February Wrap-up: SMWTO

TTM at SMWTO: A game changer

The Toronto Travel Massive event at Social Media Week Toronto — Getting serious about travel blogging — was a success by every measure. The room was packed, the panelists were on fire and our event hashtag, #SMWTOtravel, trended in Canada! But perhaps most of all, we heard from many people that the discussion was a game-changer, that it helped move forward the evolution of travel blogging.

We initiated this event because we wanted to move the dialogue forward for creating sustainable models for travel blogging. Mariellen said in her opening speech: “There is no doubt that independent, professional travel bloggers bring a great deal of value to the travel industry. All the stats bear this out. The vast majority of people do their travel and vacation planning online — we’ve seen numbers ranging from 75 – 90 % — and many also make their travel purchases online. We also know that consumers trust authentic voices and user-generated content. TripAdvisor is the number 1 travel site on the net. But travel bloggers have been struggling to make a living. It’s in everyone’s best interest that we, as an industry, create sustainable models, so that travel bloggers can make a decent living while contributing their story-telling and content skills to the industry.”

We owe a debt of thanks to our sponsors Flight Centre and G Adventures, to the Gladstone Hotel, to our volunteers and of course to our moderator Todd “The Mayor” Rogerson and panelists Evelyn “Journeywoman” Hannon, Dave Bouskill and Deb Corbeil of “ThePlanetD,”  Jantine Van Kregeten of Ottawa Tourism, Andrew Hickey at G Adventures, Meredith Howard of High Road Communications and Adrian Brijbassi  editor of Vacay.ca. The Gladstone Hotel stepped up to the plate with travel-themed drinks, great appetizers and a great space for event, The Ballroom. Afterwards, we turned the room into a Toronto Travel Massive meetup and eventually moved over to the Melody Bar because we didn’t want the evening to end.

Thanks also to Social Media Week for including us on the schedule and for being terrifically supportive, and to all the wonderful Social Media Week sponsors.

Our event hashtag #SMWTOtravel trended in Canada!

During Getting serious about travel blogging, we projected a screen that followed our Twitter hashtag #SMWTOtravel and were delighted to see that travel bloggers and travellers around the world joined in, including @Everywheretrip from Australia @TravelDudes in Europe and @Umarket in Mexico. There were so many tweets flying that we trended in Canada! Below is a Hastracking report for #SMWTOtravel.

Flight Centre  and G Adventures travel giveaway

And, to add even more excitement to an already buzz-worthy evening, our sponsors Flight Centre and G Adventures presented an interactive contest. People at the event tweeted photos of their dream destinations for 2012. A big congratulations to travel blogger Olga Valentin for winning $1,000 worth of travel to take her to Turkey! Read the full wrap-up on the Flight Centre blog.