| Tourism trade conferences this
month include Trenz
(May 7-10 in New Zealand) and Indaba
(May 12-15 in South Africa).
It will be interesting to see how these events compare in regards
to live-streaming video and tweeting. Hashtag
Battle on! We have good friends at both events and we plan
to monitor their Twitter channels to bolster our awareness of
tourism and conservation.
The question to be answered in 2012 is 'has the penny
dropped?' Do event organizers make it easy for participants
in the brick-and-mortar convention centers to share with the
world the goings on? Do event organizers know how to tap into
the unseen participation from those online?
Last year's Indaba set the benchmark for hosting the Responsible
Tourism in Cities Workshop streamed live around the world.
The presentation I delivered - We
Suck @ Collaboration - was viewed in real-time by 100 people
in the auditorium and more than and another 150 simultaneous
virtual delegates who joined via live-streaming video and real-time
Twitter. Since then this presentation has garnered 47,000+ views
on Slideshare.
Other big time tourism conferences joined the party by offering
live video, including November's World Travel Market and to
a lesser degree the ITB in Berlin.
There's no single recipe here that traditional
travel conferences can use to interact with online participants,
so we look forward to the surprises ahead in South Africa and
New Zealand.
I should add that the intersection of virtual and physical participation
is not limited to tourism conferences. We are paying attention
to the upcoming Rio+20
and the World
Conservation Congress.
My question for you, dear reader, is how would you like to 'engage'
with conferences of personal interest even though you have no
intention of attending in person?
Comments welcome on Ron's blog.
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