitely look forward to getting to meet folks in person!
You’re welcome. Yes, I think it is good to go. Whether they fix those issues or not, make your trip’s main purpose to be a networking opportunity. That’s the biggest thing you will get from it.
great to meet you and have a bunch of chances to hang out when we were there — meeting great travel bloggers there was amazing. Totally fabulous weekend of networking and just talking about blogs and travel and meeting you was one of the highlights. Thanks!
Thanks! Likewise. Yes, the networking and getting to meet you all was one of the highlights. I had a great time and laughed so much with your occurrences and just hanging around.
Bookmarked! I am hoping that there will be a leg in Southeast Asia soon!
It was great finally meeting you in person Norbert! Glad you enjoyed your time in Vancouver!
Likewise Cam, so great to finally meet you! I had such a great time in Vancouver. I only wish I had more time to enjoy more of the city since most of my time was spent on TBEX stuff, but still, I LOVED spending my time there getting to know you all and chatting and partying, and what not… I’m definitely going back to Vancouver!
Norbert, thanks for this post. I had a ticket but then couldn’t go as I moved back to Europe before the conference
I had been warned about organisational issues , so it’s sad to see that there wasn’t an improvement from the year before. Thank you for sharing the key tips from Evelyn’s keynote speech though, I appreciate this especially since I couldn’t go. I’m really disappointed though that I missed out on meeting you and all the other fantastic bloggers I have met over the last few months! Well, perhaps next year then. And let’s hope for better organisation and coordination!
You’re welcome Christina. Yes, they still have organizational issues, but honestly, it’s not the worst case. Evelyn’s keynote was awesome as well as the overall tips we got here and there during TBEX. I would have loved to meet you there as for me the greatest benefit of TBEX is meeting all the travelers you’ve been interacting for a while. I’m sure we’ll cross paths soon.