Networking Not Your Cup of Tea? Come To TBEX Athens And I’ll Help You

Lady of the Parthenon at the Parthenon Museum in Athens, GreeceSo its all set in stone now. I’m due to speak at TBEX Athens on networking. My friends have always said I could talk to a flea, so I guess that’s a compliment. I was also that kid in school who could not stop talking in class; I’m better now, honest :-).

Over the years, I’ve met many people; some have blossomed into great friendships, others not so much. But that’s networking, you don’t always relate to everyone you meet.

On Friday, October 24, 2014 at noon, I will focus on you. My talk will provide techniques and tips geared to help you learn how to network without becoming annoying and becoming frustrated.

The session will draw from personal experiences as well as observations from life and attending previous conferences. Come prepared to interact with and meet new people.

  • If you’re scared to introduce yourself, you must attend.
  • If you’ve introduced yourself, but can’t hold the conversation, you must attend.
  • If you’re just curious, you definitely must attend.

In case you want to practice what you’ve learnt, check out this post about continuing the networking in the pre- and post- TBEX events.

See you there. Learn More about TBEX Athens and Register.

Will you be there? Leave a comment below and let me know.

Networking: The Art Of Meeting Other Bloggers

Welcome to the Problogger Event 2013As a travel blogger, one of the best things you can do is to attend conferences and network with your fellow bloggers and conference speakers.

So for my next act, I journeyed to Gold Coast, Australia to attend Darren Rowse’s Problogger Event 2013. I wanted to do the same in Melbourne, Australia last year, but that was not to happen, but instead I enjoyed it virtually and live.

I arrived in Gold Coast two days early, so I could acclimatize myself as well as relax before the event.

Darren had an excellent line up of speakers ready to go by the 8:30a kickoff on Friday morn. I was pleasantly surprised that during his keynote he interviewed select bloggers so we could have an insight into what makes them tick. Kudos! This continued each time he had to deliver a session where he was alone on stage.

What I really like about this event is that the recordings are available soon after the talks were over (You can have them too). There were a few glitches on the first day, but I did not notice as I was too busy attending the sessions as well as networking. And networking is the main reason by I attended conferences. No other place would I meet the people who speak at the conferences and the attendees. Now its so much easier to communicate with the people you met as they know you.

Amy Porterfield at the Problogger 2013 EventAmy Porterfield killed it with her Facebook session. I have two of her courses on Facebook and Facebook Ads and I learned a ton more just from listening to her. Thank you Amy.

Trey Ratcliff was one of the persons Darren talked to in the morning; we have a Math and Computer Science degree in common and we both love Captain Picard, so now we follow each other on twitter. Trey is also a very personable person. I had missed his talk at TBEX Toronto. I enjoyed his keynote the next morning as I loved his presentation style. I’m already thinking of how I can use that in my future talks.

I attended a few other sessions on Speaking, Analytics as well as Video Editing. Plus I met a ton of new bloggers as well as someone from Linkshare (Affiliate Marketing) to answer some questions I’ve had for ages. Oh, did I mention there was an awesome party? This gave us another opportunity to interact with each other and get to know each other just a bit more. I always ensured I said hello to everyone I sat next to; it’s only polite to do so.

Later that Saturday, we celebrated the birthday of Craig from YTravel.com. It was great to meet he and his wife as well as other bloggers in a social setting.

Travel Bloggers at the PbEventOn Sunday, post conference, I was able to hang out with five other bloggers compliments of Darren and the Tourism Queensland folks. They treated us to a day in Queensland, where we rode bicycles compliments of the host hotel QT Gold Coast, had lunch at the Seaport Surf Club, took a jetboat, rode two rides at Warner Brothers Movie World, lunch at the Spice of Life in the mountains then went to the Tamborine Mountain and did the SkyWalk and finally beer and cheese at the MT Gallery. Now I have a ton of content for my blogs.

Monday, I slept in and then despite the rain I took the local bus and went back to Sovereign Island as I wanted to get a closer look at the homes we saw on out jetboat trip. Holy wow!

As I write this, a storm has moved in and I have a 6a flights. But I’m super happy about coming to Gold Coast for the PB Event. Thanks Darren and team.

So next time you can make a conference, you should definitely do so as its a treasure trove and is always worth it. How as your problogger event?

New To Travel Blogging? Then check out my FREE Travel Blogging 101 Course.

Hanging with Austin Powers and Marilyn MunroePB Event Darren's pensive look PB Event Virgin australia flight attendant serving ice cream

Get Your Virtual Pass for ProBlogger’s Event in Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne, Australia seen from the Eureka Tower

Problogger Event 2012 Darren Rowse is a well known blogger from the very popular site ProBlogger.net.  I’ve met Darren in person at BlogWorld and he knows his stuff.  From 12 October to 13 October (Melbourne time), he is holding an event in Melbourne, Australia.  Sadly, the physical tickets are currently sold out, but he is offering a virtual ticket. You can find out more about how to attend this virtual blogging event from my affiliate link.  Hurry as the prices go up after 9 October, 2012.

From Darren’s site, the virtual pass delivers the following benefits:

  • Hear about techniques that successful bloggers have used to grow their blog’s readership
  • Learn about blog profitability
  • Be inspired to create content that engages current readers and draws in new ones
  • Up to date blogging approaches and trends
  • The ability to introduce yourself online to the bloggers in attendance.

Get Your Ticket Today.

The Importance Of Getting Out There And Meeting New People

Porto sunset with bloggers

Porto sunset with BloggersI recently attended Travel Bloggers Unite conference in Porto, Portugal.  The conference was well worth attending and the contacts and experiences I had were outstanding.  I can’t stress the importance of getting out there, meeting people and introducing your brand as well as sharing and learning from your peers plus building new experiences.

If you want to see what went on during the conference go to twitter and search for the has tag “#tbupor”.  But I’d like to share my own experiences in an effort to stimulate your interest in attending conferences and networking.

I arrived at TBU a day early just so I can go to the pre-arranged meet up at a local bar (La Boheme) in the city. This was great as I knew very few people who were attending the event.  Meeting folks pre-conference is recommended as it makes the conference itself go by quicker.  It was great to finally meet Keith Jenkins from Velvet Escape as we interact over on the facebook Group, Global Bloggers Network, but never met face-to-face.  I also met a number of other new travel bloggers and got to understand and interact with them a little more.

Porto-Palacio DabolsaThe next day, we had early morning tours setup with the Portugal Tourism Board; these were sensational as we all got an opportunity to experience Porto from a local Guide’s perspective. I went on a tour of the old Porto Stock Exchange as well as parts of  downtown Porto including the bookstore that J.K. Rowlins used at some point during her writing of the Harry Potter book series.

The Stock Exchange is magnificent, especially the Arabian room.  There was a bit of a commotion over photos, since photos were not allowed; but as we were with the local media, Publico, who were filming and interviewing us, it all went well in the end.

Traffic from Publicio's web site to Travelblogger101.comOur story made the local paper the next day, so that gave some of us additional publicity.  As it turns out my site Cruisinaltitude.com as well as this site, travelblogger101.com has increased traffic from Portugal as a result.  If you go to Porto, ensure that you see the Stock Exchange and see the Arabian Room; I’m pretty sure you’ve never seen anything like that before.  Its also the room where the Euro Treaty was signed.

That night, we were the guest once more of the Portugal Tourism Board for a welcome party at a local place called  the Pousada do Porto Freixo Palace Hotel.  Wine, food and music were all provide, plus we had a chance to meet other travel bloggers as well as members of the Tourism Board.  Plus, we did not just walk there, we took a sunset boat cruise down the Douro River to the venue.

The next day was the first full Conference Day where we got to listen to our peers educate us on different aspects of the business.  I think everyone came away with some task from these sessions.  Our day started with a keynote talk from Deb & Dave from Planet D talking to us about our Passions and how to use them as the basis for our businesses.  I had a great talk with them after about their passion and their life and business.

The folks from World Travel Market were also on hand encouraging us to attend their conference.  I’ll also do the same again as its an excellent conference to meet the Tourism Boards from almost 200 countries worldwide all in one place.  WTM is also treating us as journalists so we get full access to the event.  Chek out more details at WTMLondon.com.

One of my best takeaways is that I went to a talk about 10 SEO Tips by Scott McLay and learned that the plugin I use on all my sites was not exactly as friendly as I was led to believe.  So Scott helped me to get rid of it and installed one from Yoast, the WordPress for SEO from Yoast.  I’ll now update the other sites to suit.  Scott also answered a few other questions that I had as well. He’s just a simply brilliant guy especially in the SEO world.

I attended a WordPress Advanced Talk and met Chris Richardson who runs RTWLabs.com.  Chris has a lot of knowledge and will take care of your site while you go away and blog for what I think is a nominal monthly fee.  His task is to take the worries out of the tech.  I loved his talk as I have a few things to implement as a result.  Check out his site and tell him I recommended him.  He is also a fellow traveler blogger known as The Aussie Nomad.

The afternoon of the second Conference Day was an Unconference.  if you don’t know, an “Unconference” is where the attendees write down topics they’d like to present and then other attendees sign up.  I’ve never been to a conference where this never turned out well and TBU was no exception.  I learned what a “jogger” is (U.K. term for a journalist) from Sarah Lee from LiveShareTravel.com, who is a jogger herself and also a blogger; Craig Martin from Indie Travel Podcast talked about Affiliate programs and Rachelle Lucas from TheTravelBite.com told us all about video editing using iMovie which spawned into learning Animoto.  A great afternoon of learning.

Kash and Kerwin at Gallery HostelThe night was capped off by a meetup organized by the guy with the most energy from the Conference Kash from BudgetTraveller.org; he blogs about luxury hostels, yes, there is such a term :-).  Of course we met up at a luxury hostel, the Gallery Hostel in the center of Porto.  We had a great meal sponsored by the hostel which included chicken, beef, rice and of course wine.  Afterall, we are in Porto.  A great end to the main part of the conference.

TBU Porto Destinology Travel Bloggy AwardsThe Bloggy Awards was the event that capped off Saturday night.  The event was held on the banks of the Duoro River at the Communications Museum, transformed into a dinner venue just for us.  This was the perfect place to see the Porto sunset.  Here I took the opportunity to add my entry to Mario’s Web site SomeoneOnceToldMe.com.  This site let’s you submit a picture of you and something that someone once told you. I was thrilled to make my entry.

Helena, Kerwin and Felipe at TBUPerhaps the best part of the event was visiting the Douro Valley with a local tour guide.  This event was organized by the Portugal Tourism Board and lasted two days and was basically, eating, drinking and experience nature and the vineyards and restaurants of the Douro Valley.  The tourism team of Filipe, Rui and Helena just did an incredible job of organization the local Visit Portugal events, so thanks to everyone once more.

Main House in a Vineyard in the Duoro ValleyGroup Photo on a boat in the Douro ValleyWe were a small group of 16 people who were randomly thrown together as we had to pick our tours beforehand.  I was delighted to meet everyone and get to understand why they blog, what they blog about and learn some tips and also share my knowledge as well.  The group was varied in sex, age ethnicity and experiences so it all worked well.

So the bottom-line is that you should be seeking out these conferences and attend the ones that suit your budget.  The next Travel Bloggers Unite Conference is not yet scheduled, but hope on over to the Web site and the details will be posted soon.

TBU Porto  Business CardsNow, my work begins, here’s the stack of cards from the event.  Here’s a list of some travel bloggers blogs whom I met, please support them by checking out the blogs:

 

What was your take on the event? Please leave a comment below if you attended.

Are You Attending World Travel Market 2012 in London This Year?

WTM - ExhibitorsA big part of becoming a Travel Blogger is networking and when you think you’ve done networking, network some more.  The World Travel Market being held in London, England at the Excel Center from 5-8 November, 2012 is an excellent place to do this.

I first went to WTM last year (2011) on a suggestion from Gary Arndt from Everything-Everywhere.com whom I’d met at BlogWorld in Los Angeles and he was also heading there.  I went online and looked up the details, contacted my friend who lives in London and got it all worked out.  Prior to that I had no idea it all existed.

WTM 2011 was one of the better conferences I’ve ever attended.  The networking was intense (more about that later) and it had really good sessions albeit in somewhat small rooms so the lines were pretty long to get in.  Also, you had to stalk out your space as the interest in some of the sessions was insane.  But all with good reason as this conference  delivers.  And guess what its free!  Just fill out a detailed registration form and you are in.  Here is a list of the travel blogger-related sessions you don’t want to miss this year.  I’m an airline geek, so I’ll try to attend some of the airline sessions hoping they won’t conflict wit the travel blogger sessions.  The full list of event can be seen here.

It also has exhibits from countries all over the world.  Its sheer craziness.  I certainly did not even have time to visit all the exhibitors, but I sure tried.

In addition toWTM - Janice Waugh from Solotravelerblog.com all this, there are parties after the daily activities where you can mingle and meet other travel bloggers and influencers.  It was great to meet people whom I’d only read about online and just also met for the very first time.  It was there that I met Nomadic Matt, Janice from Solo Traveler and Travel Bloggers Unite’s Oliver.

There was also a number of other parties where we all got a chance to hang out with each other and got to know bloggers a bit more.  It was all a lot of fun and totally worth it.

One of my fond memories of the event though is the scavenger hunt that was put on by Travel Trails.  This was a special event and I really enjoyed it.  I got special mention as I did the hunt without a smartphone to guide me and still finished it.  The pot of gold was at a bar in the ShoreWTM - Travel Panelditch area where you got to meet and mingle with other travel bloggers.  I made many contacts there which I have to this day.

If you don’t have a friend to stay with, you will need a place to stay.  Here are some Affiliates for you to choose from; two (9flats.com and Enjoy Bed and Breakfast) of them I met last year at WTM:

In case you need one you may use these links.

  1. 9flats.com finds places in locals homes (met at WTM 2011)
  2. Airbnb.com finds places in local homes
  3. hotels.com – finds all kinds of accommodations worldwide
  4. Enjoy Bed and Breakfast – finds bed and breakfasts worldwide (met at WTM; not an affiliate link).

Register Today.