Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

Carnival ride at night (courtesy AcrylicArtist at Flickr CC)

Welcome to the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, where we tour the world in a single post, via submissions from a variety of different blogs, all about any aspect of one, single city or fair-sized town.

We normally publish every other week, although my business travel caused a lot of delays in the last month. The next edition will be hosted on the Perceptive Travel blog.

If you would like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog, please contact me as the Carnival organizer:  Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. You do need to register on the carnival administration website (it’s easy and free) to submit to this or any blog carnival.

Here’s more info and background about the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, and now….

Off we go!

Cities in the Americas

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA   Linda Mundy presents Las Vegas is a Great City! posted at Linda’s Las Vegas, saying, “My first post on a blog intended to highlight the hidden facets of Las Vegas and surrounding areas.”

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada   Zhu presents Skyline of Ottawa – By the River posted at Correr Es Mi Destino, saying, “Just like that, overnight, some­one switched the heat on and we went from freez­ing to sweat­ing. Or more exactly, from single-digit tem­per­a­tures to a balmy 27°C. Wel­come to Ottawa, where spring is a two-day tran­si­tion between win­ter and summer!”

Los Angeles, California, USA   Leslee Haralson presents The Wild, Wild West posted at Ready for Adventures, saying, “The city of Los Angeles has many museums, but the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage brings Hollywood and history together.”

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA   Byteful Travel presents First Impressions of Hawai’i posted at Byteful Travel, saying, “Kona, Hawaii — Today is only my 4th day on the island, but I feel like I’ve been here much longer. In short, it has been magnificent. This island really does have a strange kind of magic to it, and I can easily say that in all my travels I have never been to such an incredible place. As I’ve learned, Hawaii is the only US State where myth has been woven into the very fabric of the culture itself, often with fascinating results.”

Manassas, Virginia, USA   I was personally awed. What Jennie Dean built in Manassas, Virginia will live forever is posted at Perceptive Travel Blog; the inspiring memorial to a woman who was born a slave, and built an entire educational campus through determination and persuasion.

Cities in Europe

Copenhagen, Denmark   lozula presents What the Segway? A tour through Copenhagen, posted at Finding the universe, saying, “Taking a Segway tour through Copenhagen”

(more…)

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Kia Sportage front view. My ageing minivan was a little jealous about having this vehicle in our driveway. (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

The human brain is a stubborn, funny thing. It believes what it wants to believe, and trying to get someone to change that – to literally “change their mind” – is one of the most difficult challenges faced by communications professionals.

I was reminded of that recently while test-driving a pretty little cherry red Kia Sportage, and I think remembering this is very important when you are marketing a destination, attraction or hotel that may no longer be what people think they remember.

Now, I am a car salesperson’s worst nightmare. I’m not much impressed by glitz, I’m very price-conscious, I’m comfortable with mechanical things thanks to some time in Navy engineering departments (so you try to BS me at your peril) and I will drive a car till the wheels fall off before I’ll buy a new one.

The last time I really researched cars before buying was about 2003, and ten years ago, vehicles by Korean manufacturers like Hyundai and Kia did not have a good reputation for much of anything other than being inexpensive. The Edmunds.com Sportage review says that early on, the Sportage was a “cheap, poorly made penalty box….” (ouch!)

If you keep reading, though, Edmunds notes that “today’s Sportage is now a stylish and well-rounded compact crossover SUV….[it] has gone from a baboon to a Neanderthal and then George Clooney in the span of 15 years.”

Picking up some craft brew at Choc Beer HQ in Krebs, Oklahoma (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

That’s exactly what I found, to my considerable surprise, when I test-drove the vehicle from central Texas all the way north to speak at the Social Media Tulsa (Oklahoma) conference, and then back down south to do a social media workshop for the Tyler, Texas CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) before finally returning home.

If I’m ever in the market to buy a car, I will now absolutely consider looking at a Kia, which I NEVER would have done had I not physically gotten into one, checked it out and poked through its features like great pickup speed, decent gas mileage, push-button start, rear-camera display for backing up safely, a massive sunroof and gobs of tech-friendly touches like multiple USB/auxiliary inputs to plug in and charge my gadgets.

This particular Sportage model included a SiriusXM radio package with a fabulous sound system – imagine, if you will, me screaming up the Interstate with Guns N’ Roses blaring from my iPod, which hooked right into the dashboard.

I was not all that crazy about the navigation system, though. It seemed to want specific street addresses, whereas with (free) Google Maps on my Android phone, I can simply plug in a town and get going in the right direction, with turn-by-turn voice nav if I want it.

Interior of Kia Sportage (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

I’d never have given this brand a second glance if they had not gotten the product into my hands. Now, let’s take this lens of personal experience and think about your town.

What was it like 10 years ago, when some of your visitors last passed through?

Was it Sleepyville, like my mother’s hometown of Winnsboro, Texas that is now an arts enclave? Was it big oil and not too much else, like the resurgent Oklahoma City that now boasts unexpected attractions like an Olympic class rowing facility on a recently re-routed river?

When destination marketing is your job, and you know your subject well after years of talking about it with visitors, it can be very difficult to do that mental shift and remember that many people have very outdated views of your town. When I expressed surprise at the OKC Chamber of Commerce about the rowing facility, they were surprised by my surprise. I had to remind them that there was no river a few years ago, so of course the idea of OKC as a rowing destination seems absurd unless you’ve been there recently.

Kia Sportage rear view (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

Think like a visitor as much as you can train your brain to do so, and that includes thinking like the people who have not visited in a long time.

Things change, in towns and in cars.

(Thanks to Social Media Tulsa, Drive STI and Kia Motors America for arranging my test drive.)

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License to IL t-shirt from the T-Shirt Deli in Bucktown, Chicago, IL (photo by Sheila Scarborough – please give design credit to T-shirt Deli)

While wandering around the resurgent Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhood in Chicago before the SOBCon business conference, I stumbled across the T-Shirt Deli. It was cleverly laid out like a real delicatessen, but with t-shirts as the offering instead of provolone and salami.

I need another t-shirt in my closet like I need a hole in my head, but I could not resist this one. Even if you aren’t a fan of the 1986 Beastie Boys debut album “Licensed to Ill,” it’s hard not to smile at the play on words.

Warning:  although I bought the biggest women’s t-shirt size they carry, it still runs über-small. I’m looking at it as a get-in-shape motivator.

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One person’s story matters when it is multiplied (courtesy Richard Parmiter at Flickr CC)

Here is a social media ROI (Return on Investment) case study with a sample group of one: me.

This is what the dashboards, analytics and all that jazz have such a hard time showing you, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

A few years ago, I heard about a guy named John O’Nolan while following a Twitter hashtag from a travel blogging conference in Europe where he was one of the speakers (I think it was Travel Bloggers Unite.)  John sounded smart and interesting. I met him in person – no more than a hello and a quick handshake – at the TBEX: Travel Blog Exchange travel blogging conference in 2012. He was also part of the now-defunct Travelllll.com site, which I read and liked.

On April 29, I got an email from him (he sent a one-time announcement to the leftover email list from Travelllll.com) about his latest project, a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new blogging platform called Ghost.

I thought, “That’s nice, but I’m fine with WordPress. I wish him well.”

The next day, I happened to see a tweet by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger that the Ghost Kickstarter campaign had raised all their funding within 12 hours. Wow!

Since I never “sensed a disturbance in the Force” demanding new ways to blog, I decided that maybe I’d missed something, so I took a few minutes to watch the video about Ghost that was embedded in Darren’s post, and from that video learned that a Senior Developer from one of my very favorite businesses (Hannah Wolfe from MOO.COM) is heavily involved in creating Ghost.

Now, not only is John worth supporting, but also ….

1)  I absolutely adore everything about MOO – how their website works, the way they make my Tourism Currents business cards, the funny Buzzword Bingo cards that they ship with some of their print products – everything! Anyone associated with that fabulousness is my kind of person, and,

2)  The world needs more geeky women, so I’m happy to see Hannah in the thick of developing Ghost.

That was it for me. I headed over to the Ghost Kickstarter page, pulled out my credit card and pledged to the cause (it’s the first time I’ve ever given money on Kickstarter.)

Let’s review the math….

I connect with John on Twitter, I read the travel industry blog he’s associated with, I open and read an email from him because his name was on it so I trusted it, I see additional compelling info about his project via a tweet from a blogger that I also trust, I read the blogger’s post and watch a video within that post and I learn of a connection with a company I already admire thanks to their great products and customer service.

All of that (“touch points” in marketing-speak) was what it took for me to go slap down some money for building a blogging platform, not because I dislike my current platform, but because I like and trust the people involved and want to help them succeed.

Yes, that is only one example of a positive ROI from social communications. Yes, if I hadn’t drawn the thread for you, it would be hard to prove that some hashtagged tweets from a conference a few years ago led to a conversion and real money …. but it did.

Multiply that times thousands/millions, and allow time for things to develop – I mean allow months and years, because this is a long game – and there’s your positive return on the investment of human relationships and trust started and nurtured through social media.

Sometimes it’s quick and “easy,” but most of the time it’s tangled and slow, because we’re talking about people and trust and time.

Start asking customers how they found you and why they bought from you; it’s such a basic thing to do, but sometimes it’s the only way to capture the proof that what you’re doing with social media does matter, and it does bring results.

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Some influential online communicators either don’t have a blog or it’s pretty dormant. Their channels are elsewhere.

They might be big on Facebook, or very active on Twitter, or photo powerhouses on Flickr and Instagram, or busy with LinkedIn, but a blog is not the primary place where you’ll find them.

For example, Steve Rubel, Chief Content Strategist for Edelman, quit blogging on his own Micro Persuasion site in 2009, but he’s very active on Twitter and does a lot on LinkedIn. If you look for his old blog, you’ll be redirected to a Tumblr blog on a  .me domain that hasn’t been updated since October 2012.

He’s a prolific content creator, but I’m not sure I’d call him a blogger anymore.

I’m starting to use the term “online publisher” instead of “blogger.” I can’t think of any other word or phrase that encompasses all of the ways that people create and share digital content, but nobody ever knows what I’m talking about when I use it.

People have finally gotten their heads (mostly) around what a “blogger” does, and even though it’s not always accurate anymore, that’s the word we seem to be stuck with.

The takeaway for those who want to connect with influential people online is to look beyond blogs, and think beyond bloggers.

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At one of the entrances to Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

When I headed north to visit Edmonton and Jasper in Alberta, Canada in the middle of February, several people asked me what in the world I was going to do in Jasper when it’s known for snow sports and I don’t DO any snow sports (a combination of living in snow-deprived Texas and having a bum knee.)

“That’s exactly why I’m going.” I said. “The best stories always happen when everyone thinks you’re crazy to go somewhere.”

Part of the VIA Rail map of the Canadian train route from Toronto to Vancouver, including across Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

Yes, OK, it was cold, but not that bad; down in the teens a few times and occasionally up into the 40′s and nearly 50′s (Fahrenheit.) I rummaged my husband’s snow pants from the back of the closet, brought my old Land’s End stadium coat and I was fine.

Jasper is in the middle of a Canadian national park – the town was there before the park was established, so they were sort of grandfathered in. That’s what makes it appealing; it feels like a regular place with normal people, not some sort of weird Stepford faux-alpine village that was purpose-built for tourists. The railroad still employs about a third of the townsfolk, and locals call the big nearby ski resort Marmot Basin “the ski hill.”

You can drive, fly or take Canada’s VIA Rail “Canadian” to get there …. and you know I’m hard-pressed to turn down any chance to take a train. You’ll see magnificent scenery on the ride, especially in the Voiture Panoramique/Skyline Dome cars….

Leaving the plains and starting to see the Rockies from the westbound VIA Rail Canadian train (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

The Jasper station, built in 1925 and plopped in the middle of town, is one of many heritage railway stations in Canada.

Arriving on the VIA Rail Canadian at the Jasper, Alberta train station (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

Don’t miss the soaring, colorful Two Brothers totem pole next to the station, and the Visitor Center is right across the street.

Two Brothers totem pole next to the Jasper, Alberta train station (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

Detail on the Two Brothers totem pole next to the train station in Jasper, Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

You’ll hear about “ice walks” in Jasper – it’s a chance to walk (with special boots and crampon-like cleats) along what is normally the bottom of the Maligne River as it roars through the Maligne Canyon. In winter the water is either frozen over or disappears into underground karst fissures where springs bubble, leaving behind huge ice formations.

I went on one of the night ice walks, equipped with bright headlamps and a LOT of paranoia about falling – thanks to an old torn ACL in my left knee and a new problem with ironically-named frozen shoulder on my right side – but as long as I stepped carefully in a few slippery spots, I was fine.

Exploring Maligne Canyon during a night ice walk in Jasper Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

Although you can’t dogsled within the park, there are opportunities to do so about an hour’s drive away.

Sled dogs are ready to go near Jasper, Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

The crew at Cold Fire Creek Dogsledding leads tours through the Robson Valley; guests normally drive the teams themselves after a little training, but I was sled-bound by concerns that my shoulder wasn’t up to properly controlling a bunch of rarin’-to-go dogs and their equipment.

My musher Kyla was a travel fanatic and schooled me about Burma/Myanmar while she drove the team. You can imagine how odd but magical it was to hear about Southeast Asia as we drove through Christmas-card trees, around big piles of snow and carefully across a white meadow marked with avalanche warnings. Here is my sled’s-eye view:

View from the dogsled near Jasper Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains….” Psalm 121

That makes complete sense when you see places like Medicine Lake near Jasper – we were out on a wildlife tour the next day, but pulled over to take in the scenery:

Medicine Lake in February as the sun peeks out, Jasper, Alberta (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

When nighttime falls, the stars are absurdly bright in the park; it’s the world’s largest Dark Sky Preserve. Before they come out, though, the sun has to tiptoe behind the mountains, and by February it’s not doing that too early, either, so the days are nice and long.

Downtown Jasper, Alberta at sunset (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

When I return to Jasper (and I will return!) I’m going to look into snowshoeing.

There are trails just outside of town and I could hire gear and a guide, unless some other critical body part of mine decides to go kaput. I saw a small group putting on snowshoes and getting ready to head into the woods as we drove up to Medicine Lake – I was wildly jealous of them and their ability to head “off-road” to go exploring in the snow.

Can’t you see it? I’ll replace my Darth Vader black stadium coat with some sort of colorful sporty jacket, and I’ll morph into the most amazing 50-something snow bunny. You just wait….

(Disclosure: I was a guest of Tourism Jasper, Chateau Jasper, Maligne Adventures, Cold Fire Creek Dogsledding and Sun Dog Tours during this trip, but opinions are my own. Travel Alberta and Tourism Jasper had great answers for my initial pre-trip question, “What the hell am I going to do up there in February?!)

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To find travel bloggers (or any niche group) you need to go where they are, both on- and offline hangout spots.

Of course, don’t be that annoying, sales-y, pushy person once you get there, but I digress….

Since I started travel blogging in February 2006 and helped launch the Perceptive Travel Blog in March 2007, I’ve seen a few changes in community hangout preferences, but this recent post is still pretty accurate …. 4 ways to connect with travel bloggers besides pitching them with email.

One of the options mentioned in that post is the TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange) travel blogging conference; one is held each year in North America and another is held in Europe.

I have fingers crossed that they’ll add Asia some day!

Tourism Currents (my social media training business with Becky McCray and Leslie McLellan) is a TBEX media partner, and I’m excited to announce that I was just confirmed as one of the TBEX conference speakers for the North America 2013 event in Toronto, May 31-June 2.

My presentation topic is Twitter chats, but I’ll be taking it to an advanced level to discuss how people are growing communities and making money by running Twitter chats, and how companies are sponsoring those chats as a way to get in front of people who might be a good fit for their product or service.

I highly recommend TBEX not only to my fellow bloggers, but to CVBs and DMOs who can learn a lot there about creating content that appeals to travelers – the same ones who read travel blogs – plus have a golden opportunity to network with online travel media folks.

There are other travel blogging conferences and events, including TBU (Travel Bloggers Unite) …. TBU Rotterdam in the Netherlands is May 16-19, 2013 …. and meetups like Travel Massive and Travel Blog Camp (normally held during World Travel Market in London.)

Finding Travel Bloggers Online

Following a Twitter hashtag is a great way to keep up with online connections and discussions before, during and after conferences.

If you can’t make TBEX in person, for example, keep up with activities on the TBEX blog and follow #TBEX on Twitter. This particular hashtag is not just for the conference; it is lively year-round with people sharing travel-related news and blog posts.

The TBU Rotterdam hashtag is #TBURTM and the hashtag for all Travel Massive events is #TravelMassive.

New Blogger Databases and Professional Organizations

I need to do a separate blog post on this but some research is required first. Suffice it to say that I’m seeing more opt-in databases and professional communities coming to life in the travel blogging world.

Here are a few I’ve heard about:

**  PTBA (Professional Travel Bloggers Association) – It aims to “legitimize travel blogging as a business and facilitate business relationships within the industry.”

**  iAmbassador – The iAmbassador team “leverages the value travel bloggers offer by creating innovative marketing campaigns and events.”

**  Navigate Media Group – The Navigate Media Group team says it’s about “moving past the conventional press trip to meet your marketing objectives.”

**  Reiseblogger-Kollektiv – An interesting initiative in Europe, the Reiseblogger-Kollektiv is “seven leading travel bloggers from German-speaking countries, committed to standards of cooperation between tourism businesses and bloggers.” [Auto-translated by Google from the German.] I think I found out about them by following the ITB Berlin conference hashtag; here’s their ITB Guide for Bloggers (in English.)

**  TBEX Connect – A quasi-database project of original TBEX conference/community founder Kim Mance, this has been in the works for awhile but hasn’t fully launched yet. See more at the TBEX Connect website.

**  (Update 13 April) – Agencies are building their own talent lists; here’s the Think! Social Media Blogger Pool sign-up.

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Yes, Facebook has an Analog Lab. Slide from Ryan Bigge’s SXSWi 2013 presentation.

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to “let it cook” as Liz Strauss would say, here are a few thoughts from the 2013 SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive tech conference in Austin.

Yes, I could have posted this more quickly, but part of the reason I didn’t is tied to an overall vibe at this year’s “geek Spring Break” nerdfest;  that it is time for humans to control technology, not let it control us.

Did I want to think for awhile, or did I want to rush to post because that’s what everyone else insists I must do for maximum page views and the chance to “go viral?”

Phooey, I say. Phooey is my new favorite technical term.

This 30,000+ person conference is my professional Super Bowl and I never miss it. 2013 was my sixth SXSWi and the third time that I was honored to host the conference’s Travel Meet Up. As an Advisory Board member I review and evaluate hundreds of panel proposals, plus attend some SXSWi social events throughout the year (not that this helps to get my own proposals selected – I’ve only spoken at South By one time, although I keep pitching.)

This year’s event experience was similar to my first one in 2007; lots of panels, almost all of the keynotes, very few parties, occasional spontaneous meetups and a good bit of trade show floor wandering.

The Latest and Greatest is …. Paper

The “next big thing” related to tech and social media is what I’ve hollered about for awhile; quit chasing your tail plus Facebook’s latest rule change and Google’s latest algorithm, and spend more time thinking about how these tools integrate with your overall communications strategy.

Tech-based platforms are a key part of your destination marketing toolkit, but do not think of them in isolation, or as a bolt-on to your offline marketing efforts.

This year I had a harder time than ever suppressing an eye-roll when anyone tried to show me a new app that is all about “sharing travel experiences with friends.” Geez, I already have that covered, thanks.  No one needs one more network to maintain; we need integration and synthesis.

Humans Re-learn to Appreciate Analog

Hey, you know what?

Digital isn’t the answer to everything.

Digital tools aren’t always the best tools.

Digital stuff is merely a part of all other stuff going on around the planet.

Well, DUH.

Except that it’s not so “duh.” Plenty of people get so wrapped around trying to jump onto the next thing that they forget the basics: it’s not about the tools, it’s about what you can DO with digital tools, or any tools, to further your personal or organizational goals.

Travel and tourism are a great fit for social media and mobile communications (especially social photography like Instagram) but what about hard-copy preservation of travel experiences? What about “collaging the physical and digital worlds,” as Ryan Bigge discussed in one of my favorite SXSWi sessions, “Creating Great Analog Souvenirs For a Digital Era.”

Ryan talked about the growing popularity of saving bits of our digital world as analog items.

There are several examples of tools that straddle the digital and analog air gap, like Polaroid camera printouts of your computer screenshots, and his own company’s creations “Txt2Hold” and “Tweet2Hold” which preserve either a text or tweet in a PDF that includes different colors based on the text/tweet sentiment (using Lymbix software) and is printed with directions for origami folding.

Txt2Hold origami at SXSWi 2013

“Paper holds a memory.” John Guppy, Toronto Origami Society

I was intrigued by the possibilities for tourism organizations to provide ways for visitors to capture those moments that you want to save someplace besides “the cloud” or the phone that gets dropped, lost or broken.  Why not paper? As I often joke, it always boots up.

Could your CVB or DMO use something like Txt2Hold or Tweet2Hold to help visitors turn their digital memories into physical ones?

There are three other services I can think of that also could do this, and they’re all tied to photography:

**  Postagram lets you mail a physical postcard with a photo from your phone, Facebook, etc.,

**  Cocoagraph makes chocolate gifts out of photos, and

**  Casetagram makes custom cases for iPhone, iPad and some Galaxy devices out of Instagram photos.

To flip that, Ryan also mentioned physical/analog objects that connect to the digital world, and not by using QR codes, either. How about the Evernote smart notebooks by Moleskine?

He noted that there were at least six other speakers and panels at SXSWi 2013 talking about “physidigi” topics as a trend, including Embracing Analog: Why Physical is Hot.

“….people tend to utilize digital tech for its ease, speed, convenience and cost. But the more we embrace the format, the more we miss the emotional qualities it has a hard time replicating.” From the follow-up blog post from Why Physical is Hot.

I’m so glad that I made it to this session; it made me want to spend more time thinking about integration and ways to combine online and offline experiences in tourism and travel.

Ryan’s slides are below; just below it is a direct link to the deck on SlideShare if you can’t see the embed box.

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Florida State Fair 2013 (courtesy joannova, aka foodalogue at Flickr CC)

Welcome to the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, where we tour the world in a single post, via submissions from a variety of different blogs, all about any aspect of one, single city or fair-sized town.

We normally publish every other week; the next edition will be hosted on the Perceptive Travel blog.

If you would like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog, please contact me as the Carnival organizer:  Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. You do need to register on the carnival administration website (it’s easy and free) to submit to this or any blog carnival.

Here’s more info and background about the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, and now….

Off we go!

Cities in the Americas

Bogotá, Colombia   Tim Leffel digs deep to find A Cathedral in a Salt Mine in Colombia posted at Luxury Latin America Blog, saying, “A massive cathedral in a salt mine outside of Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.”

Detroit, Michigan, USA   Dominique King plays fair in Science for girls…and everyone else…at Michigan’s Cranbrook Institute of Science posted at Midwest Guest, saying, “Metro Detroit’s Cranbrook Institute of Science does a great job of encouraging girls (and everyone else) to explore their interest in science. Great place for a family trip or school field trip.”

Atlanta, Georgia, USA   Karon Warren explores What to Do in Atlanta With Kids posted at All Things Lifestyle, saying, “Thanks for the opportunity to participate!”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA   I found a really cool place in OKC; here’s Rock on with your bad self, Oklahoma City posted at Perceptive Travel Blog. See that grain elevator over by the freeway? It’s not what you think….

Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA   Tonya gets fishy with Visiting Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee posted at The Traveling Praters, saying, “Who could guess that one of America’s favorite aquariums is nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains?”

Sarasota, Florida, USA   Jennifer Lawson finds Cantonese delights at the Yummy House – A Peppered Future posted at Trailing the Lawsons.

Cities in Asia

Seoul, South Korea   RTW Flashpacker shares terrific photos in South Korea: Seoul Attractions posted at flashpackatforty, saying, “Seoul is a great city destination with lots of things to see and do.”

Cities in Europe

Brussels/Bruxelles, Belgium   Vanessa Morgan finds kitties everywhere, including this black one in Traveling Cats: Cat from Brussels {Belgium} posted at Traveling Cats.

(more…)

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SXSWi 2013 badge and guide

One of the 5000+ events at the SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive) tech conference in Austin, Texas is a series of Meet Ups so that people with similar interests have a chance to find one another in the 20,000+ person mob that is “South by.”

Today is the Travel Bloggers Meet Up, but it’s really for anyone interested in travel, so there will be an interesting gaggle of people showing up….last year the guy who writes the TSA Blog was there, along with the founder of Matador Travel Network and the lovely people from Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama (where I ended up going a few months later to teach a social media workshop, yet one more example of the business opportunities at SXSWi.)

I’m the Meet Up’s “official host” for the third year, but my job is to welcome everyone, then sit down, shut up and let them mingle.

It’s an honor and a thrill to get one whole hour with a bunch of other travel fanatics.

People will ask me my best advice for SXSWi, and I’ll tell them these things:

**  The keynotes are usually pretty enlightening, so try to make it to them. They’re livestreamed as well.

**  Pick one panel to attend that looks intimidating….you have no idea what they’re talking about and are convinced it will be “over your head.”  That’s how you learn!

**  Go through the schedule, tick everything that sounds good (yes, you’ll have 14 choices all for one 3:30 p.m. time slot) then about 30 minutes before a session, do a ruthless triage deciding which to attend, based on your location and mental state.

**  Follow the #SXSWi hashtag on Twitter.

**  Be prepared for complete mental overload by Sunday afternoon of the conference. Then realize that there are two more full days to go. Also, your feet will hurt.

**  A huge pile of irrelevant business cards will never beat collecting one or two really great contacts each day of the event, then following up later with each of them.

**  Eat BBQ, Tex-Mex and breakfast tacos till they come out of your ears. Check out this year’s new SouthBites food trailer gathering near the Convention Center. Have a drink in the bar at the iconic Driskill Hotel and toast the digital creative madness that is Austin in March.

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