I was in New York on Jun 26/27 to attend the annual TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange) conference. I had heard much about the first one held in Chicago in 2009, so I knew I had to attend this one.

The event was attended by 300 travel bloggers and PR representatives. The friday night was a dedicated opening night party hosted by Weber Shandwick Travel & Lifestyle at the Omni Berkshire Place. The saturday and sunday were the conference days with a wide range of speakers and panel topics represented.

Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere.

The highlight of TBEX

Reflecting on my notes I would have to say that I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know, or that I could have found out online, from the talks. That is beside the point. The greatest highlight for me was good old fashioned networking.

I got to meet so many people that I know from my online world. It was great to be part of such an interesting community of people, especially seeing that most of us don’t get to mingle with our work peers all that often.

I knew some people just from their online avatar. I have chatted with many people who were there online. I had met a few people previously, such as Jodi Ettenberg and Gary Arndt, who I met in Bangkok earlier this year. The blogger I have known the longest online is Johnny Jet, who was as friendly and likeable as he comes across in his newsletter. I first stumbled upon his site way back in the year 2000, which is an eternity in the online world.

Yours truly and Johnny Jet.

Tacos!

I love Mexican food, so I was happy to see that a taco truck was hired by Diamond PR. It actually turned out to be an inspired move, as it was the fastest way to clear out the convention room.

Taco Truck.

Best Networking Tool

I thought it was ironic that in a room full of tech savvy digital nomads, the most popular networking tool wasn’t an iPhone app but the humble paper business card. I recently had some made in Bangkok, not thinking I would ever be able to give them all away. I ended up getting through half of them.

Good old fashioned business cards.

TBEX’11

At the end of the event the location for TBEX’11 was announced. And the winner is…Vancouver. I am very happy about that as I have never been there, so this will be a good excuse to go.

Thoughts on TBEX

The old adage is true that time flies when you are having fun. Everyone I spoke to agreed that the weekend wasn’t long enough. I know it is usually most practical to have conferences on weekends so you can’t really make it any longer. I would though like to see some smaller panels on specific topics, as well as places to chat.

If you are a travel blogger/travel writer and are looking to improve your game and join a great community, then you should consider coming to Vancouver in 2011. Bring plenty of business cards.