Favourite moments and thoughts from eTourism Conference 2011

Even as a speaker I was a little apprehenisve about the confernce this year.  There didn’t look to be  huge numbers of people going. Was it the time of the year, or the post rugby lull or was it a sign of the times that budgets were so tight – conferences were out.

For those that made the effort we were richly rewarded with the best of conferencing – some inspriing talks, a year’s worth of motivation and the trump card to social media, the power of actually meeting people face to face.

You can tweet, message, email and connect on LinkedIn all you like, but people are just different in reality. Far more flawed and far more appealing. So for those of you that didn’t make it, the least I can do is share my favourite takeaways.

Image: Wellington Botanical Gardens by Genevieve Atkinson. 

Image: Wellington Botanical Gardens by me. 

1. The star of the show – Tim Longhurst, futurist

Big Dave was great and a larger than life character, but it was his side-kick Mr Longhurst who was the bundle of energy and enthusiasm that invigorated the conference. Especially as he worked the room in the evening, re-stocking drinks and helping everyone to let their hair down.

His talks were great and the most talked about, was this video.

It was a penny drop moment for some, in just how much the advertising world had changed.

He also imparted to us all the meaning of meme; that video or photo, or aticle that just gets to people and gets shared. The “United breaks guitars” or Air New Zealand’s Rico moments that we all aspire to.

2. James Hacon – What to say when you don’t know what to say on social media map

Lucky for us, James had to re-write his presentation after the previous days speakers stole his examples,  included in presentation #2 was this throw away map, that proved a hit.

Ideas for social media when your not inspired.

No-one is creative day in and day out and this was a great example of a map for the wall as a memory jog of what to tweet or facebook about when not a lot is happening. That subtle reminder that it’s not all about you, but the things around you, the stuff you discover.

3. Memorable sound bites from Big Dave

A great start to the conference, Dave wooed us with questions and quirks that have made him or his clients, millions. The simple ways to actually sell more;  not say no and actually ask if they considered July because…

However being a review nut, my favourite line was “Complainers are crap magnets”. That idea that negativity breeds negativity and that to turn a business around, the first step is always with yourself and your attitude.

4. Air NZ rocks Social media

I’ve seen several Air NZ presentations on their social media strategy and how successful it’s been. Considering this conference was about Social Media, I think Duane from Grab-a-seat, downplayed their considerbale success, which was probably nicer for the rest of us; as despite their small advertising budgets on a world scale, the joke was, having a 747 to play with, is not something most of us can do.

Here’s a link to their latest Social Media Video.

5.The personal takeaway was that I got twitter

I know that sounds dumb, but lets be real, I like many others just couldn’t see the point. A whole lot of noise and hours spent on fluff.

But I’m the kind of person that likes to reframe things into stuff I get. Reviews to me, can be reframed as “expectation management”, the balance between the pre-hopes and hype and the delivery. Twitter can be reframed in my mind as text messaging in public.

Twitter is the your ability to just comment on stuff that happens. Flights getting turned back, or Mac Bar in Wellington – the serving size of your coke  sucks – I feel cheated.

During the conference I enjoyed the tweets and encourgaement from the crowd, like passing notes in school.  I used it to meet up with @jameshacon for a coffee, no need for phone numbers. And following an amusing story on Jetstar’s customer service failures @justinflitter – which was more intersting than reading it santised on the Herald.

Suddenly it went from long lists of crap and links, to a flurry of exchange like you would via text. Think of the @handle as a phone number. Sorry to rave, but maybe you’re on the fence –  haven’t seen a use, or like me and even though I have an account, and regularly tweet, we can still have a penny drop moments.

My presentation at the conference.

My presentation was based off a blog post: So you got a bad review, quit moaning and do something about it. If you’re interested to read what I had to say about the above topic, here’s a link to my presentation on “How to make reviews suck less”