Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #3 Twenty interesting things

Some key phrases and thoughts from Canada-e-Connect 2010

1. Conversational Capital - Rituals, initiation, icons, relevant sensory oddity, exclusive product (service, experience) offering, over delivery, tribalism, endorsement, continuity. "the medium is the message" McLuhan "the consumer is the message" Cesvet
2. From Claude Benard of Hotelitour to Hoteliers. (paraphrasing) "Use the OTA's for search. Maximize all your channels of distribution, but most importantly maximize your own direct channel (your chain's or hotel's booking engine and website)
3. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Strategically correct yes, politically correct, no"
4. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Brand matters"
5. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Premature ROI analysis stifles opportunity before it has a chance to develop"
6. From Kim Mance, founder GoGalavanting and the Travel Bloggers Exchange community: "You need to be louder" (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
7. From Cajun Mama, Shannon Hurst Lane, founder TravelingMamas.com, ShannonLane.com: (paraphrasing) many people market to the coasts (of the US) "they think that's where everybody is and they forget that there is this huge country between those two coasts. (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
8. From Patrick Payne of Quickmobile: Mobile's 7 P's Presentation, Presence, Proximity, Personalization, Privacy, Payments, Push (also contender for the most tweeted tweet)
9. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: 100 mini-sites. being specific in promoting destinations
10. From Maria Ziv of VisitSweden: Digital Embassies as opposed to one huge website. Focus on images (everyone has ADD these days)
11. From Jens Thraenhart, DragonTrail.com: (paraphrasing) "China is a huge opportunity...there are more bloggers in China than in the United States"
12. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: eTourism as cloud
13. From Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research, Scotland: "Strategy without metrics is merely wishes. Metrics without a strategy are meaningless." (perhaps the phrase most tweeted at the conference)
14. From Carroll Rheem of PhoCusWright: The Long Tail of OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is getting fatter.
15. From Walid Salem, Exec Dir eBusiness, Canadian Tourism Commission: "Take advantage of the millions of dollars in free advertising and PR that the Olympics will provide"
16. From Ken Lambert, VP Sales & Marketing, Delta Hotels and Resorts: "For us, Twitter is more important than Facebook."
17. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "It's Tasty" after tasting Poutine with Fois Gras for the first time (at the Restaurant au Pied de Cochon in Montreal)
18. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "To increase destination fans be specific: fans of poutine, fans of Grand Prix du Canada, fans of Tamy Emma Pepin (not just fans of Quebec)"
19. From Joe Buhler, BuhlerWorks, PhoCusWright, Marketing in the Smart Web: "data roaming charge is the elephant in the room" (at the Mobile issues and opportunities session)
20. From Wendy Perrin, The Perrin Post, Traveler Magazine: "I love talking to travelers, I love helping them with their travel..."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #2 Twitter

Last year at Canada-e-Connect 2009 in Toronto, I had a conversation with Ted Souder of Google (head of Industry Travel Mid West - named "25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing" by HSMAI in 2006). This conversation took place on stage during the luncheon as a keynote presentation. At that time, I asked the audience whether anyone was using Twitter. This was January 2009. Only one or two people in the audience of more than 200 raised their hands. Many hadn't even heard of Twitter (Ted, of course, not only had heard, but was using it already), so I proceeded to do one tweet live from the stage about interviewing Ted Souder of Google at CeC2009.

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12 months is an eternity in digital time. At Canada-e-Connect 2010, pretty much everyone knew about Twitter and the majority of attendees (I think) have Twitter accounts. But not all. In fact, about a dozen people started tweeting for the first time at Canada-e-Connect. The fact that #CEC2010 became a trending topic in Canada during the conference bodes well for Canadian Tourism. It should very much be an example of the kind of exposure and "word-of-mouth-on-steroids," to use PhoCusWright's Philip Wolf's phrase, that social media can provide for an event or a destination. I know that Montreal, CEC2010's host city, is very happy about all the mentions that it too received from hosting the event.

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While Twitter, just as any other element of Social Media or of the marketing mix, is not the end all and be all, I think it is clear that it has become an extremely important tool (if used well) for tourism. What better example to confirm this than Ken Lambert's statement. Ken is VP of Sales and Marketing for Delta Hotels and Resorts, and a great panelist at CEC2010's Hoteliers 2.0 session. Ken said (I'm paraphrasing here) that "Twitter is very important for us and it's growing tremendously. For us Twitter is more important than Facebook."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #1 The Stars

Quickly: Top of Mind. Who were the stars of the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montreal? In no particular order:

1. Twitter
2. Maria Ziv VisitSweden.com
3. Kim Mance - GoGalavanting.com
4. Wendy Perrin The Perrin Post Conde Nast Traveller Magazine
5. Shannon Hurst (Cajun Mama) TravelingMamas.com Shannonlane.com
6. Philp Wolfe President CEO PhoCusWright
7. Bertrand Cesvet SidLee.com
8. Vicky Brock Highland Business Research, Scotland
9. Philip Fabry Atout France
10. Emmanuelle Legault Tourisme Montreal

The above are my top of mind, quick-tell-me, stars of #CEC2010. If you attended the conference you might have a different top-of-mind list. Share it in the comments here. Just now, as I write this, I remembered Jens Thraenhart (DragonTrail.com), for example, and his impressive presentation on the eTourism/Online landscape in China.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. A series of musings on #CEC2010

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010, aka #CEC2010 by its Twitter hash tag, was a resounding success, in my opinion. Of course, you might say I am somewhat biased because I was Co-Chair of the Conference, but I would submit to you that, on the contrary, I would not be biased because I, together with my colleagues on the Advisory Committee, TIAC (Tourism Industry Association of Canada), and my Co-Chair Carmen Ciotola from Tourism Montreal, were the ones sweating every moment hoping everything would go as planned and hoping to exceed the delegates expectations.

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But judging from feedback I personally received during and after the conference, and the approximately 1,000 tweets from Wednesday Jan 27 at 6 pm to Friday Jan 29 at 4 pm (yes I have counted them), which made #CEC2010 one of the top ten Twitter topics in Canada at various times, I am confident that delegates found the conference helpful and stimulating, and that they left Montreal with knowledge that is actionable and that they can apply to their organizations' strategies. Just the act of starting to use Twitter to communicate and network was well received by the several attendees who started to tweet for the first time at CeC2010. CeC's tweets, by the way, reached thousands of Twitter users not only in Canada, but internationally (more on that in an upcoming post)

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Now that the conference is fresh in my mind, and before I get back to the daily challenges of work and family next week, I decided to take some time on this cold (but sunny) Saturday afternoon to write a few posts about the conference and some thoughts about the future. Feel free to share the posts on Facebook or Twitter using the AddThis buttons at the end of each post.

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Jaime Horwitz mBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Spotlight of eTourism strategic issues - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Strategy is not just about marketing. Since its inception, the Canada-e-Connect conference has focused not only on strategic marketing, but also on other elements of strategy in the eTourism space. The new digital revolution has implications for many areas of your strategic planning.

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Technological and social advances have fundamentally changed the way in which organizations operate, with spinoff operational implications affecting everything from government relations and law, to human resources and labour relations, as well as marketing and public relations. CeC is pleased to present The new relationship between Travellers and the Tourism Industry This panel session with experts from different backgrounds will consider the most pressing issues and address your concerns.

• Meredith A. Hanrahan, Chief Marketing Officer, Cheapflights Ltd.
• Rob Hyndman, Technology Business Lawyer and Founder,Hyndman | Law;
• Mike Kujawski, Marketing & Social Media Strategist, Center of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing
• Stuart Macdonald, Founder CEO, TripHarbour.ca;
• Joseph Thornley, CEO, Thornley Fallis and 76design and Chair, Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms

This session will take place Thurs, Jan 30th at 1:30 pm.

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Kim Mance - Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers

I met Kim virtually when I joined the Travel Bloggers Exchange community, a worldwide community of travel bloggers, journalists, writers and travel professionals who meet annually and which she founded. Kim is a travel writer, editor, and new media broadcast personality based in Chicago, IL. Kim hosts the lively web travel series Galavanting, is editor-in-chief of the online women's travel magazine, GoGalavanting.com, and writes about travel for outlets like MarieClaire's Travel Diaries, Indie Travel Podcast magazine, and The Huffington Post. She is currently writing the first Insiders' Guide to Chicago for Globe Pequot Press.

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I am delighted that Kim will be one of the panelists at this year's Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers (and Twitterers) session which will take place this coming Friday, bright and early (8am) at the Delta Centre Ville.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Shannon Hurst Lane of TravelingMamas.com - Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference

Shannon Hurst Lane has been a freelance travel writer for almost a decade and has always dabbled in the online world sharing her love of all things travel with her readers. She is the author of travel guides and the self-help book The Definitive Guide to Travel Writing. She is the creator and curator of the TravelingMamas.com blog. I read the Mamas every now and then to learn about various NorthAmerican destinations and little known travel spots, but it's clear to me that their content is geared to women for the most part. TravelingMamas write, among other things, about Romantic Getaways, Family Travel, Culinary Travel, Girlfriend Getaways and Adventure Travel.

One of Shannon's websites was named as a Nielsen Power Mom site, and she is proud to be able to provide valuable learning opportunities through travel to younger generations. Shannon has devoted herself to sharing social media strategies with the travel industry, through speaking engagements and one on one consults. Shannon is the CEO of Lane Media, LLC, a Louisiana-based media publishing company.

I am looking forward to moderating The International Travel Bloggers & Twitterers Forum – Presented by Ottawa Tourism and the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership at Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010 where Shannon, Kim Mance and Wendy Perrin will be the panelists.

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010