This past weekend saw the 4th annual Travel Bloggers Exchange conference take place in Keystone Colorado. As the headline media partner for the event, Travelllll.com covered the conference live as well as capturing video content and interviews with as many of the speakers and attendees as we could find.
TBEX, originally founded by Kim Mance, was acquired this year by BlogWorld. With a reputation of somewhat lacklustre organisation in the past, expectations were perhaps at an all time high following the takeover and new management team. What’s really impressive, is just how far those expectations were exceeded.
I’ve been to a lot of conferences. I’ve been attending, covering, and speaking at web design, digital marketing, and travel conferences for the better part of 5 years. I’ve been to conferences which were free, I’ve been to conferences which charge $1,400 per ticket. TBEX this year blew all of them out of the water – by a mile.
Gary Arndt tweeted shortly after the event concluded:
I declare the 2012 #TBEX to be the best one yet. I will go so far as to say it is the best conference I’ve ever attended!
— Gary Arndt (@EverywhereTrip) June 17, 2012
A sentiment which was immediately retweeted and echoed amongst the overwhelming majority of attendees.
The Juicy Details: Unparalleled Quality
This year the conference was hosted in Keystone, Colorado – situated in the Colorado Rockies. TBEX pretty much took over the entire area from Friday to Saturady as the scenic countryside was inundated by close to 800 semi-inebriated travel geeks.
What was really impressive wasn’t just the conference itself, which went off without a hitch, but level of organisation and infrastructure surrounding the entire event. Shuttles were provided from hotels to venue to bar to after party. Lunch was fully catered, and top quality. The scale of the night-events too, was ridiculous – in the best way possible. Attendees were spoiled with incredible food, music, and drinks every single night by TBEX themselves, as well as by sponsors Expedia, Keystone, Vail Resorts and The Matador Network.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Fun and games aside – the focus of the conference has to be on the quality of the content and the value given to attendees. Here too, TBEX delivered.
The team at BlogWorld obviously have a long and extremely successful history of organising events for bloggers, and it showed. While many of the speakers (myself included) were selected prior to the acquisition – the keynote speakers were brought in by the BlogWorld team to push the event to a new high. Feedback on all sessions was generally positive, and bloggers who we spoke to felt that they had plenty of takeaways from the content provided.
New this year at TBEX was the concept of “speed dating”. The new TBEX website allowed attendees to pre-arrange 10 minute meetings with each other in order to facilitate networking on Sunday afternoon. New TBEX CEO Rick Calvert told us that the speed dating platform received over 100,000 page views within a couple of days of going live. Clearly it was a concept which resonated both with the industry as well as travel bloggers – both of whom are trying to find ways to work with each other – and, again, the feedback on the value of the speed dating sessions was unanimously positive. Some of the larger bloggers were closing big deals with brands as a result of meetings which took place on Sunday.
We picked a rather apt moment to launch our new Travelllll.com Job Board the day before, as we have now pretty much taken this entire concept of speed dating between bloggers and travel brands – and put it online. The Job Board received over 200 signups in under 24 hours, and is now growing fast every day. Before long, we’re going to have an extremely vibrant community of both travel brands and bloggers who now have a place to get in touch and find ways of working with each other. We’re very excited about this. If you haven’t signed up already – go check it out.
So What Next?
TBEX was already the largest travel blogging conference in the world. It is now unquestionably also the best. So where can they possibly go from here?
My only disappointment during the entire event was closing keynote speaker Christopher Baker. A veteran journalist he may be but his presentation consisted of, and was based entirely on his experience and work in traditional media. At a conference focused entirely on new media and technology – it just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the event.
TBEX heads to Costa Brava next in September, where I have little doubt the bar will be raised once again. If I had one request? It would be to have a few more speakers who are new media specialists outside the travel niche. There is a lot to be learned from other industries who have been doing this for longer. Hopefully the new TBEX management will tap into some of the incredible speakers who have featured at BlogWorld in past years and convince them to impart some of their wisdom upon the travel sector.
Overall, I was absolutely blown away by TBEX’12. The entire BlogWorld team deserve an incredible amount of respect and gratitude from all of us for creating an event which moves us towards a viable and sustainable commercial industry. It’s events like this that make rest of the tourism industry look up and start taking blogging seriously – and the value of that, is priceless.
Great report! I wasn’t convinced nor interested by TBEX before but the overwhelmingly positive feedback from Keystone have definitely made me want to go to Girona is September. See you there!
Amen and amen! I only disagree with you about the final speaker. Baker had a swagger that made me grin, and that swagger is what has allowed us bloggers to reshape the travel industry.
Nice to meet you at last, and to see all the other “travel family” again!
I agree with you, John, about Christopher Baker. While his swagger did amuse me and some of his stories were interesting – I would have been far more enthused to listen to someone like Andrew Evans for the close of TBEX.
And congrats on the job board launch, a big and important step for both T5 and the travel blogging community.
I followed the event via the tbex hashtag and was extremely jealous I wasn’t there. Huge thanks to all the bloggers who shared great previews of what was going on… Superb job.
Thanks for this report, John. It may have just convinced me to start attending TBEX, which I’ve avoided, not in the least part due to the reports of utter disorganization.
Totally agree about the closing keynote and about the general awesomeness otherwise. Was nice to chat with you as well!
John, thanks for sharing the entire event’s information. I agree with you John,about the Mr. Baker, I believe that old is gold, his experience is actually much better, as it is already applicable then new one.
I followed the # on twitter all week-end and I’ve extremely jealous not to be there with you all. I’ll definitely be there in Girona for TBEX Europe !
Thank you for the report John. I will keep my reply short since I am still driving home from TBEX. Currently in the lounge at the Mesa Verde Lodge in Colorado. (its the only place where there is internet available and no TV’s in the rooms).
We were overwhelmed by the support and generous comments from attendees and sponsors. We definitely have room for improvement and we are already working on some of those items.
As for drawing other major new media voices outside the travel industry. We will definitely deliver that for you. Here is your first scoop for TBEX Costa Brava. Peter Shankman founder of HARO is confirmed as a speaker in Girona. (this isn’t even announced yet on our own blog =p).
We will have more announcements soon.
Oh and after I talked to you about the speed dating I got an update on the numbers. We actually had over 185,000 page views for speed dating, 999 confirmed appointments, and 973 additional requested appointments. We will definitely be expanding this to two days next year.
thank you again and see you in Costa Brava!
Sincerely,
Rick Calvert
CEO
TBEX
CEO & Co-founder
BlogWorld & New Media Expo
I forgot to mention next stop North Rim of the Grand Canyon! now I’m off.
I’ve attended TBEX every year since it started and I completely agree with this review. Vail Resorts did a phenomenal job of hosting – their opening night party was unlike anything I’ve ever seen at a conference. As an attendee who’s been before, I can say that I made more valuable connections at this conference than at the previous three combined and I attribute that both to the speed dating and to the numerous networking events hosted throughout the weekend. Nice job.
I also agree with your assessment, John, that TBEX12 was a game changer. I should have given Rick a big hug! I was a print journalist and about 3-4 years ago, when I saw the writing on the wall, decided to throw all my efforts and energy into building up my name / brand on the internet. I have never worked so hard in my life — and without any real guarantee that it was a good idea or that it would pay off. It was a leap of faith!
I also took a another risk by making by blog destination-specific — India — which is a much less-common strategy.
But TBEX12 has validated and confirmed my strategy and made me feel that all my efforts over the past few years will not be in vain. It was incredible to see all the enthusiasm and real interest shown by travel and gear companies, tourism boards, PR agencies and others in working with travel bloggers. The organizers and the hosts (Denver, Colorado and Keystone) also did an AMAZING job.
The upshot for me is: I have felt respect as a professional print travel writer in the past, and now I feel respected as a travel blogger. This is a HUGE shift — and it means the world to me. I can’t thank BlogWorld and the hosts and other participants enough.
Unlike John, I did like the closing keynote because I felt my strategy to become a destination expert was validated (But I do see your point). My only complaint was the altitude. It’s hard to attend a conference when you are having trouble breathing! Please hold it closer to sea level next year.
ps John O’Nolan’s presentation about designing your blog to appeal to human emotion and psychology was one of the best things I saw at TBEX12 :)
Mariellen
All the glowing remarks about TBEX are good to hear! I’m looking forward to Girona and now am confident I will get tons from my investment.
Bummed I missed it…certainly going to shoot to make the conference in Spain later this year :)
Well put, John! I couldn’t have said it better myself. This was my first TBEX, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I had heard about the chaos of past years, and I was curious how it would play out under new guidance. Like you, I go to a lot of conferences – for editors’ associations, writers’ associations, among other events – and I’ve never encountered a conference as well-organized, as entertaining, as inspirational and as just plain fun as TBEX was. I was glowing the entire weekend and thrilled beyond belief that I chose this year to make my inaugural attendance. Without a doubt, I will be attending TBEX next year and as far into the future as I can… and maybe even Costa Brava if I can swing it. (My only regret was not going to your session, which I’ve heard rave reviews of – promise me you’ll offer it again next year!)
Agreed on the closing keynote. I particularly enjoyed the opening keynote and found most of the sessions useful. Finally getting to meet my peers face to face was great. An awesome weekend all-around.
Really enjoyed TBEX and the different sessions. I agree with John about last speaker.
I thought it was a great opportunity for networking, and I hope it gets the same “soul” in Costa Brava. We will try to do our best!!
Congratulations to Blogworld, Colorado, keystone resorts and Expedia!!! Awsome guys!!! great job!
I thought Travelllll.com did a fantastic job!!! well done!!!
Thank you for the comment Jaume, look forward to seeing you in September!
Lezaan