After months of planning and preparation, the Getaway Travel Blog Conference kicked off on Saturday 5 November at the Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town. The event was fully booked, so we opened the day to a packed room of over 60 keen travel bloggers.
Presentations
Attendees learned about Cape Town Tourism’s innovative online marketing strategy from its CEO, Mariette Du Toit-Helmbold, showing that huge success is achievable with a small budget. Cameron Ewart-Smith, Getaway Magazine’s editor, gave an inspiring presentation on how to write well for blogs, while photographer Russell Smith shared his knowledge of and passion for photography with a backdrop of his incredible travel and food images. The mid-morning session focused on the technical aspects of blogging, as Joseph C Lawrence from Clickshape talked about setting up your blog on WordPress and using free tools to customise a blog. Tim Withers, head of SEO at Quirk, gave an information presentation on using SEO to make sure your blog gets found amongst the 200 million other travel blogs on the internet.
In the afternoon, Clickshape’s Tristan Owen demonstrated video techniques and how to use video effectively in your blog, followed by Dave Duarte, MD of Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy, who spoke about how to market a blog. Dan Nash, founder of entertainment blog bangersandnash.com, talked about monetising a blog, explaining that it’s very hard to make money off advertising, but easier to get sponsors. He explained how he managed to get an 18-day road trip (the Put Foot Rally) entirely sponsored. In the last talk of the day, freelance travel writer and blogger Lucy Corne gave some really practical tips on using blogging and an online portfolio to get your articles published in print publications. Having worked as a freelance journalist for a number of years, Lucy had some invaluable insights to share, from websites that pay for online contributions to how to pitch a magazine editor.
What we learned
What was interesting about the day was that without having coordinated their talks, the speakers all brought up similar points and themes. Cameron stressed that the quality of the blog writing, and finding your own voice, while Joseph emphasised that when designing your blog you should always think about the user first and make sure you can give them a high quality experience when they visit your blog. Tim Withers said that the quality of your content should never be sacrificed for SEO, and Dan Nash also spoke about staying authentic to your blog by not ‘selling out’ to sponsors or advertisers. Essentially what they were all saying is that quality is paramount – with hundreds of millions of travel blogs out there, yours has to stand out.
Feedback
We’ve had such great feedback from attendees. A lot of people said (or tweeted) that they left feeling inspired to either start a travel blog or improve on the blogs they’re currently running.
Digital marketer and travel blogger Russell Jarvis said: ‘I’ve been to my share of travel conferences this year and none have been as helpful and informative as the Getaway Travel Blog Conference. I was honestly able to take something away from every speaker, and will definitely be implementing some of their advice going forward.’ Blogger Colleen Blaine wrote: ‘The speakers were excellent and relevant and I learnt more than I had ever hoped I could. Or I just realised how much work I have to do!’ Anika Keyser enthused: ‘Everyone in the team had a friendly and positive attitude, the food was delicious, the venue was well prepared and easily accessible, and the presenters were informative and professional. There is so much to learn!’
Future blog conferences
Due to the success of this first conference, we are definitely going to host a bigger event next year, and we’re thinking about running a conference in Johannesburg. Next year we hope to bring out some of the world’s top travel bloggers to do presentations.
What makes me really excited is that we’re helping to foster a community of travel bloggers in South Africa. I loved meeting some of the 140 people who blog for Getaway, as well as wannabe travel bloggers who’re thinking about starting up their first blog. I hope that our future conferences and blog events will bring even more travel bloggers together.
Sponsors
Cape Town Tourism was a fantastic sponsor for the conference – they are leading the pack when it comes to online marketing and utilising user-generated content such as blogs to promote Cape Town. We love working with their team and look forward to collaborating with them in the future to grow the online travel industry in South Africa.
Zandvliet Wine Estate sponsored the wine at the conference after-party at the rooftop bar of the Grand Daddy. The after-party was a great chance to for bloggers and speakers to chat. I walked past Russell Smith giving some photo tips to bloggers crowded around his iPad and caught snippets of conversations about SEO, WordPress, and crazy travel ideas.
Presentations, photos and videos from the conference
If you missed out on the conference, we will be posting blogs and videos from every speaker. The speaker’s presentations are also available on Slideshare here.
Check out all the photos from the conference on our Facebook album.
Tweets
We had so many people tweeting the hashtag for the conference (#GTBC) that it was actually trending in Cape Town! We were very excited to be retweeted by both Helen Zille and Gareth Cliff.
For all the tweets from the conference, search for #GTBC on Twitter. Here are some to give you an idea of what was being said:
@dancalders Inspiring day when 65 people sharing a common interest come together to talk blogging and online publishing! @GetawayMagazine #GTBC
@l_schonk Big up to @SarahDuff @christiefynn and @GetawayMagazine for an amazing day of inspired blogging talks, looking forward to the next #GTBC
@antoncrone: Thank you @SarahDuff @christiefynn and crew for a tremendous travel conference, and a tremendous hangover#GTBC
@bangersandnash: Thanks to @GetawayMagazine for putting on an above awesome conference. Rad ‘working’ Saturday. #GTBC
@russelljarvis Thoroughly enjoyed #GTBC best speakers for me @daveduarte @josephclawrence @lucycorne
@MariettedTH Catching up on #GTBC tweets, great work @SarahDuff, @justcam + @GetawayMagazine crew! @capetowntourism happy to work with such a dream team!
@bangersandnash Loads of hotties at the @GetawayMagazine travel blog conference. #GTBC
@sandraJ1984 So inspired after attending the travel blog conference #GTBC Thanks @GetawayMagazine!
@RoxanneReidSA Just dipped into goodie bag from #GTBC & found @capeunionmart voucher (cool) and Nov @GetawayMagazine with one of my articles in it. Even cooler.
@AfricaxAfricans Quote of the day? Trying to remove content from the internet is like trying to get wee out of a swimming pool. #GTBC
@jennavanschoor @SarahDuff @christiefynn thanks so much for a great @GetawayMagazine conference! #GTBC
@JaxLahoud Wow, that was epic shit! Thanks all for delivering a super inspiring Travel Blog conference. The question is, should we do one in Jhb? #GTBC
@AfricaxAfricans @GetawayMagazine thank you for a “stunning”! day. #GTBC
@RoxanneReidSA #GTBC great chance to meet like-minded peeps @HollyMeadows @daveduarte @lucycorne @bangersandnash @josephclawrence
@peanutbutterwiz @bangersandnash @daveduarte – thanks for a brilliant talk at #GTBC! Really enjoyed it.
SarahDuff Conference just finished! A BIG THANKS to all our awesome speakers who made this day possible. You guys rock! #GTBC
@jennavanschoor Drinking @zandvlietwines on the rooftop post-blogging conference. thanks @GetawayMagazine for a informative day, and free wine 🙂 #GTBC
@hazeldickens What I learnt at #GTBC: I don’t need 2 travel, I need Cape Town.Good thing I’m already here 🙂 thanks @CapeTownTourism and @GetawayMagazine
@GoTravel24 Wine o’clock a #gtbc! thanks @ZandvlietWines and @GetawayMagazine. It’s been great!
@mshoneybeeCT Thanks @GetawayMagazine for an amazing and very interesting day #GTBC
@HollyMeadowsSA @GetawayMagazine @SarahDuff @christiefynn @JaxLahoud @justcam great lineup of speakers & a super inspiring blog conference. ThankYou! #GTBC
@hazeldickens Awesome final talk by @LucyCorne at #GTBC -now for drinks on the roof of the @GrandDaddyHotel – Great conference, Lots of things to think about!
@skattijay: Explore.Dream.Discover. #heartTravel #GTBC
@timwithers Big ups to @GetawayMagazine & @SarahDuff for a slick conference. Well done guys! Sweet freebies too… #GTBC
@7_League_Boots Margi Next up @bangersandnash. All today’s speakers have been fantastic! Thx @CapeTownTourism & @GetawayMagazine #GTBC
@DaughterofDream Loving the #GTBC! Great speakers and concepts
If you were at the conference, please share your comments and feedback!
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