While we mess around with our Facebook Pages, mobile devices and tweet-crafting, I’d like to pause for a moment and talk about books.

Lots of books, in a place that doesn’t have them, for people who want them very badly.

We’re talking about raising US$80,000 (yes, it’s a lot of zeroes) to build two libraries in Zambia …. the building construction, all the books and educational materials, teacher training and support for three years …. through Passports with Purpose, the annual travel bloggers’ fundraiser.

One of the PwP co-founders, Pam Mandel, is a dear friend of mine and a blogging kindred spirit, so I look forward to this every year. The #PwP hashtag is already jumping on Twitter.

Last year we raised enough money (mostly in US$10 increments) to build an entire village in southern India in partnership with Friends of LAFTI.  This year, PwP is partnering with Room to Read for the libraries.

I started my first travel blog in February 2006, and I’ve supported PwP since the beginning, but this is the first time that I’ve offered a sponsored prize as part of the fundraiser.

It works rather like a raffle – in addition to the goodie I’m showcasing below, you can browse through this full list of travel-related prizes and bid for chances to win whichever ones appeal to you.  At the end of the fundraiser – it runs through December 16, 2011 – one winner of each prize will be randomly selected from all of those who have bid.  A $10 donation per bid is suggested, but if you don’t want to make a donation, mail one self addressed stamped envelope to: Passports with Purpose, P.O. Box 16102, Seattle WA 98116.  Include the name of the prize you are entering to win.

Thanks to Nick from Guerrilla Packs, I get to showcase one of their top backpacks as the Sheila’s Guide PwP prize – the Voltij.  (Shipped to winners in the continental US only – bummer – but the winner can choose red, blue, or orange.)

This pack is designed for the serious traveler/hiker who needs cleverly designed storage space, comfort, and style.  My favorite feature is the detachable day pack, so you don’t have to look dorky wearing the whole framed backpack walking through, say the Uffizi in Florence or grabbing a bubble tea in Shanghai.

Here are some other Voltij specs:

- Detachable padded laptop sleeve shoulder carry bag
- Aluminum internal frame
- Fully adjustable EVERYTHING!
- Built in compass and thermometer
- Rain cover
- Passport pocket & cell phone pocket
- Supports H20 hydration system
- Sleeping bag / wet clothes pocket

Want to know more?

Here’s a helpful video about the pack (direct link to Voltij demo if you can’t see the embed box below:)

For a chance to win this prize or one of many others, go here to the PwP Prize List/Donate page and follow the directions.

Thanks for your support of Passports with Purpose, and I look forward to showing off some photos of the libraries in the next year or so.

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This is Billy Kounoupis, owner of the most excellent, most “not your ordinary diner” – Billy’s Downtown Diner in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley.

After a recent speaking engagement for the regional tourism organization, I asked my hosts for a breakfast recommendation the next morning….and boy, did they ever hook me up!

Billy himself (born and raised in nearby Easton PA) was greeting hungry patrons when we walked in, the place was jammed with all kinds of locals and the menu was one of the most fresh and imaginative I’d ever seen for a diner.

It was really hard to choose, but I went with the Tonga Toast - ”Sourdough bread dipped in our own French toast mix and topped with fresh strawberries, bananas and walnuts. Draped with low fat vanilla yogurt and dusted with cinnamon” for about US$8.00. I ate every bite of it.

My Discover Lehigh Valley host Mike Keller went with the Lil’ Havana Omelette – “Slow roasted pulled pork in authentic Cuban seasonings with grilled ham, Swiss and Pepper jack cheese wrapped by three fluffy eggs and topped with diced tomatoes” for about US$9.00.

I can’t remember what my other host Ryan had that morning, but Mike’s omelette is shown here on the right, before it completely disappeared.

Tomorrow (November 26) Billy has a book signing at the Moravian Book Shop (founded by the Moravians who settled in this part of Pennsylvania) for his new book on hospitality and entrepreneurship, Billy Cooks Like a Mother: A Guide to Starting Your Own Business by Someone Who’s Been There and Done That.

It would make a terrific gift for anyone in the hospitality business.

I love everything about places like Billy’s, and entrepreneurs who make things happen despite long odds and a tough economy.

Thanks for breakfast, Billy.

Disclosure: Discover Lehigh Valley paid for my breakfast, but awesome food that you don’t pay for is still awesome food.

(Direct link to the video below if you can’t see the embed box.)

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This photo is of the ID tag that Loretta’s father wore during his 40 years working as a crane operator at Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania.

She wears it around her neck today as she gives guided tours of the industrial complex that once powered a nation, and is now a collection of rusting hulks and falling-down buildings.

Except, it’s not all falling down.

Today, the plant site is an incredible example of revitalization and industrial tourism called SteelStacks;  it includes a music pavilion next to a former blast furnace, the modern ArtsQuest performing arts building, a new building housing local public television station PBS39 and a bit down the road, a huge (and tastefully designed to fit the industrial theme) Sands Casino.

Loretta will tell you the history of the place during her tour – including fun stories about her Dad – but you’ll have to take care not to fall off of the sidewalk or into a fence while gawking at the renaissance taking place all around you.

Thanks, Loretta, and everyone in Bethlehem PA who honors the past, but believes in and builds a new future.

(Disclosure: I was in the Lehigh Valley as a keynote speaker for their annual regional tourism meeting, so my travel expenses were covered by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but there was no cost to seeing SteelStacks.)

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For those who are not surrounded by like-minded people (whether you’re into chess, growing roses or technology) the world can feel like a lonely place.

“Am I the only one who understands chess problems like Allumwandlung and Maximummer and Zepler doubling?”

“Am I some sort of nutball because I really like deciding between spotted-bloom roses like Cramoisi Picoté and striped ones like Patriot Kordana?”

“No one else in my small town seems to ‘get’ why I care about broadband Internet access, why I blog and what in the world I’m doing on Twitter.”

Fortunately, social web tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the still-relevant forum/BBS make it so much easier than it used to be to find people who share your enthusiasms and interests.  I’m not up to speed on where chess or rose people hang out online, but I can tell you where a bunch of rural and small town technology and social media enthusiasts will be on September 20, 2011.

They’ll be at the 140 Characters Conference Small Town in the gorgeous Fox Theatre in downtown Hutchinson, Kansas.

Uh, where?

Look below:

Right; so if you’re a city kid like me, you’re probably thinking….geesh, look at all that empty space, and those absolutely straight roads going through nothingness, it’s probably flat as a pancake, and I think I recognize the name Wichita for that nearby city….look, did I hear correctly….this is a technology event in the middle of Kansas?

It is, and I give it my City Kid Stamp of Approval.

Not that rural folks need any approval from anyone, and that’s partly the point of this particular event – rural and small town people are geeks and communicators just like urbanites, but it’s a bit harder for them to find one another, learn and socialize when they’re all spread out in less populated areas. This is the first technology-based conference that brings them all together, on their terms but with a global audience, in a cool small town like “Hutch,” with speakers that include farmers, ranchers and small town economic development experts who don’t think a one-stoplight community is a bad idea at all.

After attending the first version of 140 Small Town in 2010, I knew I’d return this year, and I’m honored to be one of many speakers from 17 states on the schedule. My topic is “City Kid Among the Cattle - How Twitter Connects Me to Another World,” wherein I’ll talk about my newfound appreciation, thanks to Twitter, of wide-open spaces, cattle management and farm equipment with mysterious prongy things.

Each speaker only gets one 10-15 minute time slot (better make it snappy!) and no PowerPoint is allowed.  WIN.

Follow the #140conf hashtag on Twitter for info and discussion about all the 140 conferences, including this one, and if you can’t make it in person, Small Town will be livestreamed on UStream.

The best idea, though, is to see it in person: student passes are only $14 and pssst….for non-students/adults, code “friendof140″ gives you a nice, fat discount when you register here.

If you’re a journalist or media person who would like to cover the conference and/or the topic of tech in small towns, here’s the excellent, comprehensive Small Town Media page.

For a quick 90 second overview of the conference, here’s my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray (who organizes Small Town along with its original founder Jeff Pulver) on an Oklahoma Horizon TV episode (direct link to video here.)

Hope I meet you in Hutchinson!

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How, exactly, does a town or city or region get “buzz” – people talking about how interesting it is, and maybe about paying a visit to check things out?

London may have a few answers that you can replicate in your destination.

When I attended the SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive) tech conference in March, I picked up a trade show brochure from the office of the Mayor of London; the British have a big presence at “South by.”  The brochure is called Innovation Future: The East London Connection and it talks about the growth of London’s Shoreditch area as a UK tech hub.

According to the writeup, here are the elements that keep this part of the city hopping….

“The attractions of East London for start-up technology companies, eager to become the next Google or Facebook, are numerous. It is relatively affordable; accessible; and incredibly vibrant and culturally diverse, with plenty of quirky bars and restaurants and an exciting and dynamic arts and culture scene. A strong feeling of community pervades, attracting creative entrepreneurs who thrive on networking, exchanging ideas and forging collaborative relationships.”

There’s nothing in there about needing people with lots of money.

There’s nothing in there about fancy buildings or much of anything swanky.

I see a lot about an environment where the joy of creating is encouraged, and that doesn’t cost money; it “costs” determination and imagination among a variety of citizens in a community, like those at the Shoreditch/Old St. TechHub.

Even small towns can encourage the entrepreneurial and tech spirit, and even one guy in Kansas can support the arts.

What can you do this week to bring some East London to YOUR town?

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Remember how (as Tourism Currents) we set up and ran the first-ever Tourism track at the 2010 BlogWorld online publishing conference?

How we said that you have to go where the geeks are to connect with tech-savvy travelers, and that an event like BlogWorld can supercharge your destination marketing?

And how psyched we were last year to have co-facilitators with us from the Seattle CVB, the Pensacola (FL) CVB, the Beaumont (TX) CVB and meetings expert Jeff Hurt?

Well, in case you haven’t already heard us cheering about it on Facebook or Twitter, we have two confirmed speakers joining us for this year’s Tourism Track at BlogWorld and New Media Expo West, in Los Angeles CA, November 3-5, 2011 (yes, it’s moved from Las Vegas.)

Shanna Smith Snyder from the Abilene TX CVB (a 2011 Texas Social Media Award winner!) and Doug Anweiler from Authentic Seacoast Resorts in Nova Scotia will join us to help teach you more effective use of social media in your destination and hospitality marketing.

We’re also planning on a speed-dating session between our tourism attendees and some of the 8000+ bloggers and online publishers who go to BlogWorld.

Other co-facilitators will be announced soon!

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It’s the kind of unpretentious downtown diner where the owner pauses at the table of a longtime customer, and they commiserate about how their bum shoulders keep them from playing tennis as much as they’d like.

The kind of place where the coffee in your cup never seems to drop below the midpoint of the mug before the waitress is standing there with a carafe saying, “Wouldja like a refill?”

The kind of place that displays pies behind a long counter, in a rack with mirrored shelves so you can see that yes, the meringue really IS that high.

The kind of place that doesn’t list pecans as one of the options for your homemade waffle, but hey, this is Texas, so all you have to do is ask for them. The waitress will say, “Sure, honey.”

The kind of place that serves ice tea in pebbled plastic glasses the size of a small bucket.

It’s the Paris Coffee Shop in Fort Worth on West Magnolia and it has zero to do with Paris, France (the original owner’s name was Vic Paris.)

That guy talking tennis with customers and making sure you’re happy with your order? That’s Mike Smith, son of Gregory K. Smith who bought the place from Mr. Paris in 1926.

I love restaurants like this, especially for breakfast….unpretentious joints like Lou Mitchell’s in Chicago or the Brookside Restaurant in Luray, VA or Cookie’s Soul Food Kitchen in minuscule Ames, TX.

Here’s what I found frustrating from a tourism perspective, though – I found out about this place from a Frommer’s guidebook. The Fort Worth CVB does have a Paris Coffee Shop listing, but I had to already know what I was looking for to drill down the restaurant listings for it, and I had to know that the location is something called “Near Southside.”

The CVB descriptive listing for Near Southside? It is blank.

There is a CVB website link under Restaurants, for Distinctive Dining. It’s a page with a bunch of logos, many of which are to chain places like Ruth’s Chris Steak House and P.F. Chang’s. I mean, I’m sure they’re distinctive in some way, but how unique are they to Fort Worth….like the Paris Coffee Shop?

Tourism organizations must help visitors (including those who are not determined research-junkies like I am) to find those eateries that make your town unique and wonderful.

The world needs more pecan waffles and waitresses who say, “Honey.”

Update:  This post is part of WanderFood Wednesday over on the Wanderlust and Lipstick blog – check out today’s post, Mini No-Meat Burgers (in Tijuana, Mexico.)

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At a recent  gathering for some Chamber of Commerce staff, I heard one of them say that his boss is rather dismissive of any time spent on the Chamber’s Facebook Page, yet if the Chamber is not successful on Facebook, that is seen as a failure.

Rock, meet Hard Place.

I’d love to tell that boss that if Facebook is part of an organization’s communications strategy, then interacting with customers or prospects on Facebook is work. It is not “goofing off.”

Welcome to the modern world – Facebook for business is work. It is part of that Chamber communicator’s job to connect with not only Chamber members, but also people in the community who might become members, including hardworking entrepreneurs who may have never considered the Chamber as an asset for growing their business.

The Chamber should be the hub of business development and economic growth in a community, and one way to interact with the community is through social media channels like Facebook.

The boss needs to get a clue, and if he or she isn’t careful, they’re going to see brain drain by staff members who understand the social Web.

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For a fun update on the week’s news in travel, you might enjoy the “This Week in Travel” podcast.

I was on this past week as a guest for Episode #73 The Travel Blog Game, and hosts Chris Christensen, Gary Arndt and Jen Leo plus my fellow guest Jessica Spiegel were all a rollicking good group. We covered a lot of territory in our news discussions.

Toward the end of the podcast recording we talked about Tourism Currents and which destinations, hotels or organizations do a particularly good job with marketing using social media.

Here was our quick list off the top of our heads:

**  Gary  –  Spain, especially Valencia

**  Jessica  –  Portland, Oregon (she mentioned their Twisitor Center for Twitter updates and news about the city)

**  Jen  –  Downtown Los Angeles on Facebook (nice business district initiative) and the MGM Grand Twitter account for Las Vegas special deals

**  Chris  –  Chicago and Maui (we also discussed the Visit Lanai New Media Artist in Residence program, which Gary will be doing later this month.)

**  Me  –  Well….I got a bit carried away past one or two….so I mentioned Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Oregon’s Coos Bay, @SeattleMaven on Twitter and my “usual suspects” in Texas of Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont and Abilene.

Chris mentioned doing some social media CVB training when he was in Maui, and that local hotels, restaurants and resorts all sent representatives to learn. Smart.

We all gave a shout-out as well to Hawaii-based PR pro Nathan Kam, who does a bunch of tourism work on Oahu.  He’s professional but also very personable and fun, and he reaches out to people online in a very un-market-y way.

Of course we left out plenty of other great examples, but still, that’s a pretty good list if you want to check them out.

I’m happy to hear about your favorite social media stars down in the comments, and have a listen to the podcast when you have a chance!

Update: Gary sent me the code to embed the podcast right here….

Subscribe on iTunes | Become a Fan on Facebook | Download the iPhone app | Download

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You may have noticed that Facebook Pages have a different layout – they look more like personal profiles and you can do some new things while acting administratively as a Page.

For an excellent summary of the changes, see Aliza Sherman’s How Brands Can Make the Most of Facebook’s New Pages (on Mashable,)  plus John Haydon’s Everything You Need To Know About Facebook’s Epic Upgrade to Pages.

Here is what intrigues me about the ability to act as a Page or a brand (representing a CVB, DMO or Tourist Board) and not as a person:  the opportunity for better cross-promotion of your region’s offerings.

Here are a few examples….

**  Heritage trails, wine trails, quilting/craft trails and scenic byways can highlight each of their stops and sights.

**  Chambers of Commerce can interact more effectively as a Chamber with their member businesses.

**  Regional DMOs can interact with the Pages for their towns, agritourism places, trails, attractions, hotels, restaurants, shops, parks and nature reserves.

**  Economic development and downtown development entities can cross-promote their offerings.

Drawbacks?

The usual:  we’ll see ham-handed, intrusive marketing and spammy info broadcasting by people who act like a thing instead of a person.

“Hi, I’m Fred’s Donuts!  Buy me!”

Sherman warned about this on Mashable:

“Posting behind the banner of your brand is fine on your Page, but moving into other spaces as a brand can be invasive and unwelcome.”

What are you thinking about doing with your new powers on Facebook?

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