Category: Been There

Winding Down from ITB Berlin part 2: The Travel Bloggers

I have to get this post off my chest, be it for mere reference for myself, but also as preparation for the tagging of the many photos I took and uploaded already.

Here are the travel bloggers that were listed for the Berlin ITB Bloggers summit:

  • Ram Badrinathan PHOCUSWRIGHT (India)
    Ram commented that only recently he started to blog, but also started to like it.
  • William Bakker WILHELMUS (The Netherlands / Canada). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. He was blogging and twittering on the fly as a real professional.
  • Annalisa Ballaria RELACTIONS (Italy) Unfortunately I had no chance to talk to her.
  • Florian Bauhuber TOURISMUSZUKUNFT.DE (Germany)
  • Claude Benard LES EXPLORERS (France). Nice to meet, dine and talk with.
  • Vicky Brock TRACKING TOURISM (Scotland). Nice to meet, dine and talk with.
  • Karen Bryan EUROPE A LA CARTE (U.K.). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. She came in rather agitated because she had booked in a Hostel right across Berlin, only to find out early in the morning that public transport in Berlin was on strike.
  • Stephen Budd TRACKING TOURISM (Scotland). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. I’ll nickname him “Our Professor”, because he has already forgotten what I still have to learn:-)
  • Joe Buhler TRAVEL MARKETING IN THE AGE OF WEB 2.0 & BEYOND (U.S.). Nice to meet, drink and talk with. Our Veteran Hospitality Guru
  • Philip Caines TOURISM TIDE (Canada). One of the initiators of the Book Tips from the T-List.
  • Martin Cowen TRAVOLUTION (U.K.) Newly arrived at the Travolution crew.
  • Darren Cronian TRAVEL RANTS (U.K.). Who missed his train and unfortunately couldn’t make it.
  • Ralf Eggert TRAVELLO (Germany).
  • Klaus Hildebrandt FVW (Germany).
  • Yeoh Siew Hoon THE TRANSIT CAFE (Singapore). Our Asian Travel Guru.
  • Jamie Horwitz CANADIAN TOURISM (Canada). Nice to meet, dine and talk with. The lonesome hockey fan who took it upon him to solely make Mexican travelers understand Canada better as a travel destination.
  • Stephen Joyce TRAVEL & TOURISM TECHNOLOGY TRENDS (Canada). Another initiator of The Tips from the T-List book.
  • Kevin May TRAVOLUTION (U.K.). The editor of The Industry blog who can listen and write and edit at once. I envied him.
  • Detlef Meyer ROUNDTRIP (Germany)
    Who seemed a bit busy with other appointments at the Fair.
  • Abbas Nokhasteh OPENVIZOR (U.K.). Not a Blogger per se, but trendy he is!
  • Jens Oellrich TOURISMUSZUKUNFT.DE (Germany)
  • Goetz A. Primke LE GOURMAND (Germany). Likes Girls (who doesn’t:-).
  • Eckart Reiche OPENTS (Germany).
  • Henri Roelings WIWIH (WHO IS WHO IN HOSPITALITY) (The Netherlands). Watch my sleeping with Henri post.
  • Bruce Rosard PHOCUSWRIGHT (U.S.). A swell guy.
  • Karin Schmollgruber FASTENYOURSEATBELTS (Austria), who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to the strike.
  • Carlo Alvarez Spagnolo TEXTING ALL OVER THE WORDS (Spain).
  • Ludolf Stavenga REISPORTALS (The Netherlands).
  • Jens Thraenhart TOURISM INTERNET MARKETING (Germany / Canada). The third Tips from the T-List initiator.
  • Guido Van Den Elshout HAPPY HOTELIER (The Netherlands), yes, Yours Truly.
  • Dr. Klemens Waldh BLOGS IN TOURISM (Austria).

I intend to add the photos later.

Winding Down from ITB Berlin part 1 – General

After returning from ITB Berlin I needed some time to digest my experiences. Moreover I had to look after guests and address various social events.

I have a couple of observations. Some of them will result in separate posts.

  • Tuesday March 4, 2008:Berlin’s more than 531 hotels were almost sold out. Consequently getting a hotel was difficult. I have reported already about my experiences. I will give a review of the hotel I actually slept in in a separate post. I was able to leave The Hague around 16.30 hr (4.30 hr PM) and drove the 700 km in 8 hours including traffic jams because of the snow that lasted until half way Hannover. I arrived at 24.30 in my hotel.
  • Wednesday March 5, 2008, morning session:My main goal was to meet a couple of fellow Travel Bloggers who would attend the Bloggers Summit that was organized by PhoCusWright together with three Bloggers. In that respect the summit was a success. In a separate post I will introduce the Bloggers to the readers.

    There was a strike going on in Berlin and many people had troubles finding their way to Berlin Messe.

    Finding your way inside the Berlin Messe is even more cumbersome if you are a first time visitor. It has 26 or more different numbered halls while various halls are subdivided. They are draped around a square with the Messe Tower. Some halls are interconnected. Some are not. Their system of road signs is simply horrible. There is no clear map. In that respect WTM at London Excel, maybe not as huge as ITB, is much more compact and has several strategically located information points where you can tie exhibitors’ names, boot numbers and boot locations together.

    As a result most Bloggers didn’t show up at the anticipated time, or not at all (but that was for other reasons).

    In addition there was the opportunity for Bloggers to get in contact with various new and/or interesting players in the field. So the major part of the morning session was, after a short introduction by the Bloggers of themselves, filled with short introductions by various people.

    All in all there was very limited time left to get to know the colleagues a little bit better, which I regret.

  • Wednesday March 5, 2008, Afternoon Sessions:
    In two sessions two subjects were covered. The first session was more or less an introduction to travel Blogging for the uninitiated. The second session’s subject was Journalists vs Bloggers:
  • Organize yourself: Be (like) a real Journalist
    It happened to be the subject of an afternoon session, but organizing yourself for such an event is a hassle in itself. I had two bags, one with my camera and lenses and one with my laptop with me. My laptop is so old and bulky, it didn’t fit in my backpack, also because it is in constant dire need of a wall outlet, as it has a short battery life.
    During the morning session it was difficult to connect with the Wifi access point. The same happened the next day, which made Kevin of Travolution Blog make the assumption that Google was down,
    Furthermore I had forgotten my card reader. So I wasn’t able to put photos on my laptop nor upload them on the fly. When I returned home, I found out that I had run out of space on my computer HDD and had to address that problem as well….

    As to the discussion itself I would like to refer to an excellent article of John Glaser on the subject that I found through Joe Buhlers Blog . In the “Talk Back” part of the session I would have liked one or two journalists to ask questions rather than only Bloggers giving their opinion. Claude had the best observation: Bloggers usually have other jobs and don’t blog full time.

  • The March 6 PhoCusWright@ITB BERLIN seminarIt was the first time I attended one of their seminars. They do an amazing and very professional job. Every session starts and ends in time. Speakers are well introduced. Sometimes the speeches are followed by a “Talk Back”. Then one or to three panelists ask questions. The people who are at the panel are extremely well connected. During the speeches, the presentations are on one or two giant screens while sometimes one of the screens is used. There was a nice mix of old know it alls an new startups. I will devote one or two separate posts to the various subjects.

    One small note is that the sessions follow each other at such pace over a whole day that at the end of the day I had the feeling I had an information overload. Hardly time to regroup your thoughts. Hardly time to mull over the presentations with other attendants.

    I found out that I am not able to divide my attention between paying attention to what is going on and at the same time blogging on the fly. In that sense I am not a journalist and I admire Kevin who was extremely productive during the various sessions. Look at Travolution Blog for more detailed coverage of the Bloggers Summit and the PhoCusWright@ITB BERLIN seminar

  • Bloggers Summit Final Gathering
    Thursday March 6, Anhalter Bar M̦venpick Hotel, Berlin: 8:30 p.m. Р??
    Again I was one of the first to arrive at the bar. Traveling by car proved to be one of my best decisions. I was totally worn out from the information overload. I stepped into the Mövenpick Restaurant to have a quick bite before the drinks. When the others arrived, they were as hungry as I was a few moments earlier and they decided to step outside for a quick bite, only to return past 10.15 pm, when others had left already. In the meantime I had a chance to have some chats with the ones who stayed. I kindly suggest for the next summit the seminar to end earlier, or the get together to be planned directly after the seminar at or close to the premises of the seminar rather than in Berlin center. Then everybody could have hit the restaurants for a bite at around 9.00 pm. My 2 cents.

Conclusions

Friday I had to return to look after our hotel guests. This was a bit unfortunate, as I had hoped to be able to look around a bit more at ITB and in Berlin, but alas, no time left.

The next time I’ll need to have a smaller format laptop with me with and a card reader and I also have to re instate my UMTS card for mobile internet connection in case the local Wifi doesn’t work or is overloaded.

All in all I don’t regret having attended the Bloggers summit at ITB Berlin. A Big “Thank You” to all organizing people.

ITB Berlin Blogger summit – Snow and Strikes, but Bloggers come through

Very unusual: I am the first to find the meeting room where the first informal get together, the ITB Berlin Travel Blogger Summit, is taking place. I have seen some of the fair. Almost lost my way on the fair and am not impressed by the way Berlin Messe provides road signs.

As to snow: Detlef , who is from Berlin, comments this is the start of ITB and the first snow of Berlin this winter.

A huge strike lames the whole Berlin public transport system, but at around 11.30 I count around 25 Bloggers.

Chapeau to the Bloggers! Not even do they prove to be able to maintain the uphill struggle to keep a travel blog in the air, but they seem also able to beat difficulties as public transport out of function because of a strike and a traffic infarct in Berlin due to the first snow!

Preparing for the Travel Bloggers Summit in Berlin: Nothing Zen Part 5

ITB BERLIN 2008 TIPS FROM THE T-LIST

The Event

I am looking forward to the opportunity: On March 5 and 6, 2008 I will be meeting a couple of fellow Travel Bloggers (T-Listers) at a Travel bloggers Summit at ITB Berlin (International Travel Boerse (or Fair), Berlin.

More about the Summit itself later. For now a link to the Blog that has been launched to keep the community informed: ITB 2008 Tips From The T-List

Nothing Zen
In December 2006 I started my Zen series as a sort of status report about how the Internet is developing to help you with planning and booking a trip. Nothing better than to report about your own travel preparations to see how advanced or not the Internet is with respect to DIY Travel.

My 5 Areas of Interest
As I said earlier traveling is about 4 distinctive areas of interest, but actually there are 5 (I now have added as nr 2: “Where to stay in B?”, because that is also the main focus of this blog). Here is the list:

  1. How to travel from A to B? Like: by plane, train, car or by boat? (I hate buses).
  2. Where to stay in B?
  3. How is B looking? Maps, pictures and descriptions (what you usually look for in a paper guide)
  4. How are the people of B?
  5. Things to do in B? Bars, restaurants, theaters, musea, scenic parts

1) How to travel from The Hague to Berlin?
Well this one is simple this time. First, as a hotelier, it is always difficult to plan well ahead of time as there are always last minute guests and/or last minute changes of guests. I have a decent car. The trip to Berlin is 703 km according to my Tom Tom. Main part of the trip is over German motorways without speed limits, so I can burn the rubber a bit. I also like to tour around a bit by car at destinations, because it gives me a better feel of the geography. I have a laptop and some camera gear to take with me which would be a lot of weight for an airplane and last, but not least I like to smoke which is not allowed anymore in planes and trains. Finally, with the very low level of service at airports (I always feel like being in a lorry of pigs heading to the slaughterhouse) and in airplanes and all the delays, there is not so much time to gain when you travel up to 700/800 km. So I decided to go by car.

More to follow, because I hit the “Publish Button” far too early this time:-)

And p.s.: Happy Leap Day!

WTM 2007: First Impressions

Happy Hotelier's WTM Press Card
A proud member of the Press 🙂

Yes I succeeded to get the press card and I am proudly showing it here as proof. It is my first, but definitely will not be my last. Maybe the idea of applying for a press card will inspire fellow Bloggers to do the same for other venues, fairs, or whatever.

I hopped over to Londen City Airport from Rotterdam with VLM. This was very convenient time wise and legroom wise.

I was lucky to have some dear friends who had a bed and a breakfast for me, but the route door to door from The Hague to Excel took the same time as the commuting to my friend’s address in a little suburb North West of London (half way to Luton).

During my tubing around in London it surprised me how many Londoners are leaving their papers and big paper coffee cups in the trains where cleaners collected them by the sacks full.

WTM has the same problem: Almost all food is offered in paper or carton and they produce tons of waste: An idea for WTM 2008: Back to porcelain and glass as reportedly green conscious organization?

More to follow.