Hotel Nikko San Francisco

I will be attending  Eye for Travel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel conference on March 10-11, 2009 at the sleek Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. This is my first Eye for Travel sponsored conference.

The conference is intended to deliver “best practices from innovative travel companies that have cracked the social media nut and have real case studies, best practices and analytics to discuss.” They make a convincing argument to attend the conference by promising we can learn how to measure and monetize social media.

After reviewing the conference schedule, I am most interested in four of the twelve featured sessions (and yes, the networking drinks receptions are 5th on my list):

Eye For Travel comes to San Francisco

1. Case Studies on Social Media: How to Measure and Monetize Your Campaigns

Like most conference attendees, I like case studies and the nuts and bolts of how to do something new. Invariably, I discover a nugget of an idea I can take back to my desk to build an idea or augment a marketing campaign.  I am interested in hearing how Intercontinental Hotels Group successfully (or not) incorporated social media into their marketing efforts.

2. Combine Search and Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Site

This will be presented by Scott McNeely of Viator, Inc. and I hope he will discuss the positive and negative effects on their site from the multiple social media changes they made last year including the addition of  reviews and ratings, a blog and wish lists.  I want to know what worked, what did not work and how they plan to improve the results.

3. Of course, I will listen to the Spotlight on Semantic Web:  How and When will your Business be Affected? This is being presented by Yen Lee, president of UpTake and Ken Leeder, CEO of RealTravel. I know our perspective, but I am curious about RealTravel’s take on the semantic web and how they will continue to use it to build their business.

4. The third session is Social Media Marketing: Why A Holistic Approach Pays Dividends with speakers from Marriott International, Southwest Airlines, Parker Hospitality Group and TravelMuse.   I hope they focus on how to determine the right combination of tools, UGC and blogging.  I am interested in finding right social media mix for the right effort and for the right investment.  I hope one day the ROI on social media will be as straightforward as the old traditional media buy (this much will get you X). But I don’t see that in the social media marketing future  yet.

I will be blogging about the conference. Please let me know what aspects of social media and travel you are interested in learning about. I can be your voice on the conference floor.

Chicago Skyline

Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) announced a travel blogger meet-up to coincide with Blogher ’09 on Sunday,  July 26th, from 9am to 1pm in Chicago, Illinois. The meet up is hosted by Kim Mance, founder of TBEX and  GoGalavanting.com and Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby.com. Here is how they describe the event:

“All travel bloggers are welcome and the event will be free of charge to all attendees. The networking event will feature discussions on topics like:
◈ Keeping a blog alive when not traveling
◈ Attracting advertisers
◈ Balancing ethics with PR freebies
◈ Using video in travel blogging
◈ Blogging vs. Travel Writing“

I attended a travel blogger meeting at Blogher in San Francisco, 2008.  It was fun, informative and offered the opportunity to connect with other travel bloggers sharing similar goals and problems. It was invaluable.  I highly recommend attending.

For background information about TBEX, go here and join the community. See you at Blogher.

Photo: Courtesy of theotherway.