Traverse: a triumph of a travel bloggers’ conference

Pics: Rebecca Stones, CultContent, RoamingRequired, Jen Lowthrop, Katie Willmore

By Steve Keenan

Well done Paul Dow and Michael Ball for hosting the inaugural Traverse conference for travel bloggers this weekend.

Just five months after first hearing of their plans, the pair put together a well thought out and smartly executed conference in Brighton attended by 150 bloggers, speakers and industry supporters.

It worked in many ways. The one-day conference on Saturday had a choice of 12 workshops (three at any one time), covering SEO, video, photography, pitching, social media, WordPress, blogs MoTs and digital storytelling. Each speaker then spent two hours or more meeting attendees in 10-minute, one-on-one chats, topped off by a Question Time panel.

There were free socials on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a nationalist march on Sunday through the city just in time for the photo walk. They thought of everything.

There was a palpable buzz around The Clarendon Centre venue. And there some nice touches - the Thai food, music in the common areas, drinks during QT ordered on Twitter and a Sunday morning breakfast.

Personally, I had a engaged audience for the Writing workshop, and met a bunch of enthused bloggers tackling diverse issues such as dating on travels, disability, video, marketing photography, mapping and much more. I don’t think I heard a bad word about the format, and the sponsors were equally positive.

Michael and Paul set out to deliver a conference that was helpful to bloggers, rather than just stand-up speeches and little opportunity to talk. And it worked. It was affordable (just £32 all-in for all seminars and socials) and practical, in not having to take time off work.

And it made me think that the format could be repeated every six months, with a new batch of speakers to keep it fresh, with venues around the UK. Clearly, there was a demand for this conference that was met.

The pace of change is so fast in social and digital, that such a format could be sustained. Plus, of course, it’s the opportunity for an almighty party and shedloads of networking.

You can also sense, as Kevin May pointed out, a whiff of a new co-operative movement in the air. Travel blogging is still very fragmented in the UK and there was much talk of professionals subbing blog posts, a spokesman for bloggers and - of course - money-making wheezes.

Other conferences - such as TBU, TBex and our own Social Travel Market at WTM - are bigger, grander affairs that include headline speakers talking about The State of the Union-type speeches, and attempt to cover lots of bases.

There’s room for all but they don’t cater quite so tightly, affordably and conveniently (UK, over a weekend) for bloggers.

The autumn blogger conference schedule is already looking busy. But Traverse stuck to its original concept and it worked. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I look forward to the next, maybe next March, and then again in September, 2014 (date corrected: thanks Sophie!). Glasgow and York, please.

* Read the 101 Holidays report from the conference, written by Simon Willmore. Also, a report from Monica, The Travel Hack.