Social Travel Britain 2015 - programme

At Sarum College, Salisbury: April 17-19
(All sessions in The Cavell Room, excepting workshops on Saturday morning in the Hamilton Room and Butterfield Chapel)


Friday 17 April

10am Registration opens. Coffee and tea available
11am Welcome from Travel Perspective and VisitWiltshire

11.30am Malcolm Bell, Head of Visit Cornwall

A brave new world As the public money dries up, so DMOs increasingly look to the private sector for funding, and social media/digital to tell its story. Non-branded video is Cornwall’s prime method. Malcolm explains the rational and reveals some results - and debates what else should DMOs do with its digital marketing? Plus, how to go about it in cash-straightened times..

 

12.15pm Digital Visitor Details: tbc

1pm Lunch in Sarum College

 

PM MASTERCLASSES Hot off the Press: social and digital media in action now

2pm Jeremy Head, iCrossing

Visit Wales has, for the past three years, decided to embrace video and bloggers as an important strand of its digital marketing. Jeremy works for VW’s digital agency and has recruited differing vloggers, setting them varying tasks in several parts of Wales - and has just returned from completing his latest project. Find out why VW chose vloggers, what the DMO created - and the results…

 

2.35pm Gary Grieve, Capela China

Using digital to crack China The potential for Chinese inbound tourism is enormous and so understanding their travel research patterns is vital. But it’s not easy: the country’s main social sites are in Chinese, rather than global. Learn from an expert how digital plays an important role in the travel decisions and consumer behaviour. Plus, a short Q&A with Mark Frary

 

3.10pm Richard Hammond, CEO, Green Traveller

Making sustainable travel sexy There have been several projects to promote car-free travel recently, as part of a wider sustainable transport programme. Green Traveller has worked with several AONBs and DMOs (Brecon Beacons, Somerset & Exmoor, Dorset) in Britain, using social media and video - and this week completed two films in Wiltshire. Bring your own popcorn

 

3.45pm Coffee break

 

4.15pm David Coulthard, Marketing Director, Salisbury Cathedral

Blog it and they will come… Britain boasts many historical institutions and monuments. But it’s a challenge to utilise digital and social media in a non-intrusive, cost-effective way. Find out how David enlisted 27 bloggers, including the cathedral cat, the dean, organist and verger to bring the site to life. Hear his tips on how to tweet. And learn from his mistakes…

 

5pm Panel debate Subject: TBC

 

5.40pm Conference closes

6.15pm Opportunity to hear evensong in Salisbury Cathedral

7pm THE SOCIAL TRAVEL AWARDS 2015 A drinks reception in The Cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral, followed by a private showing of one of only four original Magna Carta documents in The Chapter House.

8pm Dinner in The Refectory at Salisbury Cathedral.

 

Saturday 18 April

8am-9.30am Breakfast in Sarum College refectory

 

WORKING WITH BLOGGERS

9.30am Nicholas Montemaggi, Emilia Romagna Tourist Board

The Blogville Project It was such a simple idea. Provide an apartment for bloggers to stay – and they came. More than 60 in Year One, providing content in several languages for little outlay. Year Two was better. Now hear the plans for Year Three…
Q&A: Blogger Kash Bhattachrya (The Budget Traveller), co-founder of Blogville, joins the stage in conversation with Nicholas

 

10.15am Kirstie Pelling, The Family Adventure Project

#PoetinMotion: The family blogger reveals how she negotiated a collaboration with Cumbria Tourism based around a hashtag. It’s a project that has a long shelf life, involves a community and embraces traditional publishing as well as social media and video - and is the sort of project that can apply to any DMO. (And, we hear, it’s going national, with poems in 220,000 bus shelters).

 

10.45am Andy Jarosz, 501 Places

Shifting sands: why DMOs may have to pay the media Established blogger Andy and his photographer wife Sam have just returned from a trip to Jordan. But instead of being invited by the destination, the couple were invited by a media group - which had cut its own deal with the local DMO, for a fee, to publish agreed articles and photographs. Is this the future template?

 

11.15am Coffee break

 

SOCIAL WORKSHOPS

11.45am: In Butterfield Chapel

Jennifer Howze, BritMums and Gretta Schifano, Mums do Travel

Meet the holiday decision makers Mothers make 78% of holiday decisions, says research from Thomas Cook. And as the kids get older, then they start to influence where to travel. So it’s time to meet Jennifer Howze, co-founder of BritMums, the largest collective of parent bloggers, and Gretta Schifano. Gretta is a member of BritMums and runs her own travel blog, Mums do Travel. And they are both part of Family Travel Perspective. A discussion with Steve Keenan, who works with family bloggers at FTP.


11.45am: In Hamilton Room

Nigel Camp, Devil Boy Productions

Making video affordable Yes, we’d like a drone - but have you seen the price of the batteries? Meet Nigel, who specialises in video production with animation for businesses who want a big company experience on an affordable budget. As we all do. Learn how to turn your smartphone into a mini production studio, for those short-form social media videos, and what must-have accessories you need.


12.20pm: In Butterfield Chapel

Heather Cowper, Heather on her Travels

Targetting the 40+ quality traveller British bloggers Heather and Zoe Dawes are part of Travelator, a group of online multimedia travel publishers working with DMOs to target the upmarket British traveller, a much-sought after resource. The group ran a campaign with South Tyrol and is working on another project this spring. Find out what appeals digitally to the upmarket traveller


12.20pm: In Hamilton Room

Abigail King, Inside the Travel Lab

Photos: your powerful friend Abi fell in love with social media after swapping her first career as a hospital doctor for one with words and pixels. She is one of the leading figures in the UK for blogging and social media in travel and runs regular training sessions on the subject for travel writers, photographers, students and companies. Her photography has appeared in CN Traveller and on CNN.


1pm Lunch, Sarum College


DIGITAL DEVELOPMENTS

1.45pm Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University

Adapt or die “The internet and social media have emerged as pervasive and robust platforms for tourism destination distribution and management. Web and consumer-generated content based on SM engagement are developing issues further. Only DMOs that can take full advantage will be able to capitalise on the benefits…” Find out the latest thinking in DMO strategy from the original travel guru

 

2.15pm Ben Scott-Robinson, Ordnance Survey

Digital mapping: the next frontier The OS has been mapping Britain for 224 years. No other country comes near that (Google may have Street View but it doesn’t have contours). And this summer, the OS will unveil a raft of apps and open source data that may enable DMOs and tourism brands on the (3D, digital) map. With mapping and mobile critical to travel search, this is revolutionary


2.45pm Fiona Errington, Marketing Manager, Visit Wiltshire

Who do we think we are? Positioning is a buzzword in travel and tourism right now: working out the best way to describe yourself and get your message out. Birmingham is spending £150k just to do the research, let alone implementing it. Find out how and why Wiltshire decided upon its #timeforwiltshire tag, and how it has already boosted its social media reach

 

3.20pm Coffee break

3.50pm Speed dating and debates An opportunity to meet your fellow delegates and debate the challenges and triumphs of social media and digital marketing in travel, as delegates sit down with bloggers in round-table discussions. Subjects: tbc

4.20pm Closing keynote address TBC

5pm Presentation of speed dating debates’ summary

5.15pm Closing comments

5.30pm Conference close

 

6.15pm Opportunity to hear evensong in Salisbury Cathedral

7.30pm Dinner in a Salisbury restaurant for those staying for the Sunday excursions. Venue: tbc

 

Sunday 19 April

8-10am Breakfast in Sarum College refectory

There will be a number of options for delegates as part of the post-conference programme, including:

6am Leave for dawn walk inside the stone circle at Stonehenge (from 6.45am-7.30am)

8am-12noon Opportunity to attend Communion, Morning Prayers and The Eucharist at the Cathedral

10am Smartphone photography tour of Cathedral Close with guide and Instagrammers

12.15pm Private tour inside the roof and bell tower of Salisbury Cathedral - and out on to the roof on three sides (the fourth has peregrine falcons nesting….!)

2pm Casual lunch for remaining delegates and bloggers. Venue: TBC