Geoff Moore – a blogging virgin – reports on the changing face of travel media:
My blogging baptism took place in April at the Traverse 16 blogger conference* in Cardiff – an international gathering of 200 travel bloggers who filled the football stadium venue (Cardiff City) with accents, not just from Wales, but France, Italy, Australia, USA & Canada, and even Russia, all bubbling with enthusiasm for providing great travel content.
What I learned from the weekend is that we, more conventional travel writers, need to be fully aware that this format is now gaining huge amounts of ground with both the travel consumer and with the travel providers.
Understanding this new world and working with it may make the difference of you having an income or not from your travel writing. You ignore this at your peril, adapt or die. ‘Start learning new skills’ would be my mantra.
As a travel content creator, you need to be a writer, photographer and videographer, often all rolled into one, something that could be really alien to some Guild members.
We all need to embrace this more and stop looking at it as some second rate product. It is a different product most certainly but nevertheless its creators are as passionate as any print producer.
Geoff Moore shot this video on the post fam trip in Cardiff Bay:
*The Traverse blogger conference, now in its 4th year, gives travel bloggers and would-be bloggers a chance to learn their skills from experts and network with an ever increasing number of travel & tourism brands & destinations. This year the BGTW had a small stand at the conference, and several guild bloggers spoke. They were: Abigail King who taught bloggers writing skills in a session entitled ‘Write Better, Right Now’; Susan L. Schwartz, who co-hosted a session with Alexandra Delf of Ophir PR entitled ‘How to Pull a PR and Get Your Blog Noticed!’; Sarah Lee, who spoke with her husband, Terry, on ‘Blogging Campaigns: how bloggers and brands can work in harmony’ Sarah Lee, who spoke with her husband, Terry, on ‘Blogging Campaigns: how bloggers and brands can work in harmony’; and Guild chair Alastair McKenzie will host a panel & Q&A session with two of the country’s brightest YouTube talents, Hannah Witton and Laura Bubble Sarah Lee, who spoke with her husband, Terry, on ‘Blogging Campaigns: how bloggers and brands can work in harmony’.
The Guild also fielded two speakers at Social Travel Britain 16* (April 21-22, Bristol).
- Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She talked bout the unique aspects and enormous influence of the parent blogging sector.
- Kirsty Pelling, who has been making a name for herself as a travel blogging poet. performed some of her verse and explained how it fits into her portfolio of social media skills.
*Social Travel Britain, now in its 2nd year, brings experienced bloggers and the UK’s tourism & travel industry executives together to learn about the latest social media techniques, technologies and tools, with case studies from domestic and international DMOs which have successfully reinvented themselves for the new world. It provides a “forum for tourism CEOs and policy makers, marketers and communication teams to meet the cream of the travel blogging community, and to find out how to work together to mutual benefit”.
