Last week another iteration of TBEX took place, as anyone remotely connected to the travel blogging world would already be aware – having had their Twitter streams flooded with the #tbex hashtag for the better part of two weeks pre and post conference. Travelllll.com was in attendance again as the event’s media partner, and we got the inside scoop on what happened.
The conference this time around was hosted in Girona, Spain in association with Costa Brava Tourism. A stunning location, without doubt – but could it possibly live up to the unparalleled success and wonder of TBEX in Colorado? The answer was a decided… not-quite.
The city of Girona is a stunning destination to play host to the conference, and nothing can be taken away from the chosen location – but while its bigger American brother felt like professional industry gathering and networking event, Europe seemed to lean more toward the side of drinking and fun. There’s nothing technically wrong with this, and perhaps European culture played a part, but it was an altogether different atmosphere.
Speakers and Subjects
JD Andrews rocking the stage – photo by @WritingTravel
The value of any conference, aside from networking, is steadfast in the quality of the speakers and the content which they choose to present. There were some impressive performances here from professionals who were really able to offer an insight into their skills and experience which were undoubtedly valuable to anyone who took the time to listen. JD Andrews on Video, and Kash Bhattacharya on his Luxury Hostels project were two notable instances of speakers who had something interesting and innovative to say. There was some repetition of topics which have been covered several times previously, at TBU… WTM… and previous instances of TBEX. Not just the same topics… but the same speakers presenting the same topics.
There has been a sense recently that TBEX chooses speakers based on how famous they are, rather than what they have to say – and this is a disservice to attendees. People should speak when they have something important to say, and they should listen when they don’t. Hashing together some shit about the value of Pinterest and Google Plus is not good enough.
I would love to see the next TBEX focus more on subjects rather names. What is TBEX about? What does it stand for? The biggest value of a conference isn’t an individual take-away from a single talk. It’s 5 different talks which all fit together as large parts of an even bigger picture and inspire you with new understanding. You don’t need 5 tracks and 34 speakers for a good event. A one day event with 6 speakers with amazing content and the entire audience in one room. This is where the audience will really place value on what’s being said and take something away from it.
Organisation and Infrastructure
Photo by @JordiCasinos
While the content lacked clear focus for me, the organisation of the event cannot be faulted. If there’s one thing that’s clear (again), it’s that TBEX and BlogWorld (now known as NMX – New Media Exchange) know how to organise an event. There were no major glitches, everything ran on time, and the communication of what was happening next was very clear. TBEX deserve to be praised for this because it’s very easy to take for granted, even more so following the high bar set in Colorado, and these things do not just magically occur.
The parties hosted by Costa Brava, TBEX, and Expedia were all a lot of fun and provided the opportunity for attendees to chat and get to know each other in a relaxed setting. The food was exactly as you would expect from Costa Brava: incredible. It was obvious that the tourist board went over and above to try to please and impress attendees as much as possible. Occasionally this can be slightly overwhelming, but it’s hard to critiscise a group of people who work so hard here and, clearly, take digital travel journalism and its emerging genuine value incredibly seriously.
The Mystery of Will Peach
Will Peach – photo by @WritingTravel
The community has been confused, offended, fascinated and occasionally aroused for the better part of a year by a gentleman named William Peach. He came out of nowhere and stamped his name firmly on the world of travel blogging with posts discussing how he’s going to have the biggest travel blog in the world, and 5 things he’d rather be doing than attending a travel blogging conference. I would love to tell you that Peach is a useless troll of the internet as we all suspected, but having had the chance to speak with him – he’s actually a very intelligent guy with a genuine interest in challenging perceptions, stereotypes and social norms. Read a little deeper into his posts and you might, might, just catch a sniff of real sentiment buried beneath swear words, innuendos and dreadfully graphic metaphors.
So What Next?
Overall TBEX Europe was a very good event, but we expected it to be great. The European market seems to be at this point a much less established industry than its North American counterpart. It is crying out for innovation, for forward thinking, for a few individuals who have motivation to do more than just write another list of Top [x] Things to do in [x] That No One Actually Cares About. As soon as there are more fresh ideas floating around and people acting on those ideas, collaborating on those ideas, finding new ways to make online travel journalism interesting… that’s when I think the conferences will in turn, step up a level.
The North American instance of TBEX moves to Toronto, Canada in 2013 – it will be interesting to see how much TBEX now steer the industry or, perhaps, how much the industry now steer TBEX. There is a lot of room at the moment for new travel bloggers to emerge who have very focused target demographics and talk about how to market to this audience. Travel blogs which are in effect a “travel diary” are becoming long in the tooth. Projects like The Traveler’s Handbook Series are very, very interesting to watch.
While in Barcelona, our accommodation was provided by Wimdu, one of the coolest accommodation-search-engine-startups we’ve seen. They offer apartments, bed and breakfasts, as well as other types of short and long term accommodation. Cheaper than hotels, and almost always with more style.
Thanks for this recap. I’ve got to admit I couldn’t read your real-time updates because the page kept jumping all over the place; maybe it was a browser issue, I’ll have to go back and try again. I wish I’d been able to go and hear folks like Pam Mandel and the notorious Will P, their session sounded like one I would have enjoyed immensely. And of course see Girona and eat my own body weight in pork products.
I think TBEX Europe doesn’t have to be a rehash of the North American version, it’s definitely a chance to do something different in terms of speakers, presentations, and style of event. Whether NMX is willing to take that risk or simply replicate a successful formula across the globe, we shall see. Hiring a travel blogger to work on business development is an interesting move.
Hope to catch up with you at travelmassive next month.
Great post! I attended TBEX Girona and agree on the most part on what´s written here. (btw Will Parch rocks)
Some of the partying detracted from the 9am conferences the next day and that´s a shame.
Organisation was excellent. I would like to see more done on the ´Creative´ side of creating content with workshops where we participate rather than just being spoken at.
Cool recap.
The biggest complaint I’ve heard was that many of the speakers basically just plugged their current initiatives without giving much guidance on the subject. That said, there wasn’t one person I spoke with who regretted going and most focused on the evening parties over the predictable panels.
Looking forward to Toronto.
Sure – but the question is, is it worth spending 500-600 euros when the biggest takeaway is a couple of good parties?
For me: no.
I hear what you’re saying and agree that is a ridiculous sum to pay for a party. That said all conferences are one of those situations where “you’ll never know unless you go” rings true. Also there is an old saying “the world is governed by those that show up” and I see a strong correlation between bloggers that frequently attend industry events and corporate sponsorships.
I agree with you completely, in reference to the US event, where there was drinking and professional networking happening simultaneously. In Europe however, the latter was in short supply – this was my only point.
Does that mean you’re in or out for TBEX Toronto?
Noted.
Caption’s wrong. It’s JD Andrews.
Which is exactly what the caption says.
Ah, no. When I wrote this, it WAS JD Williams. Which I noticed, cuz that’s my last name. Someone fixed it to his proper name JD Andrews.
You’re completely right – apologies, I missed that
Appreciate the honest write up John. To be honest I kind of shut it all out so I didn’t torture myself by thinking about all the things I figured I’d be missing out on.
I feel like I make the same comments on similar posts nearly every week but this is what it comes down to: get some guts and push yourself and the industry forward. Blogging as a whole is stale unless you’re on the edge of something and the edge is not things to do in Madrid. The idea that we need to breath life into is that the conversation shouldn’t just be about the destination, it should be about telling a story. Easier said than done but so is everything worth doing. TBEX should be about how you can elevate your blog, which happens to be about travel, to the next level. Lot of empty words in my post but I’d wear the letters off my keyboard if I broke it down.