RIP Canada-e-Connect

I had the privilege of serving our Canadian Tourism Industry as a volunteer Chair of the national Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference in 2009 and 2010. I also served in the advisory committee of CeC 2011, superbly chaired by Emmanuelle Legault and Joel Peters.  After every conference we used to have a post-conference meeting to go over what worked and what needed more work and to begin thinking about the following year's conference. Canada-e-Connect was started by the brilliant Jens Thraenhart, former Director of eMarketing for the Canadian Toursim Commission. Jens had a dream to start a world class eTourism event in Canada. And he achieved that dream in November 2007. After Jens moved on to pursue other interests (doing great work in China for many destinations around the world, including Canada, via Dragon Trail), the Tourism Industry Association of Canada took over the conference. While I haven't seen any official announcement (and maybe I missed it),  it is very unfortunate that TIAC has quietly killed the conference without, as much as I know, any industry consultations. On the one hand, I can understand why. TIAC is a lobbying organization, the voice of the industry in Ottawa. TIAC also manages the National Tourism Conference and Rendez-vous Canada, so adding another conference was a stretch and I know it was a lot of work for TIAC's fantastic staff.  So I can understand why TIAC is not doing CeC anymore. But, I wish there had been consultations and perhaps a call for other organizations to take over the conference.  But who knows, perhaps it will come back with another name and a more ambitious agenda (maybe I should look into it - perhaps my friends at Tnooz and Comptoirs du eTourisme will be interested in collaborating in an international eTourism Strategy event within a Canadian context). Many people have confused eTourism Marketing with eTourism Strategy. Any marketing, digital or not, must be grounded in sound strategy. CeC's purpose was to focus on this strategy, to help the industry think strategically. I was not about social media or Facebook or mobile, it was about how to strategize in the new digital era - how to use (or not use) the new tools, channels, technologies, etc., of the digital era to pursue your strategy in order to achieve your organizational's objectives. RIP Canada-e-Connect.

Erica Ehm Canada-e-Connect 2011

Excellent session on "creating a Social Media department" for your organization.

Some takeaways: someone must be responsible, how much you pay that person or persons is very important (Erica Ehm: "the famous intern: don't give the responsibility to an intern who doesn't understand your company"), very challenging to try and address different tourism markets with different languages and cultures, very important that whoever engages in social media communication knows the product/destination very very well and, perhaps most importantly that they know who they are taking to (engagement market) - e.g. Erica Ehm's YummyMummyClub bloggers are Mothers writing for Mothers "only way you can be true."

In tourism, if you in social media in order to attract visitors from Mexico or India or China you should understand what makes travelers in those markets tick. Ideally whoever is communicating should be a resident in the destination (or at least in the country where the destination is) and bi-cultural (not easy to find). I will be speaking about this topic at next March's Online Revealed conference and I very much look forward to the discussion.

Jaime

Canada-e-Connect 2001 (#CeC2011) Toronto Day 1

First day at Canada-e-Connect 2011 was very interesting. Not surprisingly Social Media is still a topic of debate. The issue of measurement comes up again and again at these types of conference. One of my favourite quotes of the day was from @unmarketing's Scott Stratten: "Anytime you ask about the ROI of Twitter, a unicorn dies." The other topic that continues to generate traction is that of branding, protecting your brand, protecting your messages. Personally, I am getting a bit tired of hearing these same questions.

Let's accept once and for all that today's brands (unless they have been firmly ingrained in the minds of consumers, e.g. Coca Cola, Ford - and even then...) are positioned in the minds of consumers by a myriad of voices and up to millions of messages. Your voice as a marketer, destination, ad agency, PR practitioner, etc., is only one of those voices. Branding today is a collaborative effort. Yes, you can try to shape and mold the messages hoping that a critical mass of consumers agree with you and thereby the brand may be more or less what you wish. But make no mistake - you cannot control the branding process 100%. If your product, service, destination sucks, sooner or later consumers will know. So first and foremost, be remarkable.

The best tweet that sums up Day 1 is from William Bakker, @wilhelmus:

"#CeC2011 social media, social media, social media, social media, mobile, social media, social media, video, social media, social media, snow"

Let's see what Day 2 brings at CeC2011

Jaime

Canada-e-Connect 2011 Spotlight on Erica Ehm

Reading Erica Ehm's résumé makes me tired. She's crazy! (in a good way). Erica has been in the public eye in Canada for a couple of decades (and she's still young).

"Erica’s career in television spans two decades. She was co-creator, writer and host of Yummy Mummy, a parenting show for the music video generation. Other shows include Baby and You - Rogers Television, Popstars: The One - Global, Real Life with Erica Ehm - Life Network, Power Play - Discovery Channel, and The Company - TVO. Currently, Erica is the host of the ongoing television specials Live at the Concert Hall broadcast on Bravo. Ehm's talents extend to songwriting. She has won two Junos, three Country Music Awards and three SOCAN Awards. She co-wrote the theme for the film and series Pippi Longstocking. Love Me Even More was the theme song for the film Some Things That Stay." YummyMummyClub.ca

Ms. Ehm is a tireless creative entrepreneur who understands communication. Social Media being all about communication, so it's no surprise that Erica has become one of the best users of Social Media to do business, to communicate with friends and fans and to increase her standing as an influencer in the Canadian marketplace. Her current focus is women with children, the Yummy Mummies (and thereby their DelishDad husbands). We all know that, when it comes to travel decisions, women have the final word (according to various studies women influence between 85% and 90% of all travel decisions). Paraphrasing Woody Allen as he put it in a movie when talking to his son: "Well, no, I am the boss, your mother just makes all the decisions." Erica understands her audience very well and has surrounded herself with like minded, brilliant women. I think her YummyMummy Club was a brilliant idea.

See Erica's blog post about her Banff vacation

Erica Ehm will be one of the distinguished panellists on the "Building a Social Media Department" session at the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference next week in Toronto. I very much look forward to meeting her in person.

Jaime

Canada-e-Connect 2011 Spotlight on Amber Mac

"Amber Mac is a technology host, journalist, and strategist, with experience both online and offline. She writes a regular column forThe Globe & Mail, Yahoo! Tech, American Express Open Forum, among other outlets. She has worked as a technology TV host with tech guru Leo Laporte on G4TechTV, hosting/producing more than 500 episodes of a popular how- to call in show. She now hosts a live TV show called Webnation on Toronto’s number one news station (watch the show here)..." http://www.ambermac.com/about/

I am very much looking forward to listening to Amber Mac at Canada-e-Connect 2011. I have followed Amber virtually for some time now. She always has something interesting up her sleeves. Last year she published her book "Power Friending" (Penguin Books Ltd.) In a lucky strike, I won a copy of her book on a Twitter contest and I have read it a couple of times. I have added it to the other three books I consider very helpful in this new era of pull: DigiMarketing by Dr. Ian Fenwick, Conversational Capital by Bertrand Cesvet and colleagues, and Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers. Power Friending is a well written book that demystifies social media. It's great for beginners (especially small businesses) who want to understand social media marketing. But it's also a very good book for avid practitioners and marketers because it can serve as a reminder of basic social media principles as well as a good to-do list when you are implementing a strategy.

Here's an example of Amber Mac's Commandn.TV show. I chose this one because there is a segment on video sharing websites, and as you might know, I will be moderating the video panel session at CeC 2011.

AmberMac

Canada-e-Connect 2011

See you next week in Toronto (follow my Tweets Feb 2 to 4)

twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

Jaime

What I'm looking forward to at the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Conference 2011

The Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2011 is around the corner. This will be the 4th edition of Canada-e-Connect and it promises again to stimulate thought and conversation and to encourage attendees to take a fresh look at their current strategy vis a vis the ongoing digital/social revolution and the tourism sector. These are the sessions I am very much looking forward to:

Geo-location Meets Social: The Business Case

Explore the integration of geo-location applications within social media, from lessons learned to the values and benefits of location-based social networking service in helping clients explore the world around them.

This session will deal with one of the hottest tools in social media marketing today, geo-location services. If you don't use them as a consumer or as a business, at the very least you will have heard of them - e.g. Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google's Places App, Gowalla and others. The session's panelists/presenters are Sarah Best, Social Media Strategist for Chicago Tourism and Andy Elwood, Director Business Development for Gowalla. The moderator will be a good friend of Canada's Tourism Industry, the affable Jim Brody from TripAdvisor. Don't miss this session. In my opinion, Geo-location services will be the biggest thing in social marketing in 2011 (followed by Group Buying services like Groupon, Wagjag, LivingSocial, etc - unfortunately we won't have a session on Group Buying, but there's always CeC 2012).

Online Video: Luncheon & Panel Presentation

Join session moderator Jaime Horwitz as he explores the world of online video applications with an impressive line up of experts who have applied this innovative technology to generate positive results. An opportunity to ask questions on the value and worth of incorporating video into websites; the return on investment and the dos and don’ts.

I'm moderating this session, so naturally, I'm very much looking forward to it. We all know the power of the moving image. However, implementing a video strategy is very daunting to many tourism businesses. It is much easier to start a Facbook page and a Twitter feed than to start a video strategy. First, there's the cost and then there's the knowhow. And most importantly creativity: how to use video and digital video technology to achieve organizational goals. We will address this topic during the session and we will also talk about the latest developments in this space. We have four terrific panelists from 4 different companies working with video and digital technology. Kulin Strimbu, President and CEO of TripTelevison, Abe McCallum CEO Clikthrough, Todd Pasternack, Director Technology Group Pointroll and Bob Kane, TV Producer and Principal Entertainment Travel Consultants and the Creative Alliance Network.

Panel Discussion: Building a Social Media Department

Re-thinking your social media strategy? This panel session will consider some of the administrative realities of running an in-house social media department. Topics will range from human resources issues to establishing practical social media guidelines, as well as other considerations to keep in mind when implementing your strategy.

Ah, social media, the Holy Grail - getting society to do your marketing for you - going viral - everybody's new dream. But someone has to be in charge. Someone has to Tweet. Someone has to update the Facebook page. Someone has to manage the Foursquare specials. Etc. How do you keep up? How do you establish an in-house social media department "without breaking the bank" as Joel Peters (Tourism Toronto) put it? This session will deal with this challenge. The panel couldn't be better. Moderated by Troy Thompson of Travel 2.0 consulting, Ed Lee, Director Social Media DDB Canada, Sean Moffit of Agent Wildfire and Wikibrands fame, and Erica Ehm, Creator/Publisher/Entrepreneur The YummyMummyClub.ca. I am sure this will be one of my favourite session at the conference.

Finally, I am also looking forward to the closing Keynote with Amber MacArthur aka Amber Mac, technology host, journalist, strategist and social media guru author of "Power Friending" a book that has been widely praised by Canadian and international media (my review coming soon on this blog).

Check out the entire Canada-e-Connect 2011 program to see what sessions appeal the most to you. And register if you haven't already. Hope to see you there.

Jaime Horwitz MBA,

Digital Marketer, social Media Strategist, Canadian Tourism enthusiast

Almost final blog post of the year. Ready for 2011? Start early with Canada-e-Connect and consider the new Canadian Tourism Marketing Summit

The disaster that was 2009 is hopefully a distant memory. While 2010 was not spectacular, we did see some recovery in the Canadian Tourism industry. It is by no means a great state of affairs, but there's cautious optimism that 2011 might be an OK year for Canada. The challenges going forward are many: the weak American economy, the rising loonie (Canadian dollar for those of you who don't know our currency's nickname), the debt crisis in Europe, and the intense competition from a myriad of other destinations.

Do you long for the good all times BYT, BFB, BT (before YouTube, before FaceBook, before Twitter)? The digital revolution has been wreaking havoc in many industries for several years now and it's like a tsunami that keeps on going. Music, advertising, marketing, public relations. Even politics has changed because of the digital revolution. Just a mere 5 years ago you could still compete very effectively with traditional marketing communications (TV, radio, print, static Web) and trade relations (wholesalers, tour operators, airlines, etc). If your destination had big budgets you could make more noise than the others and get decent results. Today, that's not the case.

Destination marketers are having a very hard time keeping up with the consumer and the ongoing changes that the digital world brings about. 5 or 6 years ago the buzz was SEO, optimize your website so that people can find you on search engines - improve your rankings so your website/destination appears on the first page of Google organic results. And just when many destinations were getting right, in came the Social Media storm. Today, a DMO's voice is just one of thousands talking (or not) about a particular destination. Same thing goes for tourism businesses. Even when none of the current digital means of communication existed, admen and adwomen talked about "cutting through the clutter." We had seen a fragmentation of TV audiences with the "500 channel" universe, and that was hard enough. Now the audience is fragmented into millions (even if 500 million of them are on Facebook).

How are you competing in this environment? What is your strategy going forward? In my previous post I encouraged you to attend Canada-e-Connect. I still do, but you may also want to consider attending the new Canadian Tourism Marketing Summit next March. If you need help with tactics and hands on learning, there's Online Revealed also in March. If you plan to attend ITB this year and you are interested in the latest technological developments in tourism, I recommend the PhocusWright @ ITB conference (the theme in 2011 is "Marketplace Chaos: Spotlight on Technology and Innovation). Unfortunately PhocusWright @ ITB takes place at the same time as Online Revealed and the Canadian Tourism Summit, so you will have to choose.

Today more than ever, it is important to keep up with technological and communications developments in the tourism space. The old tourism marketing, advertising and distribution system that lasted for decades has been creatively destroyed in just a few years and changes happen almost on a daily basis. Stay on top or fall behind.

Jaime

www.cactusrock.com

62 days 'till Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2011

While there are only 23 days 'till Christmas (Happy Hanukkah, btw, Dec 1 to 9), there are only 62 days until Canada's national etourism strategy conference, Canada-e-Connect, presented by TIAC and PhoCusWright. Register by tomorrow, Friday December 3, to get a shot at a brand new iPad 16G.

This year the CeC has put together another great program. Speakers include Scott Stratten @unmarekting on "Unmarketing" fame, Tara Hunt @missrogue, and Amber MacArthur @ambermac, one of the leading social media experts in Canada and author of Power Friending (my review is coming on this blog soon).

The first Canada-e-Connect conference held in Vancouver was all about "joining the conversation," the second Canada-e-Connect in Toronto in 2009 was about the "Digital Revolution," and how digital technology is the new gauge (see Dr. Ian Fenwick's DigiMarketing), content is personal and content travels and engaging instead of targeting. The third installment of Canada-e-Connect in Montreal was not only about joining the conversation using digital media, but how to go beyond and create conversational capital (see Betrand Cesvet's "Conversational Capital"), conversations that enhance brand equity. What will Canada-e-Connect IV be all about?

We all know how fast technology moves today. At the second Canada-e-Connect in January 2009, while I was interviewing Ted Souder, at the time Head of Travel Central Region at Google Inc., during a luncheon session, I asked if anyone in the audience had a twitter account. Besides me and Ted, only 2 or 3 people tweeted! That was less than 2 years ago! Today we are seeing an explosion in geo-location services and group buying might be the next big thing (Google might be buying Groupon as I write this).

How are you adapting your strategy to take advantage of the ongoing digital revolution? Come to Canada-e-Connect 2011 in Toronto and get ahead of the curve. There will be sessions on geo-location, video as a branding, marketing, communications and sales tool, what's going on in the mobile space, of course social media, branded content and very importantly - measuring it all. And if a session does not cover a particular interest of yours, I am sure you will meet people who can either help you or point you in the right direction. Network with experts in their field.

Canada-e-Connect 2011, February 2 to 4, 2011. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Register early.

Hope to see you at CeC 2011

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Past Chair Canada-e-Connect

member advisory committee

@jaimehorwitz