We all look forward to catching up with colleagues (and meeting new ones) at any conference, and we can usually anticipate that conference events, outings and parties will be great times for all.

First and foremost, however, conference delegates want to know that they will be exposed to timely, relevant and intelligent content. Speakers, breakouts, panels—these are the elements that differentiate a good program from a great one.

Today I am posting another excerpt from a recent interview with Jens Thraenhart, Canada-e-Connect conference chair. Jens outlines some exciting early thoughts on the conference program and speakers:

Today I am delighted to post an interview with Tom Wilson, Director of Recreation & Tourism for the Municipality of Victoria County, and Project Co-ordinator for Broadband Solutions for Rural Development.

Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions about his dynamic organization, and he offers some interesting perspective about e-marketing in the travel space.

Enjoy.

Tom, your tourism portal for Victoria County, Nova Scotia is a wonderful resource for operators. You have programmed so many practical tools in your suite of services.

1) Can you give some background or motivation as to how, or why you have developed such a hands-on resource?

TW: Good Research & data has to be the basis for making smart decisions. I wanted to provide the tourism industry in Victoria County with important stats and research to help them make informed & knowledgeable decisions. The portal has expanded over the years to include news, marketing, product development, training and now technology tools. I have included International Tourism News from countries such as New Zealand and Australia as they bring to the table new perspectives & ideas, innovated concepts and interesting web sites designs to attract visitors.

2) Your podcasts with e-marketing experts such as the Tourism Industry Association of NS and A Couple of Chicks e-marketing are a terrific idea. What has been the response from your constituents?

TW: A colleague of mine, Gerard MacNeil and myself developed a project called Moving Forward with New Media. Thanks to him and his staff, I was able to venture into this form of New Media – Podcasts. It has been a great learning experience and valuable one. The response to podcasts has been very favourable and I plan to continue to offer them monthly or more frequently.

3) You maintain an excellent blog on the Tourism Victoria site. Are you the editor of the blog? If so, can you offer some background as to why you started the blog?

TW: Yes, I am the editor of the Tourism Victoria County Blog. I guess I can thank Patricia and Alicia of A Couple of Chicks E-Marketing for helping me venture into this field. Alicia sold me on blogs and social media during her visit to Nova Scotia in April with NS Masterclass series. Blogs provide an excellent forum to share information with others in a brief but to the point format. Tourism VC blog also assists in driving visitors to my tourism portal. I find most of my relevant information in tourism via blogs today. It has become my news channel.

4 ) Would you give us some thoughts about the “state of the province” of online marketing adoption in Nova Scotia? What do think are the opportunities for your constituents moving forward?

TW: The Nova Scotia Dept. Of Tourism has taken great strides with its Google Earth adoption, short videos and its sample, lure and buy strategy in 2007 for www.novascotia.com . Much of this can be attribute to my colleague and fellow Canada E-Tourism Council member – Tanya MacLeod. Many in the tourism industry have embraced on-line marketing thanks to training received from Susan Sweeney BootCamp, NS Masterclass Series – A Couple of Chicks E-Marketing, TIANS, Tourism Technology and many more. We are not however at 50% level yet with on-line booking nor are offering high-speed internet at all accommodations for visitors and targeting & tracking e-marketing. But Nova Scotia is moving forward on all fronts and should reach a number of goals & objectives within two years. E-Marketing and social marketing are evolving all the time. Will we ever catch up ? I don’t know but it is important to be in the game and playing it. There are plenty of opportunities for tourism operators to reap the benefits of e-marketing and to track its campaigns.

5 ) Finally Tom, would you like to share what you hope to get out of the Canada-e-Connect conference program?

TW: Be a part of developing a national strategy – E-Tourism for Canada, meet & network with colleagues across Canada, learn and share experiences on new media & emerging technologies. Come back with new ideas to implement in my region and make us a leader in e-marketing. .

6 ) Any other comments about Canada-e-Connect, or e-marketing in general?

TW: The E-Tourism Council is a wonderful initiative and I see a lot of benefits coming when the strategy is developed and implemented. There are a number of success stories in the travel industry that can be champions and help the industry grow further with Canada’s e-Tourism strategy .ie. Hello BC Travel Blog, CTC travel Blog, Nova Scotia’s sample, lure, buy strategy and much more.

Tom C. Wilson is a graduate of Dalhousie University with graduate work at University of North Texas. He has a Certificate in Leading Innovation from St. Mary’s University, Certificate in Tourism Destination Management from George Washington University, as well Certificate of Community Economic Development from NSCC. He is currently the Director of Recreation & Tourism for the Municipality of Victoria County.

Mr. Wilson is the Project Co-ordinator for Broadband Solutions for Rural Development, Victoria County’s Broadband Project, bring Broadband to 90 plus rural communities. This 6 million dollar project will make the County one of the most connected counties in the world. 85% of the project is completed with the balanced to be done by early 2008. Victoria County has also invested in Broadband Applications with two projects - Enhancing Tourism with Broadband and Moving Forward with New Media.

Mr. Wilson has over twenty-five years of experience working with community groups, public agencies & businesses in rural communities and has extensive experience in project management. Former chair of the North Shore Learning and Enterprise Centre & Victoria County CAP Sites Association, and former member of the Provincial Tourism Task Force for E-Marketing. Nominated by his peers for the National Community Achievement Award with CANARIE in 2004 and TIANS Technology Awards in 2001 & 2006. Member of the Nova Scotia Provincial Broadband Advisory Committee.

Would you like to be featured in an interview? Let me know!

Recently I had a chance to sit with Jens Thraenhart, conference chair and founder of Canada-e-Connect.

We had a lively discussion about the conference program, and Jens shared his thoughts about conference speakers and content, the first ever Canada e-Tourism Awards (and how they are being judged), and a host of other topics including the CEC student contest.

You can watch the entire suite of videos right here on the Canada-e-Connect blog.

First up, Jens explains what sets the Canada-e-Connect program apart from other conferences in the travel e-marketing arena:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…BIG news: Registration went live yesterday for the Canada-e-Connect conference event!

You can click here and head over to the registration page to lock in your spot for Canada’s premiere e-Tourism Strategy Conference & Awards.

The November 7-9, 2007 dates are only three short months away so now is also a good time to book your hotel and start arranging your travel details.

Do you have questions about the conference? Jens, Mimi and Trevor are at your service. If you have any other questions about Vancouver, travel logistics, or anything else for that matter please don’t hesitate to reach me through the blog contact form — I love email!

A year ago I had never heard the term “zeitgeist”. In case you haven’t heard it either, it’s a German word that means “…the spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation”.

Today’s e-marketing zeitgeist is marked with rapid change, ultra-transparency and a new(-ish) voice: the voice of the consumer. Customers are forming alliances and communities all over the internet to share information and expertise. It has become virtually impossible to contest the power of individual voices when disseminated through popular online travel related communities.

There are dozens of examples of travel community spaces that are proving to be both popular and valuable when searching and researching travel. And since I love participating in many travel related communities, I though it would be fun to create a micro-version of a social media “zeitgeist” for the Canada-e-Connect conference host hotel; the Fairmont Waterfront.

I’m local to Vancouver (and I used to work for Fairmont) so I know this hotel very well. I could list all the accolades and awards that the property has received, but one opinion doesn’t much capture the spirit of zeitgeist!

Click over to our Fairmont Waterfront Zeitgeist to see what guests are saying about the Waterfront Hotel through guest submitted images of the property and the latest reviews of the hotel on Tripadvisor.

As I find more online dialogue about the hotel, I’ll add it to the page.

I am very fortunate to be able to introduce Chris Clarke to the Canada-e-Connect project. Chris is a Vancouver-native expert blogger in the online travel and hospitality space, and is the creator of the famous hospitality blog BedJump, as well as his current blog VacantReady.

The Canada-e-Connect blog (www.canadaeconnectblog.com) is separate from the main Canada-e-Connect website (www.canadaeconnect.com), and there is an important reason for that. The blog will document “the making of Canada-e-Connect” with interviews, updates, new developments, etc. while the main website is the hub for the main information, and registration. It will not focus so much on Online Marketing and Strategy Trends in Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality, but feel free to visit my personal Tourism Internet Marketing Blog for that type of information.

We are planning to also offer our new Canadian E-Tourism Council members the opportunity to become co-bloggers. In addition, Chris is not an employee of the Canadian Tourism Commission, and even though we see him almost as part of the Canada-e-Connect team, his views are completely unbiased, un-influenced, and independent. Due to the fact that Canada-e-Connect has so many components and facets, we would like to share our experiences with the world and have you join us for the ride. As Chris told me recently, he will be as inclusive as possible. He may interview speakers, sponsors, join us on site inspections of venues, and much more. In short, we are completely transparent and have no secrets.

And…he also wants to include YOUR views and opinions. So please comment on the posts, and feel free to write him. He may interview you, or post your opinions on the post, if HE feels it is appropriate. In addition, we are launching an Online Community, where everybody - speakers, sponsors, attendees, and even online travel marketers from all over Canada and all over the world can join in the conversation - before the conference, during the conference, and after the conference.

My name is Chris Clarke, and I am delighted to say that I am attending this year’s Canada-e-Connect conference.

I’ve been blogging about hospitality industry topics for about eighteen months on various sites, including my own personal blog at VacantReady.

Through my blogging activity I have been fortunate to meet some terrific people in the blogosphere, one of whom is Jens Thraenhart. Jens is the Executive Director, Marketing Strategy & Customer Relationship Management for the CTC, and he is also the founder of the first ever Canada-e-Connect conference. Many of you probably know Jens already.

Since we’re both based in Vancouver, Jens and I get together once in a while for coffee or a beer (preferably the latter) to discuss our blogs and general goings-on within the e-marketing climate. During a recent conversation, Jens asked me whether I would be interested in writing for the CEC conference blog.

Hmm…an exciting conference program & awards, an opportunity to write about topics I feel passionate about, a chance to meet some of the smartest folks in e-travel marketing, a chance at a free t-shirt…Jens didn’t have to push too hard to get me on board.

So, please allow me to introduce myself as an eager conference co-blogger. Other than being a conference delegate and friend to the CTC, I have no particular affiliation with Canada-e-Connect. This means that I’ll be writing about the conference as an attendee rather than an organizer. I’m pretty jazzed about that.

This week I visited with Jens, Mimi, and the rest of the conference organizing team at the offices of the Canadian Tourism Commission in Vancouver. Naturally I brought my camera with me to capture some of the essence that is the CTC.

So what’s the vision for this blog space over the next months? The below images from the CTC offices helped make that decision a no-brainer:

“Through this blog we hope to Inspire you to attend, and participate. We want to Explore and reveal the conference planning process, and meet conference delegates. And we hope to Tell a Great Story along the way.”

The only way to predict the future is to invent it…

After co-founding Online Revealed Canada, and having co-chaired the first Online Revealed Canada Conference in 2006, I am excited to introduce the premier E-Tourism Strategy Conference in Canada, Canada-e-Connect.

While many Online Travel Conferences address the current issues of e-marketing and online travel distribution, or focus on hands-on training and education, Canada-e-Connect will tackle the future of travel distribution and marketing.

Enough about the present, the Future is now!

We all know what the current issues surrounding travel distribution and marketing are. Disintermediation, channel fragmentation, technology convergence, consumer power – but where are these change drivers taking us and what do they mean to players in the Canadian travel and tourism industry? How can we leverage these trends to market Canada to the world today and tomorrow?

We are now embarking on organizing the first ever Canadian E-Tourism Strategy Conference, Canada-e-Connect.

The event has a few separate components that will make Canada-e-Connect unique in the world of Online Travel Conferences. Held in Vancouver on November 7-9 right after the TIAC Canada Tourism Leadership Conference in Victoria, the event will feature some of the most intriguing speakers in the space, including the co-author of bestseller “Wikinomics”. The conference sessions are focused around the three main elements of the travel distribution life cycle - Consumer Acquisition, Consumer Experience, and Consumer Intelligence

The Canada-e-Connect Conference is held in conjunction with the first ever Canadian e-Tourism Awards. These prestigious new awards recognize excellence in website design, online campaigns and innovation for three sectors: public, private and small- and medium-sized enterprise. Recognition is also going out to travelers by showcasing the best in user-generated content with awards for the best story telling, the best photo, and the best video or short-film. Entries are being accepted from July 15 to August 31.

What makes the Awards competition unique is the fact that entries are eligible from all over the world, but every entry has to market, sell, or portrait Canada or a destination, product, attraction, or experience in Canada. Every entry will be screened to fulfill this requirement, and will receive a “Canada Experience Filter” score on its ability to market Canada , as well as a consumer-driven “Viewers Choice” score, in addition to being evaluated by an expert panel of the new Canadian e-Tourism Council. With Yahoo! Canada as one of our main partners, we will not organize another boring Awards Dinner, but plan to recognize the winners at the Science World in Vancouver, followed by an After Awards Party in historic Gastown. The award nominees will also be showcased at the TIAC Conference during the Awards Gala Dinner in Victoria.

In order to have the industry involved, the Canadian e-Tourism Council was established, which is not a CTC Committee, but a forum of around 50 marketing strategy experts and e-commerce executives from the different sectors of the Canadian Tourism Industry, including DMOs, PMOs, Hotel, Air, Rail, Tour, OTA, Media, SME, etc. This group will be involved in providing advice for the conference, and judging the awards.

Other components of Canada-e-Connect include a half-day CACVB CTC E-Marketing Summit for members of the Canadian Association of Convention Visitor Bureaus during TIAC, a half-day Canadian e-Tourism Council Summit just before Canada-e-Connect, and a Student Competition, to offer Canadian graduate and senior undergraduate students in Canada and abroad, the opportunity to win a scholarship to participate in the first Canada-e-Connect Conference. Students may enter the competition by providing a proposal of a research paper of actual program execution by October 1, 2007 to Canada-e-Connect. The topic is “how can the Internet and new emerging technologies be leveraged to market Canadian travel experiences to the world”. The successful students would be invited to come to Canada-e-Connect, engage in the event, network and learn, and use the event as their final “lab” to complete their project.

New information about Canada-e-Connect, the Canada E-Tourism Awards, and related events and initiatives are constantly updated on www.canadaeconnect.com . In addition, a unique online community that will engage interested tourism marketers in Canada and globally and connect them with attendees and speakers, will be launched shortly.

On behalf of the Canadian Tourism Commission, the Canadian e-Tourism Council, and the staff of Canada-e-Connect, we are looking forward to seeing you in Vancouver on November 7^th to 9^th, 2007, right after the TIAC Canada Tourism Leadership Conference in Victoria, BC.

Jens Thraenhart
Founder & Chair, Canada-e-Connect
Executive Director, Marketing Strategy & Customer Relationship Management, Canadian Tourism Commission