TBEX10 Conference Recap

Updated: Jul 3rd, 2010Posted: June 29, 2010 Trisha Miller General News & Info, Opportunities, Reviews, Writer's Education
TBEX10 Conference Recap
Updated: Jul 3rd, 2010

 

Most of you reading this know that TBEX10 was held this past weekend, in New York City.

Some of you also know that I was there, because we finally got to meet in person (yaay!).

No doubt you’ll be reading many “wrap-up” posts from any of the several hundred bloggers who also attended, as well as view their photos and video, so if you didn’t get a chance to make it, you’ll at least get a good feel for what it was like, and what you missed (and why you might want to go next year).

If you were there and I didn’t get to meet you, I’m sincerely sorry – but there’s always next year, right?

If you’re not familiar with what TBEX is, you can read more about it here, and check out this year’s schedule of presentations and speakers here.

Be sure to follow TBEX10 on Twitter for more details on TBEX11 (to be held in Vancouver on June 15 – 15, 2011) as they’re announced.

I’m not going to rehash the whole thing, since so many of you were already there, instead all I’m going to serve up is a small peek based on my personal highlights.

My TBEX10 Experience

  • Best Presentation: Gary Arndt‘s lively and humorous talk on the subject of Travel Porn, succinctly defined as “looking at photos of other people doing things you’ll never do in places you’ll never go”. The point? Images are what attracts and sells…..write all the lovely stories you want, but don’t forget to include compelling images. Also, a crappy photo that you took yourself is better than a great photo you got elsewhere – it tells your story.
  • Best Schwag: The fabulous Bootsnall branded moleskin notebooks! Like many writers do, I go through pocket-sized notebooks like candy when I’m traveling, so getting a free one was a real treat.
  • Best Reason (for me) to be at TBEX10: Getting to meet so many of the terrific travel bloggers whom I follow on twitter, connect with on Facebook, and whose blogs I read, such as the always-enthusiastic Dave & Deb (aka ThePlanetD), Andy Hayes, Pam Mandel, Sean Keener, Donna Hull, Lola Akinmade, Candice Walsh, Cailin O’Neil, Jennifer Miner, Shannon O’Donnell, Mariellen Ward, Margo Millure, Nancy Harder, and Kim-Marie Evans, and also to have a chance to spend even a little bit of time chatting with those I’ve met before, like JoAnna Haugen, Gary Arndt, Chris Christensen, Jim Benning, Jessica Spiegel, Doug Anweiler and his wonderful wife Margit, and Wendy Perrin. (P.S. If you would like me to change how I linked to you, or if we met and I forgot to list you, drop me a quick email so I can update this post.)
  • Funniest Moment: Mike Barish accepting the award for best-dressed attendee in a powder-blue tuxedo reminiscent of the prom-wear we’d all like to forget.
  • Best NYC Tourist Moment: Riding the Staten Island Ferry with my good friends Nancy (aka “Suzy” from our Case Study) and JoAnna, and seeing the Statue of Liberty semi-up close and personal – beautiful!
  • Most Important Lesson Learned: to make sure to arrange at least a day (two is better) on both ends of the conference to get together with others – and more time for sightseeing. I would have LOVED to have had more time to hang out and get to know some of the people I met, and to experience more of what NYC has to offer.
  • Biggest Disappointment: That I did not get to meet everyone, not even all the people I know online and really wanted to meet.
  • What I Was Most Grateful For: to paraphrase Blanche DuBois, “the kindness of strangers” – after a fun night exploring NYC with Nancy, we would likely have not made it home had it not been for all the great NYC natives looking out for us to make sure we stood on the right subway track, didn’t miss our train, and got off at the right stop. Thank you, anonymous New Yorkers.

And last, but not least, a big ‘thank you’ to all the great sponsors for their generosity (there were some terrific giveaways!), in particular the folks at CitySights for providing me with a complimentary tour on their Hop On/Hop Off bus tour, CityPass for giving us their awesome sight-seeing coupon booklet, Weber Shandwick Travel & Lifestyle for hosting a great kick-off party at the Omni Berkshire, Australia’s Outback Northern Territory for hosting lunch on Saturday, TripAdvisor for a fun Happy Hour (even though I didn’t win one of the iPads they gave away), BootsnAll and Eurocheapo for an entertaining after-party Saturday night, and the fabulous ladies from DiamondPR for sponsoring the popular Taco Truck on Sunday after the conference ended, a great idea and great tacos!

I want to thank everyone who came up to me and introduced themselves – thank you! There were so many people there and so little time that I’m really glad you did that…..I hope I’ll get to spend more time with you next year and get to know you a bit.

If you were there and I didn’t get to meet you and give you a hug, I’m sincerely sorry – but there’s always next year, right?

So that’s my take on TBEX10. I would love to hear what you thought of it in the comments below!

~Trisha
P.S. If you’d like to watch a short video featuring several attendees offering their favorite highlight of NYC, check out Nancy D. Brown’s YouTube video.

Did you attend TBEX10? Share your personal highlights too!

About Trisha Miller 116 Articles
Trisha Miller Editor-in-Chief, TravelWritersExchange.com - Trisha joined the Travel Industry in 1996 with a background in telecommunications and helped to build (and later sell) one of the industry's top inbound call centers specializing in air travel. Her career in Travel Writing began with creating destination-specific content for a corporate travel intranet, and continued as she contributed content to a large number of travel-related companies that were establishing an online presence throughout the late '90's and early '00's. Currently she is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a former Board Member of the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association (2009-2015).  Still a frequent world traveler, and occasional guest-blogger on a number of other Travel Blogs, Trisha writes about travel and technology, sometimes both at the same time. You can follow Trisha on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TravelWriting
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44 Comments

  1. I also really enjoyed TBEX! Was so fun to meet so many of the bloggers I have tweeted with and interacted with. Gary’s Travel Porn session was fantastic; really motivated me to incorporate more photos in my blog. I also enjoyed learning more about video blogging and the session on upping your travel writing game. I was disappointed that the SEO/monetization session was so short–there was too much to cover with too many people in too little time. Next year, I hope they have separate panels for the two topics, as I think those are two of the most important subjects to many of us and I would have loved to spend more time on that. I could tell Nomadic Matt had so much more to say and was frustrated he was cut off so quickly.
    .-= Emily´s last blog post: Guest Post- Why I Wish I Traveled Long-Term in My 20s and 9 Reasons You Should =-.

    • I agree – TBEX is still in its infancy, so I’m sure it will continue to improve in both depth and quality, as well as scheduling. Perhaps you’ll get much more out of next year’s conference.

  2. Fantastic recap! We were sorry to have missed TBEX this year because we were in Korea, but we are going to do our darndest to make it to TBEX 2011.

  5. Ooh, I agree about the moleskine notebook! That tied for first place with those beautiful glass water bottles from Rock Resorts as my favorite swag. Actually, I did arrange a day before and after the conference, and I still didn’t have enough time to see and do everything I wanted to, nor meet everyone I wanted to (like you!).
    .-= Gray´s last blog post: Travel Takeaways from My NYC Trip =-.

  8. Trisha — I’m glad we got to meet, even briefly, but I feel like a chump because in the blur of all that (I get fuzzy around the edges at large events) I did not say this: THANK YOU! You’ve been so helpful on bloggy stuff, and I really appreciate that. Thanks for sharing your skills with me and for making time to do so.

    There. That’s fixed now.

    • I KNOW!! I can’t believe I didn’t get even a single photo of us!! Sigh….well that seals it, you’ll just HAVE to go to TBEX11 now so we can do some shots and get pictures of us bar dancing or something equally outlandish. I’m looking forward to reading your post!

  10. I don’t even think of you as a fellow travel blogger anymore Trisha. I’d say you’re a bonafide friend now. I had so much fun catching up over lunch and dinner … and seeing Time Square lit up at night! Thanks for the good memories. Hopefully our paths cross again pre-Vancouver.
    .-= JoAnna´s last blog post: Images- Shoes in a Tree Mojave Desert- California =-.

    • Thanks JoAnna – I certainly think of you as a friend too! I really enjoyed exploring NYC with you too – Times Square at night was totally worth seeing and riding the subway was fun!

      I’ll be in your hometown later this year for BlogWorld Expo, so we can catch up again then :-)

  11. Was so wonderful to meet you Trisha and I agree on pretty much all of the points that you made about the conference – it essentially came to the networking this time around (and the nifty moleskin swag!)

    Cheers and hope to meet you again, perhaps TBEX 2011!

    • OMG Shannon it was a thrill for me to meet you too! And I can’t believe I forgot to list you above so I just fixed that!

      As of now I am planning to go to TBEX11 so I’m sure I’ll see you there, and I’m also planning to go to BlogWorld Expo in October of this year (in Las Vegas).

      {{hugs!}}

  12. Great TBEX round-up, Trisha. I’m glad we were able to connect again at this travel event. Your advice of showing up early is excellent as it did allow us to spend some time with folks like you before the conference started. We would highly recommend that to folks coming to Canada next year. Doug

    • Thanks Doug! I really am glad I had the time to visit with you and Margit, and I definitely plan to tack on a couple of extra days when I go to TBEX11, as well as BWE. :-)

    • Thank you Cailin! And I LOVE your videos, so I can’t wait to see the one you’ll do on NYC! I hope I run into you at some future conference so we can spend more time chatting – I’d love to hear more about your adventures :-)

  14. Sorry I didn’t get to sit down and chat with you, Trisha! Agree that you really need to “make dates” with people with whom you’d like to chat over a meal, etc. Here’s to Vancouver in 2011!

    • Okay so we’ll have to be sure to schedule a meal together next year, Kara – I will look forward to it!

  15. Trisha – I really wish we had more time to chat and hang out – you have so much knowledge and I know I would have learned a lot. As I said, maybe next time I’m in Phoenix we can have lunch. And certainly, next year in Vancouver, let’s make one of those dates to do something fun (I’m definitely going to add days for that one, since it’s so far away for me).

    • How sweet – and I was so excited to meet you two! Definitely let me know if you make it to Phoenix, and I’m sure we’ll meet up at next year’s TBEX11 as well :-)

  19. Great recap, Trisha. Thanks for the shoutout. :) It was so wonderful to finally meet you. Thanks again for putting out such a great resource for travel writers. Ditto to your most important lesson learned.
    .-= Nancy´s last blog post: San Jose vs San Francisco =-.

  20. Great recap Trisha. You are an awesome travel buddy and a fantastic Travel Writers Exchange teacher – so patient!

    Bloggers looking to monetize your travel blog – Trisha is the man – you know what I mean!

    Everyone – let’s get Trisha on a montetize your blog panel in 2011!

    I’m registered for TBEX 2011!
    .-= Nancy D. Brown´s last blog post: Stable Scoop Radio Horseback Riding Vacation =-.

  21. Trisha, I’m a first-time visitor to your site. I was reading Candice’s post about this event and clicked through to check out your site.

    I work full time and have made a hobby out of blogging, but wow, I think I need to be at this event next year. And I’m glad to have found your blog.

  22. Hi Trish,

    Being a neophyte travel writer and after reading your post,I cannot help but dream to be incorporated into the travel bloggers’ world so I can attend one of the TBEX events in the future. Your post inspires me more to pursue my travel writing passion.

    • Hi Edelito – thanks for stopping by! You will find that the travel blogger community is a very welcoming and supportive one…..and you’ll also find that a TBEX conference will be educational and inspirational, and you’ll make many new friends. If the tickets are already sold out, keep checking back with the TBEX forum at their site – often people who buy tickets early are not able to go so they will sell their tickets (or give them away)…

      If you are anywhere near San Francisco, CA there is another conference that is a must-attend for any beginning travel writer/travel blogger, and that is the annual Book Passage conference…..you can learn more about it here:

      http://www.bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference

      It’s well worth the expense and I highly recommend it to any writer.

  23. First time ever hiring about TBEX but then again I only read travel sites and dont actually operate one. Seems like you had a great experience.

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