Travel Massive Ios Unconference: Projects, Videos, and Outcomes

Travel Massive Unconference on Ios, Greece has come to an end. We spent an amazing week, full of discoveries, new ideas, meaningful conversations, brainstorming, live blogging, sharing and connecting in true Travel Massive style on Greece’s most beautiful island.

The Event

The aim of the event was to bring experts, innovators and adventurous travel professionals together to learn, create ideas and share knowledge about how we can make a positive impact in travel for the island of Ios, and explore its (sustainable) future.

Our hosts were LuxurIOS Island Experience, a local brand that wants to show a different part of the island away from the famous party scene.

30 travel insiders from 15 countries gathered in Greece to exchange ideas, learn and work on project ideas to promote Ios and help build the future of tourism in Greece.

Check out video highlights from the unconference with hosts Alicia from Alicia Explores:

Watch as host Tim Pogo immerses in people, culture and #LifeOnIos, proving there is more to Ios, Greece than party and beach life.

The Unconference was focused on three (3) key themes: video and creative content, sustainability and local tours.

During the past week, we hosted several unpanels. Self-nominated experts were talking about their areas of interests, including traveler’s life cycle, distribution channels, guests’ experience, sustainable tourism, videos, the benefits of YouTube and even SnapChat.

Projects and Outcomes

The most important part, however, were the projects. At the very beginning of the Unconference, we split into teams and each worked on a different idea on how to bring additional value and improve the overall guests experience on the island.

Project 1: Ios can be proud of its untouched, beautiful nature but its tourism is famous mostly for nightlife and sun and beach activities. Therefore, one of the groups worked on creating unique tourism products and prepared a list of possible tours, which could be delivered on the island, and do not exist at the moment. Download the project on local tours.

Team members: Maja Campelj, Tina Hudnik, Emily Zanier, Yvonne Ivanescu

Project 2: One of the critical factors of a successful lodging is customer satisfaction. In order to help Luxurios get to know their guests better, understand their needs and expectations, and then deliver even better experience for them – another group created a complex evaluation form. They also conducted two interviews with current guests and provided Luxurios with a list of important inputs. Download the project on client-customer service and the Agalia evaluation survey.

Team members:  Natasha S. Brotto, João Guilherme Brotto, Rain Takahashi, Neil Rabjohn, Catharina Fischer

Project 3: We also worked on creating an app to list all touristic spots on Ios, including accommodation, activities, touristic landmarks, restaurants, etc. What made the app unique were its social features, enabling users not only to share what they like, but also find other travelers with similar interests. The personalised map could be self-printed afterwards. Download the destination app project.

Team members: Jenna Davis, Desiree’ Attard, Lucas Estevam Ferreira

Project 4: One of the main challenges of Ios is a very short season. One group came up with an idea to transform Agalia Hotel into a co-working space during April and October, and in this way to prolong the season and attract digital nomads, entrepreneurs and young talents to Ios. The key success factor of this project would be an excellent wifi and a different type of service than offered for regular guests. Download the presentation on a co-working space.

Team members: Simon Lewis, Holger Mette.

Watch as Catharina Fischer showcases the beautiful Agalia Hotel and why you should stay here:

Project 5: The last group worked on a wider project, which considered the undeveloped yet part of the island – the terriroty owned by Luxurios around 12 beaches on the Northern part of the Ios. The group worked on a business model canvas and considered all the key elements from the key stakeholders, to marketing channels. The main focus was given to creating a unique value proposition, which was developing eco/nature tourism with a selection of natural locally produced products, spa and interactive activities around and building an open art gallery.  Download the vision for Marmaro Coast.

Team members: Sally Davey, Klaudija Janzelj, Petr Klymec, Mario Berta, Lydia Band, Emmanuela Pantelirei

Project 6: The presentation was accompanied by a short review of sustainability criteria and sustainability action plan that LuxurIOS should take now to fulfill all the international standards. Download the action plan for sustainability.

Team members: Anula Galewska, Diana Körner

Taking part of the unconference poolside! This photo was actually a 30 minute panel discussion we had about guest experience and incoming tour operators Yes, it was that fun!

All the groups presented their work on the last day of the Unconference to the Luxurios owners and their key staff. After a round of questions and voting, we celebrated this fantastic week of brainstorming and inspiration, taking in the views and enjoying all Ios, Greece has to offer.

Thank you to sponsors and media partners including Visit Greece, LuxurIOS Island, Agalia Luxury Suites, Aegean Airlines, Greek Travel Pages, Traveldudes, and Travel Concept Solution for making the Massive Island project possible.

You can read more about the Unconference on our Live Blog.