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Destination On The Left

Destination On The Left is a podcast focused on the travel and tourism industry that explores successful collaborations, creative marketing ideas and best practices. Interviews are a mix of Destination Marketers, Industry Leaders, Consultants and businesses in the industry. We explore consumer marketing programs and travel trade marketing programs. This podcast provides an opportunity for professionals in the travel & tourism industry to share what they have learned and successes that they have achieved.
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Now displaying: Page 5
Apr 6, 2022

Sarah Imes is an experienced Tourism professional with a demonstrated history of working in the event, hospitality, and tourism industry. Her current role is Tour & Travel Manager with Visit Ithaca.

Arriving in Ithaca for school and graduating (twice!) from Ithaca College, Sarah Imes fell in love with the area and began her career in radio sales before discovering hospitality. Two hotel sales jobs and a catering director gig later, she’s spent the last 6 + years with Visit Ithaca, sharing with travelers what makes Ithaca and the Finger Lakes Region magical.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Sarah Imes about why travel and tourism professionals need to prioritize building relationships, partnerships, and collaborations to move forward. We also dive into why listening is such an essential skill and how understanding how to build trust has helped her collaborate with others to build an experience that visitors love.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • How Sarah approaches sales and what she has learned during her career that impacts how she does her job today
  • Best practices that have helped Sarah build and cement relationships with neighboring counties
  • How Sarah makes Visit Ithaca stand out from the crowd amongst all the great destinations in her part of the world
  • Sarah shares her creative approach to packaging her destination for the tour and travel market
  • Examples of collaboration and coopetition in the wider New York area, including a truly innovative wine cruise partnership
  • How the Travel Alliance Partnership (TAP) regional pod has helped Sarah make connections with other destinations
  • The purpose of the Wine, Water, and Wonders program and how it enables international travelers to experience New York State
  • Steps Sarah takes to set her up for success when going into a new collaboration
  • How relationships with in-market stakeholders have changed and evolved as we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Sarah’s exciting future plans for Visit Ithaca

Make Your Destination Stand Out

As we move forward into a recovery phase for the travel and tourism industry, it’s critical to change your perspective and seek out complementary experiences. DMOs need to genuinely consider the point of view of the tour operator — listen to what the tour operator needs, how their business works, and what their customer is looking for from their trip.

When you understand your clients’ needs and put them at the forefront of your mind, it broadens your expertise in other areas. Sarah discusses how she embraces creativity and collaboration to bring visitors to her region and how she makes Ithaca stand out from the crowd now that travelers are eager to start exploring the world again. She describes some of the experiences and partnerships that she builds into the itineraries for tour operators.

Building Creative Itineraries

On the podcast, Sarah Imes shares her love of building relationships and describes her experience with Travel Alliance Partners (TAP). She explains how attending the TAP Dance event over the years has enabled her to be part of a supportive New York State pod that allows all of the member destinations to create wonderful itineraries stringing together all the different destinations through New York State.

Working together and organizing assets that paired well together into exceptional itineraries that tour operators could use for extended tours has created fantastic opportunities for both groups and individual travelers.

Valuable Relationships

Knowing your audience is, first and foremost, in being able to create an experience that they will love. The more you listen, the more you understand a tour operator’s business, the more you can tailor programs and become the go-to expert. You deepen relationships by really understanding who they’re marketing to, how they’re marketing, what their needs are, and responding to those needs.

Being able to tailor your elevator pitch, to speak, to the needs of the operator shows that you’re listening, that you know the resources you have around you, and who you can partner with to provide a unique experience is a crucial advantage of putting work into building genuine, long-standing relationships.

Resources:

Mar 30, 2022

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for her dad’s car stereo shop, Nicole Mahoney got her start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester, and began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, she headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.

In 2009, Nicole founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. She now hosts “Destination on the Left,” a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.

As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. Nicole has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I host a question and answer session about Break the Ice Media’s acquisition of Travel Alliance Partners (TAP). This is such an exciting opportunity, and I’m thrilled that we can continue to bring together tour operators, suppliers, destinations, and travel buyers to collaborate on creating and promoting travel products. I also want to highlight TAP Dance, which we’re excited to be convening in person in Branson, MO, this May, as a crucial step toward reinvigorating the tour market.

 

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • A brief history of Travel Alliance Partners (TAP)
  • Break the Ice Media’s role as a PR and digital marketing agency that works on strategy and why TAP is an excellent addition to the team
  • The new business model for TAP and what it offers destinations, travel buyers, and suppliers
  • Why collaboration is vital to the continued strength of the travel and tourism industry
  • The importance of building a partnership of travel professionals with high standards of business ethics, and product quality and how that ethos allows them to develop joint marketing opportunities and share business practices in an environment of mutual trust and respect
  • How travel professionals can get involved with TAP, and why the 14 legacy partners form a solid foundation for future collaborations
  • Upcoming TAP events — including TAP Dance in May 2022
  • Goals and visions for TAP going forward into recovery for the travel and tourism business

Break the Ice Media and Travel Alliance Partners

Serge Talbot founded travel Alliance Partners (TAP) in 2001 to bring together a partnership of travel professionals with similar business ethics and product quality. TAP partners leverage joint marketing opportunities and use one another’s products and services in the spirit of mutual trust and respect. During the past 20 years, TAP has become known for its innovative ideas — they were the first to introduce the concept of guaranteed departures, pioneered the TAP Dance conference to allow industry professions to collaborate, and were the first in 2020 to announce a virtual event.

TAP was recently acquired by Break the Ice Media, and it went from a tour operator-owned company to a management marketing company-owned organization, but what TAP does and what it provides won’t change going forward.

Building Mutually Beneficial Relationships

Break the Ice Media is excited to have acquired TAP and is committed to continuing the spirit of collaboration that is key to building a successful business. In 2020 Break the Ice Media did a research study to determine how collaboration impacts the travel and tourism industry. And through that study, learned that 90% of the respondents are confident that relationship building is the future of helping the travel and tourism industry survive and thrive.

TAP’s mission is to build a partnership of travel professionals with high standards of business ethics and product quality with the intent to buy and sell products from each other and benefit from collective buying power and develop joint marketing opportunities in an environment of mutual trust and respect.

How to Get Involved with TAP

There are several ways to collaborate with TAP. They have 14 legacy partners who form the organization’s solid foundation and have developed two new partner levels, Growth and Collaborative, that people can now join without the equity buy-in to receive a variety of valuable benefits. They also have Preferred Professional Travel Providers (PPTP), who gain increased exposure to TAP’s partners and enjoy collaborative marketing benefits. TAP supports travel buyers with weekly webinars where our partners host a call and discuss specific travel itineraries, so they dig into the details.

Break the Ice Media and TAP continue to be the place where a wide variety of audiences and members can come to find business growth.

Resources:

Mar 23, 2022

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for my dad’s car stereo shop, Nicole got her start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, she headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.

In 2009, Nicole founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. She now hosts “Destination on the Left,” a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.

As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations digital and traditional channels. She has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, Nicole Mahoney highlights the importance of collaboration. In this ever-changing world, it’s essential to find ways to collaborate in order to survive and thrive. We need to step outside our self-imposed silos and actively seek out opportunities to create partnerships with others that move the whole travel industry forward.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • Why the global events mean it’s more important than ever to connect positively with others
  • How collaboration can be powerful in the travel and tourism industry
  • The situation that helped Nicole understand the power of collaboration
  • What makes some partnerships successful, while others struggle to get off the ground
  • An overview of the findings from Nicole’s 2020 research study on collaboration in the travel, tourism, and hospitality
  • How perceived competitors can use coopetition to accomplish something bigger than themselves
  • The three different types of collaborators and how each one affects and how they come together to form a framework for success

A Passion for Collaboration

Nicole shares her personal experience of building a community collaboration from the ground up when she was involved in the Rochester Frontier Field project. She describes how her experience of town-wide cooperation led to her subsequent passion for finding ways to build successful partnerships in the travel and tourism industry.

Bringing a community together to make something happen is magical — and it’s what sets the groundwork for success during challenging times. Nicole and her partner Susan Baier teamed to conduct a study on the effects of coopetition. This term refers to those times when perceived competitors come together to accomplish something more significant than they could achieve alone.

Breaking Out of Silos

As travel and tourism industry professionals, we need to harness the power of collaboration with other organizations — even with our competitors. Recognizing and understanding the positive impacts of inter-organizational collaborations on business success is key in effectively leveraging our available tools. As Nicole says, collaboration is the exponential multiplier that makes one plus one greater than two. When we commit to working in partnership with others, we can move forward faster and more effectively.

A Collaboration Framework

There are often challenges on the path to achieving successful collaboration, and Nicole describes why she grouped these challenges under three broad headings. The three C’s framework comprises communication, commonality, and commitment; while some specific challenges may be encountered more often than others, Nicole explores why it is clear from her research that overcoming challenges in all three areas is critical for collaborations to be successful.

This framework is critical in identifying opportunities in the face of adversity, and professionals and organizations that are able to navigate these three areas can thrive under any circumstances.

Resources:

Mar 16, 2022

Gary Murphy is Co-Owner and Senior Vice President of Sales at Ama Waterways, and his experience in the travel industry spans more than 30 years. After completing his Business Degree at California State University, Northridge, Gary’s early business experience involved positions with IBM, Group Voyagers in Europe, and Brendan Vacations, before becoming Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the rapidly expanding Miami Air International.

From there, Gary returned to one of the country’s leading tour operators, Brendan Vacations, where he served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales and, in 2000, took over the role of President. In 2009, Murphy left Brendan to become Vice President of National Accounts for AmaWaterways; in 2013, he was appointed Vice President of Sales and became Senior Vice President of Sales in 2019.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, Gary Murphy shares his philosophy on standing out as a business by creating immersive experiences for travelers and why he believes that working with Travel Counselors is a solid business strategy. We discuss the benefits of river cruising, and Gary dives into some of the collaborations he has been involved in throughout his career that have helped the company innovate and improve their offering.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • Gary’s path into the river cruising industry, including the different parts of the industry he has worked in and the entrepreneurial spirit woven through it
  • The history of river cruising in Europe
  • Creative approaches that Gary has taken in developing Ama Waterways’ river cruises
  • Gary’s philosophy toward the itineraries they create
  • How Ama Waterways encourage their guests to immerse themselves in the experience of the port in which they’re located
  • Why they prefer not to include the gratuity and how that empowers guests to take ownership of the experience that they’re having
  • Strategies Gary uses when faced with challenges, particularly during the last few years
  • Why Ama Waterways love collaborating with their Travel Advisor partners, and why they believe it’s the most financially rewarding way to manage their business
  • Opportunities for competition that AMA Waterways is working on right now

Creative Approaches in Travel

As travelers, often our most valuable commodity is time — Gary guides us through how Ama Waterways plan and create their river cruise itineraries to allow guests to make the most of their vacation by enabling them to wake up each morning in a beautiful new town. He shares how they have designed their trips to take advantage of the most beautiful parts of a country while cruising during the day, and details some of the ways the company has innovated to provide the best experience possible to their guests.

We also discuss creative ways that Ama Waterways has encouraged travelers to make the most of each new destination on the cruise and their philosophy that you need to spend less time on the ship — no matter how beautiful and luxurious it is —and more time enjoying each new town or city.

Ama Waterways’ Philosophy on Travel

Gary shares how Ama Waterways do things that they feel are the best use of their clients’ time, that give them the best value and deliver a superb travel experience. He describes how the company’s founders are, at heart, adventurers with a fortitude that moves them forward through challenges. Ama understands the best way to travel, and they follow that philosophy to deliver exceptional experiences. Gary and I discuss the difference between a poor quality all-inclusive experience and a premium experience that encourages guests to experience the gastronomy of the country they’re visiting.

We touch on what makes Ama Waterways stand out in a crowded market and why they prefer to march to the beat of their own drum and curate an experience that enhances their guest’s vacation than follow the crowd.

Creative Coopetition in River Cruising

Gary discusses some of the upcoming collaborations with competitors, including The American Society of Travel Agents conference in Budapest next month. River cruise lines have come together and coordinated their ships’ timetables so that travel advisors can see the different ships firsthand.

Collaboration with guests is also a fantastic way to discover opportunities. Gary shares some of the partnerships Ama Waterways has built with other businesses after being guided by what clients are looking for to make the river cruise experience even better.

Resources:

Mar 9, 2022

Carrie Simmons is a leader, strategist, and creative problem-solver with expertise in values-driven, integrated brand and marketing approaches. She is the Executive Director of the Stowe Area Association, outwardly known as Go Stowe, serving approximately 250 business members by promoting the Stowe brand through effective public relations, social media strategies, as well as and operating a visitor information center and central reservations service for hotels and inns.

Prior to Go Stowe, Carrie was the owner and creative director of New Ground Creative, a creative firm that built brands through engaging design, dynamic campaigns, and authentic messaging. Carrie finds inspiration in travel, singing, reading, and time spent outdoors with her family. She is currently a board member of Stowe Vibrancy and Executive Board Member of the Vermont Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.

Rachel is Chief Hospitality Experience Officer at the Sun and Ski Inn in Stowe, Vermont. She is passionate about hospitality, tourism, and marketing, and she serves on the Board of Trustees of her local destination marketing organization, Go Stowe. In December 2018, Rachel completed a certificate in Hospitality Management from eCornell. In 2020 Rachel founded her coaching practice, Peak, and she is currently working towards her International Coaching Federation certification. Rachel is an avid reader, community leader, proud wife, and mother of three and loves to mountain bike and nordic ski in the woods of Vermont.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Rachel and Carrie, two extraordinary leaders in the travel industry from Stowe, Vermont. We discuss how facing challenges forces you to accelerate plans and how the pandemic led to a collaboration between three communities and the creation of a new brand. Rachel also gives her perspective on what’s going on in the travel and tourism industry right now, and why she made the decision to niche down in her marketing.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • Why having a solid relationship with your DMO will benefit your business
  • Why Rachel went into hotel management despite never planning to take over the family business
  • Accelerate Women Leaders in Travel leadership retreat and how Carrie and Rachel feel it adds to professional development for women
  • What Stowe as an area and Rachel as a hotelier have done to stand out from the crowd
  • How Rachel reimagined and expanded the Sun and Ski Inn to exceed modern family’s vacation expectations
  • Why refining your target market can expand rather than reduce your business opportunities
  • Recent challenges that Carrie and Go Stowe have faced and the creative solutions that have come from adversity
  • How technology has played a part in being prepared for the future
  • Why taking risks and paying attention to trends has paid off for Rachel’s business
  • Carris’s advice for DMOs looking to creatively collaborate with peers and neighbors

Future Travel Trends

It’s always worth paying attention to what’s going on in the market and planning for upcoming trends. The last two years have shown that constant change and evolution are the only things you can bank on in this industry.

Rachel describes her philosophy of taking risks in her hospitality business and why she constantly keeps one eye on the future as she makes decisions in her business. Thinking about how you plan to evolve as a destination prepares you for whatever is around the corner and allows you to pivot quickly with demand.

Carrie describes how the Stowe Area Association has found opportunities to collaborate with perceived competitors to create something bigger together than they could create alone. She shares examples of some amazing coopetition partnerships and why it’s essential to come together to weather storms successfully.

Collaborating with the Wider Community

There are myriad opportunities to bring visitors into your area if you creatively collaborate with others in the travel and tourism industries. Carrie discusses the DMO perspective on seeking ways to connect with others to bring people to Vermont as a whole. We need to find ways to think outside of the box and realize that it’s not always necessarily the traditional collaborations that are the most effective.

Everyone you collaborate with in your town, in the different segments, and whether for economic development or recreation, builds a beautiful network of people. Rachel and Carrie emphasize that their community is what makes Stowe so special, in addition, of course, to the extraordinary landscape, historic buildings, shops, restaurants, and places to stay. It’s really the people that make the soul of the community. And that’s a big piece that stands out.

A rising tide raises all ships, after all, so leveraging the unique mix of businesses and supporting each other as a destination helps Stowe move forward.

Marketing Your Destination

From a marketing standpoint, it can be hard to make a choice about who you’re hoping to appeal to with your destination. Many people hope by targeting as broad an audience as possible; they will be more successful in their business. Rachel describes why she decided to focus in tight on promoting her hotel and attractions to active couples and families and how that changed the business for the better.

Carrie ends our inspiring conversation by emphasizing the need to embrace the idea that the travel and tourism industry isn’t necessarily the end goal. The visitor economy is the pipeline to providing opportunities to the community and interconnecting them with other organizations. Having a holistic approach to the industry is the key as we’re moving forward into 2022.

Resources:

Mar 2, 2022

Melinda Huntley is the Executive Director of the Ohio Travel Association, the only statewide trade association representing all tourism industry sectors. Representing Ohio’s $43 billion tourism industry, the Ohio Travel Association makes Ohio’s tourism businesses stronger, better prepared, and more profitable through unifying the voice of the industry for legislative advocacy, providing professional development opportunities and training, and connecting buyers and sellers with events such as the Heartland Travel Showcase.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Melinda Huntley about the four elements that she believes make for a successful collaboration and how to apply them in real situations. Melinda also shares details of the innovative Epic Destinations program that the Ohio Travel Association is developing and dives into the ever-changing travel and tourism industry landscape.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • Why Melinda moved from Biomedical Communications into the travel and tourism industry
  • Why Melinda believes that working at a DMO was a life-changing experience for her
  • The many different areas of expertise you end up learning as part of a destination marketing organization
  • How to pick a niche market and build a program around it
  • How the Ohio birding collaborative project came about
  • Being active in the local community helps you recognize new marketing opportunities
  • How seeking collaboration in the face of opposition helps solve significant problems
  • The importance of finding common ground in making partnerships successful
  • The four elements that comprise a collaboration that really works
  • Telling the whole story of a destination, spotting opportunities, and digging into the details
  • Why it’s critical to focus on your ‘why’
  • Recent projects that Melinda has been involved in that have leveraged collaboration
  • The Ohio Travel and Tourism Academy and what they do to help tourism professionals
  • The Heartland Travel Showcase, Epic Group Travel, and why Melinda became interested in the unique selling points of group travel

How to Achieve Successful Collaborations

On this show, we’re all about building partnerships with others that benefit everyone. My discussion with Melinda was so valuable, and she shared so many golden nuggets in our conversation. She describes the four elements that are absolutely critical to achieving a successful collaboration. We discuss why you need to invite others to the table, why you shouldn’t be afraid to give credit elsewhere, how to understand the vital role that perception plays, and the importance of seeking out the root cause of making a change. We discuss in detail how to apply each of these elements, and Melinda provides specific examples of how she has used them in her organization.

We dive deep into the importance of focusing on your ‘why’ as a travel and tourism organization and seeing the end goal as the key achievement. Melinda steps us through her recent Birding project — how it got off the ground and why inviting others to the table really helped the Ohio Travel Organization get it off the ground.

Building Skills

Pivoting and evolving are skills we have all had to embrace recently, and as a community, professionals in the travel and tourism have had to do it more than most. Melinda describes how asking your stakeholders what they need is an oft-missed step in a project and shares why when you seek guidance, you can really make a difference.

Focusing on your stakeholders and your customers wise is essential when you’re trying to draw focus to our destination, but often we are tripped up by not making our value clear. Melinda shares an example of when she had to take a pause when organizing a virtual conference and go back to the bones of what attendees really wanted from the event.

Getting Ready for Group Travel

Melinda shares why she’s so excited about the group tour market and the possibility of leveraging the trend towards transformative travel and developing group experiences that are unique. The demand for curated travel in someone has accelerated because of the events of the last few years, so there is a real opportunity for destinations to set themselves up for success.

We discuss the importance of innovating in the space and move on from how group travel looked 20 years ago. Melinda shares the Epic Group Experiences — a training and recognition program for group travel, and how her team developed a designation program to share standards and best practices. Planning for the future is exciting and organizations like Melinda’s really are at the forefront of building collaborative networks that move the travel industry forward.

Resources:

Feb 23, 2022

Marilee Sonneman Kostadimas delivers 20+ years’ experience and acumen in corporate events, incentive travel, and destination management.

An alumna of San Francisco State University, Marilee pursued graduate and undergraduate studies in Classics and Classical Archaeology. She holds credentials as a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Destination Management Certified Professional (DMCP).

Speaker, author, byline contributor to the hospitality industry bible, the Convention Industry Council Manual 9th Edition: A Working Guide for Effective Meetings and Conventions, industry leader: As President 2016-2017 of Meeting Professionals International Northern California Chapter (MPINCC), the world’s largest chapter of the world’s largest hospitality-industry association, Marilee led MPINCC to a historic year of records and first, including global achievement as a two-time MPI RISE 2017 Award winner.

She also served two terms as President of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence Northern California Chapter (SITENCC) and four years on the Certification and Accreditation Board of Directors of the Association of Destination Management Executives International (ADMEI).

On this episode of Destination on the Left, Marilee discusses her expertise in storytelling as a crucial aspect of successfully sharing your destination with others. She chats about her framework for creating an end-to-end storyline, which includes the unique, the exclusive, the wow, the hidden gems, and the quiet in between, and how you can shift your perspective to better understand what your guests are looking for.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • Marilee’s journey to launching a career in destination management, corporate events, and incentive travel
  • The moment in Lisbon that transformed Marilee and her husband Paul’s life
  • The importance of storytelling in sharing your brand successfully
  • How Spotlight Sojourns was born of Marilee and Paul’s desire to connect pictures, words, and travels and the challenges, they faced launching during a global pandemic
  • Marilee breaks down how the incentive travel niche works and why it’s the perfect way to reward, motivate, and inspire
  • An example of a client storyline that Spotlight Sojourns put together to engage the leisure traveler
  • Marilee’s five-piece framework for meaningful travel
  • How to think about your destination or attraction as a place that inspires stories and allows visitors to build meaningful relationships with you

Travel Through a Different Lens

Perspective changes everything — wise words from my guest on the podcast this week led to a fascinating conversation on how she set up a travel business to showcase real travels and authentic experiences creatively. Marilee Kostadimas of Spotlight Sojourns joined me to share how the COVID-19 pandemic cutting short her world travel plans in 2020 actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The enforced pause gave her and her husband and business partner Paul the opportunity to figure out their fledgling business on the front end instead of the back end.

Marilee describes how she built her career on the power of professional storytelling through shared experiences. She also highlights the importance of understanding what travel really means to people and how to take guests on a journey that inspires them holistically.

We discuss how Spotlight Sojourns creates an experience that wows travelers and inspires them to explore and engage with a destination fully. Travel is something that many people are eager to make part of their lives again, and you can make your destination stand out with a story that shines. Marilee steps us through her five-pillar framework of the unique, the exclusive, the wow, the hidden gems, and the quiet in between and how they create an inspiring experience that travelers couldn’t do alone.

Storytelling to Delight and Engage

As travel and tourism professionals, we should be creating a cohesive end-to-end storyline. DMOs can use stories to give another perspective on their destination that isn’t falling back on the tried, true, proven, and popular. We need to figure out how to stop talking about meeting space capacity, hotel rooms, and facilities and really tell a compelling story that encompasses the five touchstones of a great travel experience.

We need to bring it back to engagement, connections, and relationships — Marilee explains how she does that for destinations like the New York State Canal Corporation. As a DMO, we’ve always got to keep in mind what the client is really looking for when hosting travel experiences so you can put a storyline together that fulfills the need to motivate and inspire.

Finding Your Why

Marilee gives her actionable tips on how DMOs and others in the travel and tourism industry can apply her framework to their own destination. We discuss how to get people thinking differently so that they begin to see their area through a different lens. Ask yourself why your destination is special, why you’d recommend visiting your beach, your lake, your hotel, as opposed to the beach, the lake, the hotel down the road — because it’s that differentiation that is going to help you tell your authentic story.

DMOs need to formulate a plan for the future and design ways that they can draw people in to visit their area and attractions. We represent our communities, so it’s important to reach new visitors and build relationships so that those visitors return again and again. Think about how you can leverage a connected storyline that ignites emotion in potential visitors — because when people are invested in your story, it becomes part of their legacy.

Resources

Feb 16, 2022

Coming down from Cincinnati, Marketing Manager of Ghost Coast Distillery, Kelcie Beausir, has extensive experience working in the beverage industry, including a recent stop at a winery in Asheville.

She is so happy to now be living in warmer weather in Chattanooga, TN, as a part of the Ghost Coast team. Kelcie is a former trapeze instructor who enjoys adventuring with her dog, Charlie, and husband, Cameron.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Kelcie about her experience as marketing manager for a startup distillery of expanding into new markets during a global pandemic. We discussed the importance of embracing creativity as part of your organizational culture and how collaboration has driven Ghost Coast distillery forward into a period of growth.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • What drew Kelcie into the world of marketing, and why she loves the infinite creativity and diversity of opportunity
  • Unique directions that Ghost Coast has taken their marketing in — including puppy yoga!
  • How they have combined sophisticated spirit distilling with the fun vibe of a craft brewery
  • Why Ghost Coast makes so many unique spirits
  • The organizational culture of creativity in every area of the business and how that makes them stand out in the beverage market
  • How they were able to pivot creatively as a small distillery during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Creative partnerships they got involved with to help themselves and others over the past two years
  • Ghost Coasts current projects and things coming up in the future that they’re particularly excited about
  • How their creative approach to promoting the brand has helped them expand into neighboring states
  • Examples of successful collaborations that Ghost Coast has been involved in and how Kelcie’s advice on how to set up collaborative partnerships

How to Create Successful Partnerships

Putting creative partnerships together and forming long-term relationships is a great way to push forward through adversity. Kelcie and Ghost Coast have been working hard on building mutually beneficial relationships, and she joins me today to share her advice on finding brands that your travel and tourism organization could work with.

Laying the right groundwork for a successful collaboration is all about promoting your brand and demonstrating how you can help others. Companies in the travel niche are busy, so you need to stand out as an organization with new, different, and special ideas. Kelcie describes the importance of figuring out your creative idea before you approach other brands to let them know how you can benefit them as part of the collaboration.

We also dive into why we need to nourish relationships once we’ve partnered with different brands and why there’s nothing worse than just letting the momentum die. Figuring out how to keep working together and building on those collaborations and relationships is so much more helpful and supportive than just one-off events.

Creative Culture

Ghost Coast Distillery was founded in 2016 and since then has been committed to hiring great minds, bouncing ideas off of each other, and really learning how they wanted the company culture to look. Kelcie describes the evolution of the organizational culture and how it has developed over the years to an open-minded, playful environment where everyone’s ideas and suggestions are welcomed.

We also talk about how the small team has been able to put together fun events that differentiate themselves from others in their industry, such as puppy yoga and comedy shows, and why that freewheeling spirit has helped them grow and build a reputation in the artisanal spirits space.

Opportunities in Adversity

Kelcie shares how COVID-19 showed Ghost Coat they had opportunities to deal with the challenges they were facing creatively, personally, and as a company. She describes how they were able to pivot as a small organization and pursue new opportunities that formed the golden lining of their challenges.

One of Kelcie’s favorite creative solutions was collaborating with others to put on an initiative to safely bring live music back to the company’s hometown of Savannah, GA. Ghost Coast partnered with outdoor venues that sold their spirits to create a space where people could safely enjoy live music after the shutdown by enjoying a cocktail picnic style in the park.

We also discussed Ghost Coasts’s plans for the future — slowly and effectively growing footprint style across the nation, adding members to the team while keeping one foot planted in tradition, one foot pushing boundaries.

Resources:

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Feb 9, 2022

Sarah attended Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and worked at a 5-star-5-diamond resort in Colorado, a 4,000+ all-suite hotel in Las Vegas, and an international restaurant company in New York City, all before graduating. At age 22, she was the Director of Sales and Marketing for a private resort in Florida. During a brief career in Boston, she managed a 220-seat jazz club in Harvard Square.

She then moved back to Vermont and started working with her mom and uncle as the fifth generation of her family to manage Basin Harbor Club. As the Director of Sales, she now describes her role as helping people enjoy all that Basin Harbor has to offer, whether that’s a family reunion, a wedding, a group retreat, or a day spent on the Lake. Sarah was also chosen as one of VBM’s Rising Stars in Vermont.

In her free time, Sarah is a lover of the great outdoors, a gastronome, and a world traveler, and she is also certified as a Wilderness First Responder.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Sarah Morris, who is passionate about keeping pace with evolving customer expectations while staying true to her 136yr old Vermont resort’s brand. She shares her insights on gearing up for each new summer season and why a spirit of collaboration with resorts with opposite seasons helps when successfully hiring new staff.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • What it means to Sarah to be the fifth generation host at basin Harbour
  • How the Basin Harbor Resort prepares to crescendo into the summer season and add more than 100 staff to their family
  • How Sarah fosters a sense of creativity and collaboration to stand out from the crowd and differentiate the resort from others
  • Why Sarah is still so passionate about creating a guest experience that allows her visitors to relax and recharge in nature
  • How the Basin Harbor Resort stays actively involved in the tourism and business community
  • Why creativity surges when we’re facing adversity and some of the creative ways that Sarah and her team have been able to solve recent problems
  • How a family-focused mindset builds trust with guests and staff
  • Exciting projects that Sarah has planned for the next year or two
  • Sarah’s experience of participating in successful collaborations with others in the travel and tourism industry

How Guest Expectations Have Evolved

What guests are looking for changes as much from year to year as generationally. So in a resort that has been operating for over 100 years, there have been changes over time. Sarah describes the themes that the Basin Harbor Club has carried forward over the years, including being actively involved in the tourism community, as well as the general business community in Vermont, and how that has helped them maintain their family-centered ethos.

We discuss the personality of a truly rural campus resort and how the Basin Harbor Club has stayed true to a product that they want to deliver upon experientially for their guests. Of course, it’s also important for tourist destinations to keep up with modern sensibilities, so Sarah describes how she has married online accessibility with an atmosphere of allowing people to disconnect from their home life, their work-life, and be very present during their vacation time.

Creative Solutions to Challenges

When times are tough, as they have been in our industry over the last two years, we have to find creative solutions to help you overcome challenges. Sarah and I dig into some of the ways that she has leveraged the resort’s history to understand how to grow through adversity. We also discuss the importance of fostering a sense of ‘coopetition,’ where perceived competitors come together to do something bigger together than they can do on their own.

At Basin Harbor Club, they want to provide an experience that their guests love, and that includes recommending other resorts that might be more suitable for their needs. Sarah dives into what she loves about the willingness to share in the industry and why they love to work with local artisans and food and beverage producers, so they can highlight the region’s growers and producers and incorporate that Vermont flavor into their products too.

Recruiting New Staff

We also take the conversation in the direction of managing a seasonal property and the challenges of scaling from 20 employees in the winter to north of 150 employees in the summer months. Sarah lends her expertise on hiring seasonal staff strategies for scaling up and how she recruits new employees in collaboration with resorts and their current staff.

The joy of being a seasonal destination is that you can seek out opportunities to connect with properties that are in opposite seasons and make sure that you are keeping good staff in well-supported roles. Recruiting staff is such a critical part of creating an amazing guest experience, especially in a resort that prides itself on its family feel and counts guests and staff as part of that extended family.

Resources:

Feb 2, 2022

This episode of Destination on the Left is a little different from the norm, and that’s because today I’m talking with Tom Ritter, Product Development Lead for the Niche Podcast Network. Tom shares why he is so passionate about podcasting as a marketing tool and why your podcast can help you build an exceptional professional network. We explore the importance of finding your niche, building an engaged audience, and how to offer value to your audience with your unique perspective. Tom also gives his insight into creating an exceptional guest experience so that you get the most out of the conversation.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • How Tom got hooked into innovative ways to market
  • The importance of niching down as a podcaster and gaining authority as an expert in your industry
  • How Tom and Nicole connected and why they wanted to share their conversation on how podcasts work as a marketing tool
  • Why it’s essential to have a system in place that sets someone up to be successful on a podcast
  • How to make the guest experience positive, so you have a productive conversation
  • Why having an outline for your show helps you stay focused and get the most out of an interview
  • The digital equity of profiting from the podcast
  • How to leverage your podcast as a sales and referral marketing tool

Niching Down as a Podcaster

Podcasting is a quicker path to trust-building when you can really niche down and be that subject matter expert.

My guest on the show this week is Tom Ritter, who owns and operates Niche Podcast Network, and I’m excited to share out conversation. The show this week is a little different as we’re discussing how to set up and host a successful podcast, and Tom’s advice on gaining digital equity with your show is so valuable.

We dive deep into the idea of niching down with your podcast and moving from serving a broad audience to a much narrower yet more engaged one. Tom shares how to identify and build authority in a niche and why focusing on a particular topic within your umbrella helps you earn trust and become a legitimate subject matter expert quicker. We also discuss how a podcast can act as a signpost back to your brand when you focus your show on a consistent and frequent message that builds listeners’ trust.

Creating a Positive Guest Experience

In terms of having a productive conversation with your guest, comfort is key. As a podcaster, you have the ability to set the scene for a great interview, but you also have to have processes in place. Let your guest know what to expect ahead of time and give them an idea of the show’s format and outline what you want to talk about. Having enough information to be comfortable goes a long way in creating an environment where an authentic conversation that genuinely serves your customers can flourish.

You might envision your podcast as a candid chat as if you were having an off-air coffee, but the reality is that a great podcast takes preparation. Having an outline helps the host, guest, and audience stay focused during the show itself. Guests often feel calmer and more prepared when they can make notes before they get on the show. But, if you have an outline or questions you want to ask, give yourself the flexibility to deviate from the plan, should the guest take you in a different direction. Relaxed spontaneity often offers up great opportunities to dig deep into the juicy subjects.

Delivering Value

Your podcast delivers value to your listeners as you delve into some of those fascinating subjects, but how does it offer value for your guests? Appearing on a podcast as a subject matter expert gives people excellent visibility in their field.

The more focus you put on your guest, the more value your guest perceives, and the more value you receive as a host because you’re going to be found for your name and your brand. Create social media artwork, send snippets of the show for their LinkedIn profile, and link to guests’ social media channels so your listeners can find out more. Because what you’re also doing when you grow visibility for your guest is growing it for your show and your business.

Resources:

Jan 26, 2022

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Todd Stallbaumer. He shares his experience working to promote tourism in Oklahoma as the Consumer and Trade Marketing Director for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. We discuss the importance of finding your claims and how determining them can help you stand out. Todd also discusses the importance of culture and diversity and how recognizing and respecting that can open travelers up to a new and unique experience. Lastly, we cover the importance of finding commonality and how that can lead to meaningful connections and lasting partnerships.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

  • The importance of finding your claims and how doing so can help your destination stand out and attract the right audience
  • Understanding the big picture and how that can lead to success
  • How to use anniversaries and the attention they garner to launch ongoing opportunities for attraction instead
  • Todd’s view on diversity and exploring community and how they are highlighting that in Oklahoma to create new tourism opportunities
  • How Todd found his “Dynamic Destination” group and why it’s so important to find commonality with others
  • What makes Oklahoman excellent spot for tourists and how you can learn more about the state and all it has to offer

Finding Your Claims

Have you ever traveled somewhere and expected one thing based on what you’d seen on TV or heard about the place and experienced something completely different? So many travelers have preconceived notions about destinations and what they expect to see when they get there.

This week, my guest on the Destination on the Left podcast is Todd Stallbaumer, Consumer and Trade Marketing Director for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. Todd learned very quickly that many people had stereotypes for what they expected Oklahoma to look like. In the episode, we dive into how he tries to reimagine those stereotypes to create an entirely different experience for travelers.

We dive into how Todd found Oklahoma’s claim. In other words, he explains how he came to find what sets Oklahoma apart from other places. What you’ll be interested to know is that it’s the state’s diversity and culture that make it a unique place to visit. Todd explains how he is utilizing the state’s culture to drive new and exciting tourism opportunities for visitors to dive into the various communities found in Oklahoma.

Finding Commonality

Toward the end of the podcast, we dive into Todd’s ability to find commonality with a really unique set of people. While this group of people lives all across America in very different states, they have found very specific criteria that put them in the same circle. It was so interesting to hear from Todd how they came to form this group and how he was able to find these very niche commonalities that have led to such a resourceful and helpful partnership.

Todd and I dive into the details of his dynamic group and how they use their commonalities to help each other. From sharing connections, resources, problems, and sales pitches, this team has helped each other’s states and cities find new ways to draw tourism. And, through these commonalities, they are able to refer travelers to each other and make connections with other similar travel destinations as they grow.

Resources:

Jan 19, 2022

Rhonda Carges is VP Operations & Senior Consultant at Break the Ice Media. Rhonda brings more than 25 years of sales, new business development, and travel trade experience to the table. This translates into great partnership strategies and creative thinking for our clients. Rhonda is a master at creating relationships, and her deep understanding of the industry helps her create win-win opportunities for her clients. Rhonda and her team often act as a much-needed sales and marketing arm for Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), providing travel trade marketing, program management, partnership development, tracking, and reporting to the mix. She’s a forward-thinker who always knows where the market is headed – and how best to capitalize on those trends in the moment.

Adena Miller is a Consultant for Break the Ice Media. Adena brings the art of storytelling to her role as Consultant at Break the Ice Media. As a young child, her parents’ art gallery often set the scene for her creative writing, and she later went on to develop her craft as a college newspaper reporter. Weber Shandwick Chicago allowed her to hone her public relations skills across several national food and beverage accounts, and she has the windy city to thank for being transformed into a self-proclaimed foodie. A grant recipient to pursue a travel, food, and wine writing seminar in Saint-Émilion, France, further ignited her passion for wine and travel. She brings more than 15 years of public relations expertise to Break the Ice Media, where she develops media, blog, newsletter, and social content and executes event planning.

Lisa Doerner is a Senior Consultant for Break the Ice Media and the Executive Director of Travel Alliance Partners. Lisa’s background is in marketing and operations, but her path into the travel and tourism industry is an unusual one. She started her career working for a large corporation in product marketing and then working as the Executive Director for a technology association. These roles set the groundwork for her current position as Executive Director for Travel Alliance Partners (TAP), a corporation focused on connecting tour operators, travel buyers, and suppliers.

Lisa leads the TAP management team in developing operational and marketing strategies to help Travel Alliance Partners strengthen their partnerships, increase their businesses and expand their company tour portfolios. The past couple of years have found Lisa and her team reimagining how they can deliver a quality travel industry conference and marketing initiatives to TAP’s audiences despite the challenges facing the travel industry.

On this episode of Destination on the Left this week, I have a slightly different show format for you. I have been reflecting on how much the travel and tourism industry has been through in the last two years. Different destinations and industry segments have had markedly different challenges; for some, 2021 was a bumper year but for others. 2021 was another year of struggle and record low numbers. The changing state of the pandemic is felt quickly in our industry, and 2021 has seen unprecedented highs and lows. So, today, I decided to invite three team members from the Break the Ice Media team onto the show to share their perspectives and experiences as we enter into the subsequent recovery phase. I’m so excited to be joined on the show by Adena Miller, Lisa Doerner, and Rhonda Carges as we ponder both what the future holds and how we can take lessons learned during difficult times forward to serve and support the travel and tourism industry.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • How the tour and travel segment have kept up their forward momentum, even with so many obstacles in their path
  • Rhonda shares her perspective as a supplier on how to be a good partner our tour operator partners
  • How Adena has seen travel buyers, advisors and agents respond during this challenging time
  • Where we should focus in 2022, as the travel and tourism segment continues to recover from the point of suppliers, travel buyers, and tour operators
  • How to tap into your local tourism office or destination marketing organization for support and collaboration
  • The importance of leveraging technology to streamline processes and make travelers’ experiences stress-free
  • Ways the Break the Ice team are working to help with recovery and the projects that Rhonda, Adena, and Lisa are involved in to support the travel and tourism industry
  • What the Bookable Product Programme offers to clients and how it can help with recovery

Lessons Learned in 2021

On speaking to the team, both during this discussion and more widely over the past few months, the importance of staying connected with people has been highlighted again and again. Talking with Adena Miller, a Consultant for Break the Ice Media, reminded me why it is essential to foster a deeper connection, even when we can’t meet in person by sharing pictures or stories.

Within the Break the Ice Media team and with our clients and partners, we found that the willingness to be open, vulnerable, and honest made a huge difference in staying positive and looking to the future.

In 2021 we saw some amazing and successful out-of-the-box thinking; Rhonda Carges, VP Operations & Senior Consultant at Break the Ice Media, joined me on the podcast this week to share her experience of embracing new ideas over the last few months. We discuss how travel and tour operators pivoted to provide online events and conferences that allowed people to ‘meet’ and make connections in a new way. The past two years’ uncertainty and adversity have embedded the mindset of growing when times are tough and seeing opportunity in difficulty.

Moving Forward in 2022

Lisa Doerner, a Senior Consultant at Break the Ice Media and the Executive Director of Travel Alliance Partners, also joined me this week on the show. We really dug into the role of a leader in the travel sector and why all of us have learned and developed more than we ever imagined possible. Lisa describes how one of the things that stood out to her was that negativity and discouragement could spread across an organization quickly and why the leadership must stay positive, despite uncertainty about the future.

Our industry is resilient, and people will continue to travel, but going forward, we will have to embrace change with open arms to be successful. Rhonda describes why suppliers need to be flexible and communicative and look for opportunities to collaborate as we move into recovery in 2022. It’s all about thinking about how we can work together; rather than working in silos, seek out the competition because your neighbor can end up being your biggest asset.

People are so ready to get back out there in 2022, and wherever we fit in the travel and tourism industry we can be a continued source of inspiration for our clients and get creative with the types of trips and experiences that travelers are craving.

Resources

Jan 12, 2022

Cheryl Kilday, President & CEO, Destination North Myrtle Beach, CDME, has contributed to the communities where she has lived through destination development, tourism promotion, and economic development initiatives. And she has an extensive background working with not-for-profit membership-based organizations that affect a positive impact on the local economy and quality of life.

Cheryl joined the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau in October 2018. She previously led Visit Spokane from 2010 until October 2018 after living in the Washington DC region in Northern Virginia for several years. She launched Visit Loudoun in 1996 and was the President and CEO for nearly 15 years. She began her tourism adventure in the Willamette Valley in Oregon after graduating from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Cheryl also earned the prestigious Certified Destination Marketing Executive (CDME) designation through Destinations International in 2011 and has achieved Destination Management Accreditation in both Spokane, Washington, Loudoun, Virginia, and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Cheryl is a Trustee for Destinations International Travel Foundation and serves on committees for Destinations International Foundation and Association boards.

Her career honors include recognition for leadership in the meetings industry by Smart Meetings Magazine, and awards for marketing and public relations programs from US Travel, HSMAI, and an Emmy®.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Cheryl Kilday, who shares why she believes that working for a tourism office that is part of a Chamber of Commerce gives her office a considerable advantage. We discuss how Cheryl sees the future of tourism evolving and why the curation of destinations’ stories is likely to focus more on creating a connection between places and their visitors by positioning them where potential guests are searching. Cheryl also dives into what she loves about working in the travel industry and why a huge part of the joy she finds in her job lies in the connections she builds with the local community.

What You Will Learn:

  • Different funding models that tourist organizations can leverage and why working with the Chamber gives Cheryl a better budget
  • How Cheryl helps the North Myrtle Beach residents understand and appreciate that their restaurants, retail, and entertainment options improve because they’re outnumbered by visitors on any given day
  • Cheryl’s advice for having a successful relationship with your team
  • Creative projects that Cheryl and her team have been working on to make their destination stand out
  • Why accountability and transparency feature highly in how North Myrtle Beach put together their messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they differentiated the messaging for residents, workers, and visitors, to the destination
  • Why Cheryl and her team did a series of commercials for social media, local television, and radio to personify how their businesses missed their customers and what they were doing to make it safer for visitors to return
  • Some examples of how coopetition has worked for Cheryl and her team
  • The co-op program and how it world to differentiate their positioning for North Myrtle Beach compared to the larger Myrtle Beach area as a destination
  • How Cheryl has seen destination marketing organizations role evolve over her career

Creative Ways to Connect with Your Community

Over the last couple of years, times have been challenging in the travel and tourism industry, and DMOs have had to get clever and creative. COVID-19 has required them to try new approaches and behave differently while we figured out how our world would evolve.

This week, my guest on the Destination on the Left podcast is Cheryl Kilday, President & CEO of Destination North Myrtle Beach. She joins me to share what she and her team did to let their residents and visitors know how they were going to keep them safe. We discuss the creative ways that North Mrytle Beach developed media campaigns that kept them accountable and transparent with their community to demonstrate that they were being sensitive to the needs of both the workforce and the visitors.

We dive into the fun ways that Cheryl and her team brought North Myrtle Beach to their visitors when the visitors couldn’t come to them — including putting together a Spotify radio channel of beach music, sending videos of dance lessons to learn how to do the South Carolina shag dance, and setting up cooking classes. They also developed a road trip toolkit so that people would have a fun way to connect with them on their way to North Myrtle Beach when they were ready to return.

Collaboration with Regional DMOs

We dig into Cheryl’s experience of North Myrtle Beach’s collaboration with the regional DMO and how the spirit of partnership helped them move forward. I often talk about ‘coopetition,’ the idea of competitors coming together to cooperate and create bigger wins together than they can achieve independently. Cheryl shares some examples of how her small community works to differentiate itself from its larger neighbor to the south — including setting up a co-op. The co-op is a voluntary organization that contributes money to help guide the destination marketing that differentiates its brand positioning. They also have a collaborative program called Momentum that helps them raise funds for specific projects or initiatives that go beyond what the co-op dues would support.

Cheryl and I also dive into the details of her destination master plan, when the destination plans to launch it and how they have been able to fund the project through creative coopetition. She describes the ultimate goals of North Myrtle Beach to brand itself as somewhere that partners with residents to go through an inclusive community-based planning process on how they want their destination to be in the long term.

I loved Cheryl’s take on how opportunities for cooperation advance the common good by allowing everyone to buy into a common goal and work together to achieve spectacular results.

Resources:

Jan 5, 2022

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for my dad’s car stereo shop, I got my start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, I headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.

In 2009, I founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. I now host “Destination on the Left,” a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.

As a business owner, I know what it takes to be successful. I founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. I have the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I discuss why I’m starting 2022 with a sense of reflection, renewal, and anticipation for what is ahead. Since 2020 I have been on a journey to understand the world in a broader sense, which has led to a search for greater meaning and a focus on intentionality in my actions. This week I want to share what I have done to understand differences, identify opportunities for personal growth, and take action to help make my world more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • How the Break the Ice Media team explored the topic of what diversity, equity, and inclusion meant to them and defined the actions they could take to make a difference
  • How Nicole became the Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the New York State Tourism Industry Association
  • How the 2021 Travel Unity Summit helped the industry focus on the importance of increasing diversity
  • The difference between equity and equality and why it is important
  • How to take your own incremental action by taking the Travel Unity Individual Pledge, which is for all who believe the world of travel should be welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities
  • What the Break the Ice Media team identified when they dug into their core value of equity and how they sought more diverse perspectives
  • How rounding out the team led to an invitation for Break the Ice Media to pitch to Cayuga County and Auburn, New York, for their Harriet Tubman Equal Rights Heritage Campaign to commemorate the 200th Birthday of Harriet Tubman in 2022

Reflecting on Our Journey in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Over the last two years, my small company has been grappling with how we fit within the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conversation, and we have really committed to educating ourselves around the topic.

I was very candid in Solocast 16 about the team’s journey to live out the ‘equitable’ core value within our company, and we have recently reflected on our most recent client work to see how it is significantly impacting our collective worldview. When examining how we aligned with our values, we found that we needed to work on developing more diverse partner, freelance, and subcontractor relationships to ensure we represent a wide range of viewpoints.

Being Intentional

Big things will happen when you set your intentions and start to take action. You may feel as if you are taking baby steps at first, but time will pass, and you will realize that all those incremental moves have led to a monumental shift and change in your organization. I’m grateful that we took this journey and for the lessons we learned along the way, particularly the importance of humility and vulnerability when addressing biases and issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Dec 22, 2021

For this second episode in a special two-part series of Destination on the Left episodes, my team visited the Vermont Tourism Summit (without me!) to interview attendees about their experiences working in the travel and tourism industry, especially during the outbreak of and our gradual emergence from the global pandemic. The Vermont Tourism Summit draws one of the largest gatherings of tourism professionals in the state including owners, managers, and employees of the many businesses connected to this important segment of the economy. This year’s Summit was the 37th annual event and was held from November 17-18 at the Killington Grand Resort Hotel in Killington, VT.

I’m delighted to share the insights and experiences that the Vermont Tourism Summit attendees my team spoke with were willing to offer during their interviews. In this second episode of a special two-part Destination On The Left series, you’ll hear from these eight extraordinary travel and tourism leaders and experts:

Discussing Challenges and Opportunities at the Vermont Tourism Summit

The Vermont Tourism Summit is an annual event that brings together area travel and tourism professionals, businesses, and destinations. This year’s event offered a one-of-a-kind opportunity to discuss the many challenges and opportunities Vermont area destinations are navigating in this uniquely challenging time. My team traveled to the Vermont Tourism Summit for this year’s gathering and were able to speak with eight incredible experts and business leader attendees, and here are the inspiring insights they had to share.

Julie Basol from Vergennes Partnership

Julie shares how Vergennes is the ideal destination for anyone who loves the outdoors, and she shares how her goal for 2022 is keeping the small city, its residents, and visitors safe as life begins to move back toward normal. She highlights some of the charming, family-friendly area destinations and attractions that make Vergennes an ideal place for people to visit or relocate to, and she explains why staying positive in this transition period is critical.

Kim Jackson from Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports

Kim shares why inclusion is foremost in her mind as we close out the year and enter 2022. In her role at Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, inclusion is critical to their mission. Kim explains why serving people with all sorts of physical and cognitive disabilities. She discusses how the programs Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports offers are designed to make it possible for anyone to enjoy the beautiful mountains and winter activities. She describes the kind of marketing her organization does to get the word out.

Lisa Chase from University of Vermont Extension

Lisa explains why she is so excited to be hosting the upcoming 2022 International Workshop on Agritourism being held in Burlington, VT from August 30-September 1, 2022. She shares how she got started at UVM twenty years ago, and she shares how she first became aware of the term “agritourism”. She discusses how Vermont is one of the true agritourism capitols of the world. She shares how she saw a call for proposals to present at the first World Congress on Agritourism in Italy in 2018, and what she learned from the concert. She describes how Vermont won the right to host the 2020 conference but had to postpone when the pandemic started, and she discusses how the 2022 International Workshop on Agritourism is the culmination of all the hard work and false starts.

Parker Riehle from Get On Snow

Parker shares how is organization was founded two years ago to promote outdoor winter recreation. He describes how Get On Snow isn’t just focused on bringing skiers and snowboarders to slopes but how the organization also highlights any winter sport people enjoy, including “gateway sports” such as snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. He describes how the outbreak of the global pandemic increased people’s desire to get out and enjoy nature even more than before. He shares how optimism and excitement are the prevailing feelings as people begin to become more comfortable with travel again.

Peter MacLaren from West Hill Bed & Breakfast

Peter shares how Vermont has led the way in vaccinations, and he shares how that commitment to public health has made it easier for destinations such as his West hill Bed & Breakfast to offer safer environments for travelers. He also describes how Vermont’s reputation for being one of the safest destinations has brought new people to Vermont who might never have discovered its wonders otherwise. He shares how he believes these newcomers will help offset visitor loss as long-distance travel begins to become more prevalent. He shares how the new presence of big name organizations from the ski industry is creating even more opportunities for the state and for local businesses like his.

Rick Sokoloff and Marina Meerburg from 4 Points VT

Rick and Marina share how 4 Points VT started as a mountain biking school before integrating brewery tours, and Rick talks about how a key collaborative partnership with the Trapp Family Lodge has become core to the mountain biking experience 4 Points VT offers. The pair discuss adding a third arm to their business, adding customized artisan tours for corporate groups and others. Marina explains how they’ve even begun requesting family reunions and foliage tours, and she describes how easing pandemic restrictions have helped their business grow dramatically in recent months. Rick and Marina share plans for keeping the pace of their growth while maintaining the high quality they’re known for, and they discuss their strategy for continuing to grow to the point that they can be ready to take on full-time employees. Marina describes the personnel challenges the organization has faced in filling roles to keep up with the work, and Rick shares how great training leads to happy return workers season after season.

Sarah Howe from Lake Morey Resort

Sarah describes her excitement for 2022 and the many new opportunities it is presenting for her resort. She talks about resuming paused programs and starting new ones to attract visitors. Sarah talks about expanding the outdoor activities her resort can offer for visitors and the local community, throughout the year. She explains how collaborating with local businesses and organizations has helped make both her business and the entire area stronger, and she shares how Lake Morey Resort reaches out to area businesses for partnership opportunities.

Sarah Morris from Basin Harbor

Sarah talks about how Basin Harbor, established in 1886, will be celebrating its 136th birthday in 2022. She discusses some of the challenges her organization has faced through the pandemic, including staffing shortages, and she talks about some of the exciting opportunities she is looking forward to in the coming year. She shares how Basin Harbor has experienced robust demand throughout 2021 that the organization is using to expand their offerings and renovate their facilities. She shares how her property’s staff swells from just 25 employees in the winter to over 200+ through the summer season, and she shares how bringing in international workers will be instrumental in Basin Harbor’s continued recovery as we emerge from the pandemic.

Enthusiasm for a New Beginning

As each of these Vermont area travel and tourism leaders discussed, there’s an abiding sense of optimism for 2022 as life continues to move beyond the pandemic. Through key collaborations with area partners and through developing a better understanding of travelers’ safety needs and entertainment expectations, these organizations are each positioning themselves for a stellar new year!

I hope you enjoyed this second episode of our special two-part series from the Vermont Tourism Summit. I hope the positivity and optimism these leaders have shared with us inspire you as we wrap up 2021 and turn the page for a bright new year! The pandemic has been hard for anyone in the travel and tourism industry, but the lessons we’ve learned and strategies we have developed will help us roar into the coming year!

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes! https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Dec 15, 2021

For this first episode in a special two-part series of Destination on the Left episodes, my team visited the Vermont Tourism Summit (without me!) to interview attendees about their experiences working in the travel and tourism industry, especially during the outbreak of and our gradual emergence from the global pandemic. The Vermont Tourism Summit draws one of the largest gatherings of tourism professionals in the state including owners, managers, and employees of the many businesses connected to this important segment of the economy. This year’s Summit was the 37th annual event and was held from November 17-18 at the Killington Grand Resort Hotel in Killington, VT.

I’m delighted to share the insights and experiences that the Vermont Tourism Summit attendees my team spoke with were willing to offer during their interviews. In this first episode of a special two-part Destination On The Left series, you’ll hear from these seven extraordinary travel and tourism leaders and experts:

  • Ana Dan, Owner and General Manager of the Hyde Away Inn & Restaurant
  • Bob Schwartz, Director of Marketing & Sales at the Trapp Family Lodge
  • Carrie Simmons, Executive Director of the Stowe Area Association
  • Diane Stockton-Breese, Director of Member Services at Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce
  • Fred Cercena, CEO and Founder of GetAway Vacations
  • Jenny Dewar, Owner of Karin’s Place
  • Josh Palace, Sales Manager at Spirit of Ethan Allen

Discussing Challenges and Opportunities at the Vermont Tourism Summit

The Vermont Tourism Summit is an annual event that brings together area travel and tourism professionals, businesses and destinations. This year’s event offered a one-of-a-kind opportunity to discuss the many challenges and opportunities Vermont area destinations are navigating in this uniquely challenging time. My team travelled to the Vermont Tourism Summit for this year’s gathering and were able to speak with seven brilliant leaders, and here are the inspiring insights they had to share.

Ana Dan from Hyde Away Inn & Restaurant

Ana discusses the properties she owns and shares how her properties are navigating the challenge of the global pandemic by investing in technologies such as air filtration to restore traveler confidence as we emerge from the crisis. She shares how the flux of people entering and leaving travel and tourism work has created hiring challenges that her businesses are navigating by hiring foreign workers to fill vital positions. She talks about creating a welcoming community for these incoming workers, and she discusses the critical need for affordable housing for these incoming workers. She discusses allocating a few of the rooms in her inn for workers as a stopgap measure until housing accommodations are made available on a permanent basis.

Bob Schwartz from the Trapp Family Lodge

Bob shares what excites him most about the coming year and the opportunities it presents. He discusses how people’s increasing comfort with international travel is building toward a potentially great year for his organization. He explains why creating the best experience possible for visitors is an important key to attracting international travelers.

Carrie Simmons from Stowe Area Association

Carrie shares why Stowe, Vermont is excited about the coming ski season and the events her town will be able to offer in 2022 as we continue to move out of the pandemic over the course of the coming year. She also discusses how her team is ramping up for this expected coming increase in area travel.

Diane Stockton-Breese from Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce

Diane shares some of the highlights the Okemo Valley area offers across the twelve towns and villages her organization represents. She discusses a unique, pandemic-safe event her organization offered over the summer of 2021, and she shares how the event showcased many of the area’s visitor offerings. She talks about some of the key lessons her organization was able to draw from the festival that they will be able to take forward as the pandemic eases, and she shares her optimism for how the event will continue to grow in the future.

Fred Cercena from GetAway Vacations

Fred discusses why his main focus going into 2022 is the increasing amount of reservations that have been coming in from online travel agents rather than through direct reservations on their website. He shares how relying on sites like Airbnb and Expedia has created new challenges that need to be navigated. He highlights some of the programs and campaigns his organization has developed to increase the number of direct bookings. He also discusses how visitor loyalty to the area is a key concern he will be focusing on throughout the coming year.

Jenny Dewar from Karin’s Place

Jenny shares what excites her about her position as a short-term rental destination owner going into 2022, and she describes how government programs such as the PPP loan helped her businesses stay afloat through the challenges of 2020, and she shares how 2021 became a watershed year for her businesses. She describes why she is excited about her new position as the Executive Director of the Better Bennington Corporation and the opportunity the position presents for her to help in revitalizing downtown Bennington and in bringing new and returning events to the area. Jenny explains how hiring a “social media genius” has helped get the word out about the exciting things the Better Bennington Corporation is doing in the area.

Josh Palace from Spirit of Ethan Allen

Josh discusses how business boomed for his organization in 2021, even without access to travellers from Canada and other international locations, thanks to the outstanding job the state of Vermont has done in navigating the pandemic. He shares why he expects 2022 to be even bigger once international borders are fully reopened. He shares how digital partnerships have become cornerstones of his organization’s success, and he shares how the area’s more than 200 attractions have worked collaboratively to support each other through the pandemic crisis. He describes feeling like an ambassador for Vermont when encouraging travelers to take a closer look at the area’s other offerings. He explains why a strong sense of collaboration has been instrumental to his own success in his position.

Great Excitement for the Coming New Year

As each of these Vermont area travel and tourism leaders discussed, there’s an abiding sense of optimism for 2022 as life continues to move beyond the pandemic. Through key collaborations with area partners and through developing a better understanding of traveller’s safety needs and entertainment expectations, these organizations are each positioning themselves for a stellar new year!

I hope you enjoyed this first episode of our special two-part series from the Vermont Tourism Summit. I hope the positivity and optimism these leaders have shared with us inspire you as we wrap up 2021 and turn the page for a bright new year. Next week, we’ll hear from eight more remarkable Vermont travel and tourism experts, so I hope you’ll join the conversation!

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes! https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Dec 8, 2021

Nasya Kamrat is the Co-founder and CEO of FACULTY, a certified women-owned spatial storytelling agency that creates human-centric experiences for global brands. Passionate about innovative storytelling, Nasya constantly searches for unique opportunities to create an authentic experience that people can connect with, whether in real life or online.

As an award-winning creative strategist, she has been creating content that spans traditional, interactive, experiential, and digital media for nearly 20 years. Nasya is also dedicated to empowering women and people of color in business.

Before starting FACULTY, Nasya had the pleasure of working at some of New York’s leading global ad agencies as a creative producer and strategist. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and English from Florida State University.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Nasya Kamrat about how storytelling can connect people to places in a more meaningful way. Nastya shares her inspirational story of collaboration amid adversity and challenge and how it inspired her to start FACULTY, which she designed as a co-op for underrepresented agencies. She shares some creative ways for your destination to stand out from the crowd by helping potential visitors experience a holistic journey. Nasya also discusses her favorite case studies that exemplify how creating a brand experience can elevate destination marketing.

What You Will Learn:

  • How to use spatial storytelling in your destination marketing
  • Finding the right story for your destination to tell
  • How to create a connection between a place and a guest through narrative
  • How the COVID-19 pandemic allowed Nasya to prompt a little bit of wanderlust in people in preparation for when we could travel again
  • Moments over the last 18 months when Nasya was faced with a challenge and how she moved through it creatively
  • How Nasya took the big agency model of gathering several boutique agencies under one umbrella but put a whole new spin on it to serve a more diverse range of people
  • Nasya’s advice for listeners about finding those right-fit partners with the same interests as you

Finding Your Story

Brand storytelling is something that everyone talks about. But how do you create a world in which people can immerse themselves and experience stories that follow them wherever they go?

Whether you’re marketing a town, a local event, or a visitor experience, you have to keep your brand story at the forefront of your mind and reference it at every single touchpoint when the guests walk in the door. Nasya Kamrat explains the importance of defining and identifying the narrative and how to uncover the real human story behind a place — then delivering it uniquely.

Collaborating with Like-Minded Founders

As destination marketers, we’re all trying to figure out what travel looks like in the post-pandemic world. The idea of collaborating and finding like-minded founders and figuring out how to work together is more attractive than ever before.

This week, my guest on the podcast, Nasya Kamrat, describes why she was inspired to band together and build a co-op of other women-owned, Black-owned, and Latinx-owned businesses. We explore why, by teaming up as destinations, we can create value and efficiencies for our clients and better support independent agencies who are underrepresented.

To learn more about Nasya and her company, FACULTY, please check out the contact links below:

Dec 1, 2021

Greg was previously the CMO at LifeLock. He is a seasoned executive with a unique knowledge of start-ups and how to create an innovative strategy and align it with practical execution to achieve exceptional results. Greg possesses a progressive and diverse background in Marketing (brand management, digital and traditional marketing, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing), Finance (budgeting, planning, debt & equity raise, IPO), and Operations (process improvement, risk management, call centers, and reporting & analytics). He has over 17 years of experience, ranging from Chief Marketing Officer of a $1B+ public company to the financial lead of a start-up that went public.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Greg Lim, who gives his actionable tips on ways you can create meaningful connections with prospective customers through personalization and data. He demystifies how to incorporate personalization into your marketing by sharing his crawl, walk, run approach to implementing new marketing tactics. Greg also highlights the importance of collaboration between destination marketing organizations and how personalization can boost the success of co-op programs.

What You Will Learn:

  • How to deliver different personalized experiences to help a wide range of audiences and potential visitors in their trip planning
  • Why differentiate landing pages according to interest then extend the customer experience to your core website
  • How we’ve normalized bad communication and bad behavior in marketing through the historical limitations of technology
  • Using touchpoints to personalize a consumer experience to engage and delight virtual visitors
  • Approaching marketing personalization from a crawl, walk, run perspective with regards to technology
  • Technical solutions that allow marketers to take control of their campaigns and integrate their social media channels

Prioritize Your Website Marketing

Invest in your website — because that’s where all of your social channels and your marketing are sending everyone. So, if you invest in your website, your website performs better, and you’ll get a better conversion rate and return on your investment.

You can also build new partnerships and add value to your existing partners with your destination marketing site. Personalization can empower your team to go out and find collaboration opportunities. With your destination marketing site, you can create an exciting way to expand your partnership inventory and serve the different audiences coming to your website.

Personalization Shouldn’t Be Overwhelming

Gregory shares the common-sense middle ground in marketing personalization. He gives his insights on how to deliver meaningful experiences to your consumers that delight them and do it in a way that is not invasive.

You want to create a powerful experience for them that will ultimately drive your business results. The most significant opportunity for the travel and tourism industry is to take all the micro conversations and engagements that we already have with our visitors then carry that same conversation through to the website.
To learn more about Gregory and his company, Persosa, please check out the contact links below:

Nov 17, 2021

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for my dad’s car stereo shop, I got my start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, I headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester.

In 2009, I founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. I now host “Destination on the Left,” a highly successful tourism marketing podcast.

As a business owner, I know what it takes to be successful. I founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. I have the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I reflect on whether 2021 has been an easier year than 2020 and why the travel industry hasn’t been able to make up the lost ground that we had hoped. I share the key elements that make up our culture at Break the Ice Media and explore our seven essential core values and how we promote and live those values. One of the changes to our work environment that COVID-19 brought was the move from sharing an office to working 100% remotely — so I also want to take some time to discuss how we collaborate and stay connected as a team.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

  • The seven core values at the heart of Break the Ice Media
  • Why the travel industry is still having to make adjustments to welcome guests safely
  • How employers in the industry have the power to change the culture of our organizations and create places of work that value and respect their employees
  • Why we are so intentional about the culture at Break the Ice Media
  • Communication tools we use to stay connected now that we are all working from home
  • Ways that your employees can give you feedback and insight into what they enjoy and would change about the company

Our Values and Mission

In my opinion, one of the key reasons that Break the Ice Media has not only survived but thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic is that we have leaned on our values. Transparency was an essential feature of navigating the challenges of recent unprecedented events as a business owner.

It was so important to me to be very transparent with our team members about where we were in the moment, what the choices were, and why those choices and decisions could change on a dime. As we head towards the end of 2021, we continue to weave our seven core values into our day-to-day practices to keep what it means to work at Break the Ice Media at the forefront of our minds.

Collaboration and Respect

Our core values give us a clear understanding of who we are as a company, and understanding what we value makes it easier to make decisions and navigate the challenges of the road ahead.

As a team, we devoted a lot of time to thinking about our core values and ensuring that what we chose really embodied the company’s ethos. Collaboration is one of the values that resonates deeply with me (as you won’t be surprised to learn). We are collaborative — it is the bedrock of Break the Ice Media. In our team, everyone’s ideas, input, and talents are valued, and as a result, we all feel heard, valued, and respected.

To learn more about Break the Ice Media, please head over to the contact links below:

Nov 10, 2021

President and CEO of Synthesis Management Group (SMG) Roberta “Bobbie” Goheen is a resourceful and committed leadership expert and Fortune 100 executive coach who promotes positive growth and development environments for individuals, executives, and organizational teams.

With more than 25 years of world-class experience, Bobbie is a motivational force who inspires her clients to steer their personal and professional lives in the direction of excellence. She has worked with companies worldwide and organizations ranging in size from five employees to 80,000. Clients include international, national, and local C-suite executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals looking for curated, practical tools to match their desire to lead others with greater ease and agility.

Bobbie offers a multi-dimensional approach for successful business leaders and their workforce to achieve results through experimental learning and development. She utilizes researched and proven methodology combined with a style that is fresh, dynamic, and inspirational.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Bobbie Goheen about why following your dreams and passions leads to enjoying a more fulfilling life. She shares her insights and strategies on how leaders can enhance their skills using a build, measure, learn framework and how using this model can also help you stay motivated during challenging times. Bobbie also gives us the benefit of her leadership experience on how to prepare your team members to be future leaders and the importance of trusting your instincts and prioritizing your wellbeing so you can move forward with a positive mindset.

What You Will Learn:

  • Bobbie’s advice for leaders keen to maintain focus and keep motivation levels high moving through this challenging and disruptive period of time
  • When you’re committed to finding a way forward, it doesn’t mean that you can’t change course once you start down your path — you can measure it and then learn, then adjust if necessary
  • Why leaders need to stay focused on the possibilities, the opportunities and cultivate a willingness to go into the unknown, be uncomfortable, and learn something new
  • How we can prepare our team to be future leaders, and why we need to reframe the process from delegation to development
  • Bobbie’s wisdom on what we should be doing to maintain a better work-life balance
  • Key takeaways that professionals should be taking forward with them from the disruption of the last 18 months
  • Why the most straightforward way companies can grow leaders is to have very clear goals and be specific on the ‘what’ of the goal, but be less specific on how they’re going to get there

The Call for Leadership

Bobbie Goheen is a resourceful and committed leadership expert and Fortune 100 executive coach whose company Synthesis Management Group promotes positive growth and inspires her clients to steer their personal and professional lives in the direction of excellence.
In this episode of Destination On The Left, Bobbie shares why she believes that leaders right now need courage, passion, and the drive to step up to the consistent atmosphere of change and challenge that we live in today. Bobbie notes that before the COVID-19 pandemic, if you were willing to put in the hard work and effort, then you had a good chance of achieving your dreams.

But now, we know that we aren’t always in control of the changes in life, which is why we need to step up as leaders and trust that even when we’re not in control of external factors, we are in control of our choices. Leaders should follow a path of build, measure, and learn, testing the terrain as they go to ensure they are on the right track, and making adjustments to continue to move forward.

Trust Yourself and Your Team

As Bobbie says, having the confidence to trust yourself, block out the external chatter, and measure what is happening in your environment is crucial when navigating uncertainty.

It’s also essential to build a trusted group around you, gain their insight and input, and use the ideas that resonate with you. Leadership is all about recognizing the possibilities and opportunities and being willing to go into the unknown, be uncomfortable, and learn something new.

To learn more about Bobbie and her company, Synthesis Management Group, please check out the contact links below:

Nov 3, 2021

For this second episode in a special two part series of Destination on the Left episodes, I visited the 2021 eTourism Summit held in Las Vegas, Nevada from September 20-22. At the summit, I was privileged to speak with fourteen attendees who are experts in the field of digital marketing for travel and tourism. In my conversations with today’s guest experts, I asked them to each answer one question:

“Looking into the future, what innovations are happening now that you think will impact digital marketing for your organization or destination?”

I’m so delighted to share their insightful and sometimes surprising answers with you in this week’s special podcast episode. In this episode of Destination On The Left, you’ll hear from these fourteen extraordinary digital marketing experts:

 

  • Chris Lukenbill – Co-Founder, Shrpa
  • Ed Harris – CEO, Discover Lancaster
  • Emilie Harris – Director of Marketing Operations, Bandwango
  • Jake Brown – Content Manager, Visit South Bend
  • Jason Holic – Vice President of Business Applications & Insights, Experience Kissimmee
  • Kyle Johnson – Digital Strategy Manager, Indiana Destination Development Corporation
  • Leena Riggs – Director of Marketing & Partnerships, Visit Rancho Cordova
  • Marc Garcia – President & CEO, Visit Mesa
  • Maria Skrzynski – Marketing Coordinator/Office Manager, Destination Ann Arbor
  • Mark Romig – Chief Marketing Officer & Senior Vice President, New Orleans & Co.
  • Nicole Stacey – Director of Marketing Communications, Visit Pensacola
  • Ralph Thompson – Executive Director Travel & Tourism, Streetsense
  • Tim Ash – Marketing Keynote, Trainer & Advisor
  • Victoria Simmons – Senior Vice President of Travel, BVK

Innovative Digital Marketing Experts at the 2021 eTourism Summit

The eTourism Summit is a one-of-a-kind conference that exists at the intersection of destination travel and tourism with cutting edge digital marketing. It’s a unique opportunity for industry leaders, marketers, and destinations to come together and exchange ideas, collaborate, and brainstorm new solutions together. This year’s eTourism Summit was held in Las Vegas from September 20-22 and offered insights into digital marketing trends, advertising innovations and new ways to connect travelers with incredible experiences. I asked each of these experts the same question: “Looking into the future, what innovations are happening now that you think will impact digital marketing for your organization or destination?” Here are the insightful answers they gave me:

Chris Lukenbill from Shrpa

Chris discusses how the many disruptions our industry is facing create new opportunities for Shrpa’s clients to tell their stories within their own communities. He discusses why an increased focus on local communities has moved from “nice to have” to necessary to navigate the pandemic. He talks about why stronger communication is going to be an increasingly critical component of travel and tourism marketing going forward.

Ed Harris from Discover Lancaster

Ed talks about the juxtaposition of digitally marketing the simple life of the local Amish communities through modern technology and social media, and he discusses why innovations in technology like AI and machine learning are transformative tools that will reshape digital marketing in the future. He talks about the power of data in informing what content destinations and marketers share, and he discusses the importance of adapting to and embracing these emerging technologies to help meet travelers where they are.

Emilie Harris from Bandwango

Emilie talks about how the industry’s broad focus on innovation is creating new opportunities to integrate various products, experiences and locations into full experience packages. She discusses how important it is for marketers to understand how the process of booking travel is changing as consumer expectations are shifting. She shares how the “niche” audiences of the past are dissolving and how authentic, unique experiences are becoming the cornerstone of travel and tourism marketing.

Jake Brown from Visit South Bend

Jake talks about the role of data in travel and tourism digital marketing, and he shares why being able to track the success of campaigns by how much revenue they have generated for the area is going to be a sea change for digital marketers going forward.

Jason Holic from Experience Kissimmee

Jason explains a calculator tool his organization developed to help track key data metrics that they have made available to other DMOs, and he shares how it helps track media impact of your messaging through transparency and the dynamic narratives it can create. He explains how the tool uses 30 different data points to fine tune visibility over your metrics and help you communicate with four key stakeholder groups using language they themselves use to help you demonstrate the value you’re driving to them.

Kyle Johnson from Indiana Destination Development Corporation

Kyle shares how his organization’s transition from the Indiana Office of Tourism Development to the Indiana Destination Development Corporation has allowed the organization to expand their goals and cast a wider net. He shares why their goal isn’t just to attract visitors but to also attract talent to the state. He discusses the important role location tracking serves for the organization, allowing for targeted messaging. He talks about how Indiana has seen big success bringing corporations to the state, and he shares how the next goal is to bring more workers to the state as well.

Leena Riggs from Visit Rancho Cordova

Leena shares how her organization is focused on more and stronger data collection, and she shares how Visit Rancho Cordova is exploring options for engaging with and messaging in-market. She shares how the data is powerfully informing how Rancho Cordova plans their future growth.

Marc Garcia from Visit Mesa

Marc shares how his organization is focused on accessibility in travel as part of Visit Mesa’s larger Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. He shares how Mesa, Arizona has worked hard to become the nation’s first Autism-certified City and is now seeking to become a city known for its accessibility programs and initiatives. He shares how Visit Mesa has recently established the Mesa Regional Foundation for Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion, which will be used to purchase accessibility technologies. He also talks about how his city is building what will be the largest youth and amateur sports complex in the country.

Maria Skrzynski from Destination Ann Arbor

Maria shares how her organization is working to strengthen its local partnerships and collaboration with other organizations and sectors to elevate the energy of the community. She also discusses the importance of unity within Ann Arbor.

Mark Romig from New Orleans & Company

Mark discusses how people are using handheld devices far more than tablets, desktops and other large devices, and he shares how his organization is focused on developing their integration with phones and other handhelds. He talks about the importance of focusing on the consumer’s needs and obstacles and staying ahead of the curve by meeting them where they are.

Nicole Stacey from Visit Pensacola

Nicole talks about how Visit Pensacola is reallocating their budget to use connected TVs to better reach people. She talks about the importance of transparency and honesty in messaging, and she shares how Visit Pensacola is utilizing targeted marketing strategies and messages to reach niche traveler groups.

Ralph Thompson from Streetsense

Ralph talks about how Streetsense is creatively using podcasts to build relationships with travelers in a more casual way than traditional messaging. He explains how even smaller, resource-challenged DMOs can take advantage of established podcasts to amplify their message.

Tim Ash, Marketing Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Advisor

Tim discusses how travel planning can take advantage of Alexa, Siri and other voice assistants and the casual, conversational way they work. He shares why it is important to understand the psychology behind how people make decisions, and he explains how evolutionary psychology can be the key to anticipating and guiding people’s decision-making processes.

Victoria Simmons from BVK

Victoria talks about how DMOs and destinations are becoming better at having in-market conversations with travelers and connecting them directly to travel partners. She shares how geolocation data is becoming a powerful resource for enhancing this connection with travelers.

Technological Innovations and the Role of Data

As you can see, many of the leaders I spoke with hit upon recurring themes around emerging technologies and new ways of collecting, collating and analyzing data. The outbreak of the global pandemic has created major strains and challenges on travel and tourism, but it has also given us a unique opportunity to reevaluate how we market destinations to travelers and how we can share our messages in more targeted ways and with larger, more diverse audiences.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing insights from the 2021 eTourism Summit and from these extraordinary travel and tourism marketing experts and leaders. As our world slowly begins to turn the tide against the pandemic, one thing is certain: by embracing new innovations and outside-the-box ideas, the future of travel and tourism looks bright!

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes! https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Oct 27, 2021

For this first episode in a special two part series of Destination on the Left episodes, I visited the 2021 eTourism Summit held in Las Vegas, Nevada from September 20-22. At the summit, I was privileged to have the chance to interview fourteen attendees who are experts in the field of digital marketing for travel and tourism. In my conversations with today’s guest experts, I asked them to each answer one question:

“What has been the biggest change in your digital strategy that has resulted in big wins for your organization or destination?”

I’m so delighted to share their insightful and sometimes surprising answers with you in this week’s special podcast episode. In this episode of Destination On The Left, you’ll hear from these fourteen extraordinary digital marketing experts:

  • Chris Lukenbill – Co-Founder, Shrpa
  • Ed Harris – CEO, Discover Lancaster
  • Emilie Harris – Director of Marketing Operations, Bandwango
  • Jake Brown – Content Manager, Visit South Bend
  • Jason Holic – Vice President of Business Applications & Insights, Experience Kissimmee
  • Kyle Johnson – Digital Strategy Manager, Indiana Destination Development Corporation
  • Leena Riggs – Director of Marketing & Partnerships, Visit Rancho Cordova
  • Marc Garcia – President & CEO, Visit Mesa
  • Maria Skrzynski – Marketing Coordinator/Office Manager, Destination Ann Arbor
  • Mark Romig – Chief Marketing Officer & Senior Vice President, New Orleans & Co.
  • Nicole Stacey – Director of Marketing Communications, Visit Pensacola
  • Ralph Thompson – Executive Director Travel & Tourism, Streetsense
  • Tim Ash – Marketing Keynote, Trainer & Advisor
  • Victoria Simmons – Senior Vice President of Travel, BVK

Innovative Digital Marketing Experts at the 2021 eTourism Summit

The eTourism Summit is a one-of-a-kind conference that exists at the intersection of destination travel and tourism with cutting edge digital marketing. It’s a unique opportunity for industry leaders, marketers, and destinations to come together and exchange ideas, collaborate, and brainstorm new solutions together. This year’s eTourism Summit was held in Las Vegas from September 20-22 and offered insights into digital marketing trends, advertising innovations and new ways to connect travelers with incredible experiences. I asked each of these experts the same question: “What has been the biggest change in your digital strategy that has resulted in big wins for your organization or destination?” Here are the insightful answers they gave me:

Chris Lukenbill from Shrpa

Chris shares how the industry-wide disruption of the global pandemic has created a unique opportunity to share experiences and user-generated content. He discusses the challenge of creating and sharing great itineraries that go beyond a single viewpoint and that are available “where the visitors are”, whether that’s Shrpa’s website or elsewhere. He explains why it’s easy to find directories of information but it is often difficult to get a good understanding of the full experience a destination offers, and he shares how Shrpa is working to bridge that gap for travelers.

Ed Harris from Discover Lancaster

Ed shares how Discover Lancaster has focused on making greater, more meaningful investments in social media over the pandemic, and he shares how experimenting with alternative information vehicles like video has helped significantly increase Discover Lancaster’s social media engagement and following. He discusses why content centered on the local Amish community has been a big driver in this stronger engagement as people learn more about the Amish lifestyle. He discusses how the pandemic has highlighted a new level of desire from travelers to find unique escapes from our modern lives and challenges. He discusses how his team created five video ads highlighting activities that can be done in a pandemic-safe way in the area, and he shares the big results these videos have generated.

Emilie Harris from Bandwango

Emilie discusses how the biggest shift she has experienced working with clients has been greater focus on tracking bottom-of-funnel conversions rather than top-of-funnel inspiration-focused marketing. She explains how this information has helped many clients transition their websites into e-commerce engines, and she talks about how the integration of new website strategies and new tools has created exciting opportunities for clients. She discusses Bandwango’s work connecting communities with local businesses and crafting engaging experiences, through web-based free and paid “passports” that highlight client offerings while allowing Bandwango to collect invaluable data and traveler insights.

Jake Brown from Visit South Bend

Jake describes how Visit South Bend has been experimenting with and collecting data on a variety of ideas, such as advertising through Expedia. He discusses why Visit South Bend’s focus has shifted from inspirational top-of-funnel campaigns to the actual booking process, and he explains why the global pandemic has created new opportunities farther down the sales funnel. He discusses how the content his organization is creating integrates with their paid campaign efforts, and he explains why Visit South Bend is layering content to help guide traveler choices at all levels of the funnel.

Jason Holic from Experience Kissimmee

Jason discusses how he and his team have shifted their focus to in-state marketing targeting Florida residents and drawing them to the many experiences available in the Kissimmee, Florida area. He talks about using data to help the team reprioritize which markets they are advertising in. He explains why the goal has been to drive knowledge of the impact of the global pandemic on travelers, and he shares how leveraging the area’s unique ability to handle high volumes of traveler traffic has been an invaluable asset.

Kyle Johnson from Indiana Destination Development Corporation

Kyle shares how he was introduced to the concept of “bricks and feathers”, including heavy pieces of major content called “bricks” that can be sliced into smaller pieces of “feather” content. He shares how his team put together a scavenger hunt list of “stranger things” travelers can find in Indiana that connect to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana featured in the Netflix series “Stranger Things”. He describes how that list became 12 separate social posts over 14 days that generated more than 250,000 organic social channel impressions. He shares how the pandemic put all of the team’s initiatives on pause, and he talks about how the team navigated the challenges of the pandemic using their “bricks and feathers” content to empower their social media efforts and drive traffic to exciting, pandemic-safe outdoor destinations in every county in the state.

Leena Riggs from Visit Rancho Cordova

Leena shares how the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for her organization to shift to user-generated content, and she shares how this has allowed Visit Rancho Cordova an opportunity to partner with local residents in a unique way. She shares how residents are creating unique hashtags and amplifying the organization’s message.

Marc Garcia from Visit Mesa

Marc shares how the pandemic pushed Visit Mesa to turn inward and form a steering committee made up of Mesa residents that has advanced his organization’s digital strategies and social media outreach. He explains why the pandemic has given Visit Mesa an opportunity to inform locals of what their organization does to support the area. He shares how the steering committee came about and immediately assisted Visit Mesa in formulating a strategy to deal with the challenges of the pandemic by marrying songs with photos of the region.

Maria Skrzynski from Destination Ann Arbor

Maria discusses how one of the big changes Destination Ann Arbor has made has been collaborating with residents and supporting local business through stronger connections. She explains how user-generated content has become a backbone of her organization’s marketing efforts and social media outreach. She shares how Destination Ann Arbor has been exploring new ways and channels to connect with local residents, and she explains why these collaborations are a win-win-win for everyone involved. She shares how her organization reaches out to highlight how they can be of assistance to local businesses and destinations.

Mark Romig from New Orleans & Company

Mark discusses how his organization worked to shift the perception of New Orleans as an “adult playground” and highlight how it’s an extremely family-friendly destination, by partnering with a group of “mommy bloggers” to share their travel experiences. He shares how leveraging influencers and social media can be an extraordinary way to connect with niche markets and get the message out. He also shares how Instagram has been a key platform to share the exciting sights in New Orleans, and he discusses how merging two competing websites into a single “one stop shop” internet address has helped travelers find information more easily.

Nicole Stacey from Visit Pensacola

Nicole talks about how “pivot” has been the key word through the pandemic for so many organizations in travel and tourism, and she shares how Visit Pensacola has used a multi-channel strategy throughout the full funnel to dig deeper into the “why” of the destination. She shares how sharing an authentic experience that goes beyond Pensacola’s famous beaches has been transformative for the organization. She describes how connecting with audiences and the things that inspire them has gotten easier through the use of real-time data. She discusses how the agility of digital marketing has been crucial for navigating the challenges of the pandemic.

Ralph Thompson from Streetsense

Ralph talks about how Streetsense leverages its experience in digital marketing to reach audiences and deliver measurable results. He discusses how the evolution of data collection has been an extraordinary asset for his organization. He talks about the importance of building relationships and engaging consumers both logically and emotionally, and he talks about how video is becoming a crucial component of digital travel and tourism marketing.

Tim Ash, Marketing Keynote Speaker, Trainer, and Advisor

Tim explains why too many destinations are “in love with themselves” and are focusing too much on polished visuals and not enough on the process of planning for travel. He talks about why it’s crucial to focus on how you can be helpful to your audience, and he shares how our brains interpret text, graphics and motion to determine what we’re paying attention to. He shares why it’s important to be conscious about the elements of your digital marketing to ensure that a viewer’s attention is being drawn to the right elements.

Victoria Simmons from BVK

Victoria talks about how the pandemic has given BVK a new opportunity to help clients make better sense of data without feeling overloaded through creating a data dashboard and investing in analysts to help interpret the data and translate it into strategy. She shares how the greater access to data and the ability to target consumers individually has transformed interactions and empowered destination organizations to better reach their audiences. She talks about why personalized content isn’t necessarily about having something new to say all the time but is about delivering content that speaks to the listener.

Collaboration and a Renewed Focus on Local Residents

As these extraordinary leaders shared, a key recurring theme is that so many of their organizations found new life and new purpose through the pandemic by collaborating with local residents and “turning inward” to highlight why sometimes the most exciting and unique experiences happen in our own communities. Another common theme has been looking beyond the top of the funnel and exploring multi-channel initiatives that target people throughout the sales funnel across a diverse range of communications mediums.

I hope you enjoy this first episode of this two-part 2021 eTourism Summit series. Next week, we’ll hear from even more remarkable digital travel and tourism marketing experts from the eTourism Summit to share their insights and experiences.

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes! https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Oct 20, 2021

Karolina Guilcapi has managed private luxury tours since 2006, endlessly promoting a hands-on travel approach. With a background from Johnson & Wales University, a school dedicated to food and travel, she has been deeply involved in the growth of the tourism industry. Specializing in Latin America, Karolina represented her product at countless trade shows, organizations, and events around the world, inspiring travelers to become lifelong clients. She has tasted her way across 40 countries continuously inspecting services, meeting local foodies, and searching out the next morsel to offer in her itineraries.

She treats food like she does travel – an experience that should utterly satisfy you.

In this episode of Destination On The Left, Karolina shares why collaboration with chefs and organizations across the South American continent has allowed her to build a thriving travel business even during the global pandemic. Karolina also discusses why anticipating and addressing travelers’ concerns and needs has become a cornerstone of her work.

What You Will Learn:

  • How immigrating to New York from Poland at age ten sparked Karolina’s passion for travel and exploring new places, and why she focuses her work on Latin American travel
  • Why Karolina chose to start her company, Sated Ventures, and how it has taken off even during the global pandemic
  • How Sated Ventures has carved out a unique niche by focusing on local chefs as guides to the unique flavors, ingredients and culinary history of the region
  • What new skills and talents Karolina has discovered since launching her business, and what challenges she has overcome during the pandemic
  • Why collaboration and being active within the local community as a helpful partner can be a powerful organic way to grow your business
  • What changes, new challenges and opportunities Karolina expects as we begin to return to global travel
  • Why understanding and problem-solving for travelers is a key component of Karolina’s work, and why seeing things from the perspective of the traveler is vital

Creating a Unique Travel Niche Through Collaboration

Karolina Guilcapi is an innovative travel expert who has carved out a unique niche for her company, Sated Ventures, by focusing on the unique culinary adventures and flavors to be found in South America. In this episode of Destination On The Left, Karolina shares why collaboration with chefs and organizations across the South American continent has allowed her to build a thriving travel business even during the global pandemic. Karolina also discusses why anticipating and addressing travelers’ concerns and needs has become a cornerstone of her work.

Transparency, Being Helpful, and Identifying Partnership Opportunities

As Karolina said during our conversation, world travelers often save the South American experience for last, preferring to tour Europe and Asia. However, by leveraging creative partnerships, Karolina is working to change that. Karolina’s organization, Sated Ventures, focuses on the unique dining experiences available in South America and works closely with local chefs, restaurants and other food industry organizations to create unique, once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences for her clients.

By maintaining a tight focus on this unique niche and by working tirelessly to be helpful to her clients and partners, Karolina has been able to organically grow her business even during the unique travel challenges of the global pandemic. This extends to anticipating and understanding traveler concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and working to address them in an empathetic way. Karolina is truly a facilitator whose specialized knowledge of South American cuisine has allowed her business to thrive even during these challenging times.

To learn more about Karolina and her company, Sated Ventures, please check out the contact links below:

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Oct 13, 2021

Melanie Esterhuyse was initially employed as the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of De Doorns Cellar in 2000 when the winery joined hands with local DMO, Hex Valley Tourism Association. As the tourist association could not employ someone permanently at the time, Melanie volunteered to step up and assist them and developed a passion for this rapidly growing industry.

Over the past 25 years, Hex Valley Tourism’s purpose has changed from only serving as an information desk to taking on the role of a true philanthropist and representing the community in a more diverse way. By managing sustainable programs that will successfully and responsibly contribute towards the growth of the local industry and economy, Melanie and the Hex Valley Tourism Association hope to leave a legacy of endurance and steadfastness.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Melanie Esterhuyse about how this podcast has sustained her creativity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She shares how the Hex Valley Tourism Association stepped up to the unexpected challenge and used it as an opportunity to move the organization forward into the future. We also discussed the evolution of the Hex Valley Tourism Association and how it has helped her region grow tourism to a meaningful economic contributor over the last 25 years through creative co-opetition.

What You Will Learn:

  • How the Hex Valley Tourism Association has developed from the three original tourism organizations to the 20 now involved
  • The four central goals the Hex Valley Tourism Association is working towards and how they are faring
  • The creative solutions that Melanie’s destination has used to help them stand out from the crowd
  • How Hex Valley are identifying ways that they can position themselves as unique and different from other similar destinations
  • How the Destination on the Left podcast has helped Melanie, and her team put together a marketing strategy plan for 2022

Creative Marketing

The Hex Valley Tourism Association in South Africa is identifying ways that they can position themselves as unique and different from other similar destinations. PRO of the association, Melanie discusses how they worked on a creative marketing strategy that saw them partner with travel influencers to help their brand reach niche audiences and markets. Melanie also shares how her team created the amazing video content for their social media channels.

Managing Expectations in Partnerships

Managing expectations is critical in a partnership, but how do you set the groundwork for a successful partnership? Melanie explains why clear communication and giving back to the community supporting them is critical to achieving long-term buy-in. We discuss how the tourism association tapped into the community’s collective knowledge to promote their destination and how Melanie is leveraging the popularity of similar wine country destinations to build on recognition and broaden the experience for visitors and offer them even more.

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

Oct 6, 2021

Sherrif Karamat, CAE, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of PCMA. He also serves as President of the PCMA Foundation and Publisher of Convene magazine.

As CEO, Sherrif leads the vision, mission, and promise for PCMA’s global family of brands. He serves the greater business events industry as a prominent business architect, enabling our community to become a catalyst for economic and social progress, organizational success, and personal and professional development.

In his previous role as Chief Operating Officer, Sherrif led the development and implementation of PCMA’s new vision: driving global economic and social transformation through business events. In addition to his responsibilities at the executive level, Sherrif also directed streamlining of PCMA’s content creation and delivery channels into one organization. He oversaw partnership, business services, membership, business development, and technology teams.

As part of PCMA’s growth strategy, Sherrif has led a major data intelligence program and played a key role in the 2017 acquisition of Incentive Conference & Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP).

A leader in the business events industry, Sherrif previously served as Vice President of Business Sales and Services for Toronto Convention & Visitors (Tourism Toronto). He has served on various boards and is currently a director on the Destination International Board of Trustees.

Sherrif is a life-long learner, and in addition to completing his bachelor’s degree and Masters of Business Administration from York University in Toronto, Canada; he has completed postgraduate certificate programs at Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. At Harvard Business and Law School, he completed a program on strategic negotiations for senior executives and a program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one on data intelligence and big data.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Sherrif Karamat, who I met at the Destinations International annual convention in Baltimore, Maryland, and whose insights I hope will inspire you going forward. Sherrif shares his thoughts on the importance of face-to-face meetings and gives an overarching perspective of the business meetings industry’s impacts on a vast range of topics and industries. We discuss why when we meet in person, we solve complex issues faster, how those connections will help form and sustain the meetings industry of the future, and why disruption uncovers new value and brings us into focusing on outcomes rather than outputs.

What You Will Learn:

  • Why the events industry has been sadly missed over the last 18 months
  • The critical flashes of brilliance that Sherrif has found during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Lessons learned on recovery and change and how Sherrif is taking some of them forward
  • How do we create engaging experiences and broaden our reach with technology
  • Sherrif’s thoughts on how disruption will shape the future of the travel industry
  • Why it’s vital to be centered around the people we serve, so they will want to engage with us

Lessons for the Future

When humans are faced with roadblocks, we start to innovate — and COVID-19 certainly threw up a few obstacles! Sharrif and I discuss the lessons learned by the travel industry, including how we can leverage technology to broaden our reach and engage with more people. Sharrif also shares why he firmly believes that in-person events will see a resurgence in the future as people seek out opportunities to forge meaningful connections.

Purpose Driven Outcomes

Disruption can help us uncover added value by challenging the status quo. In the travel industry,
we want to center our events and organizations around the customers we serve and how we are solving their issues or creating value for them that makes them want to engage with us. When we rethink that status quo and shift our mindset, we can bring people together and focus on positive outcomes, not merely outputs.

We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/

 
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