Enjoy some post-event dialogue about the Canada-e-Connect conference program and festivities, as blogged by a few savvy delegates:

• Jaime Horwitz
• Daniel Vasquez
• Philip Caines
• William Bakker
• Joe Buhler
• Ian McAnerin
• Marc Tyrell
• Sean Moffit
• Timothy O’Neil-Dunne
• Heather Kirk
• Stephen Joyce

French blogger Claude Benard is a prolific (and popular) writer on the topic of Travel 2.0 and e-Tourism on his excellent Les Explorers website.

Claude writes mostly in French, but he has featured some excellent english-language interviews with an impressive list of e-Tourism CEO’s and operators.

In a recent post on Les Explorers, Claude offers the upcoming Canada-e-Connect conference as a shining example of bringing the public and private sectors together in a single venue to strategize about the future of e-tourism.

Claude mentions the following reasons why he believes that France and other nations should look to the Canada-e-Connect program model as the standard when planning their own e-tourism strategy events:

>> They use Web 2.0 tools: blog, wiki
>> They use Facebook and travel blogs network to make event promotion
>> They have a Entrepreneur Spotlight
>> They have a Student Contest
>> They mix panel representatives from DMO’s and private sector
>> They have a strong focus on social media impact

Claude and I met many months ago through the blogosphere, and Jens Thraenhart (CEC Conference Chair & Founder), met both of us independently also through blogging activity.

Being a part of such a rich wealth of knowledge is very rewarding, and I was delighted to read Claude’s positive perspective on what Jens and the Canada-e-Connect conference team are accomplishing with this premiere event.

William Bakker is the director of eBusiness at Tourism British Columbia (HelloBC.com), and he is also a long-time blogger in the eBusiness arena.

William was kind enough to answer a slew of questions I sent him last week about his work with Tourism British Columbia, and he revealed some really interesting tips and strategies his team is using to truly take HelloBC to a whole new level of engagement and interactivity.

HelloBC has done a wonderful job blending consumer generated content with brand-generated information. The site has amassed an amazing wealth of insider travel information about B.C. by leveraging a variety of social media technologies, and the power of online communities.

Chris Clarke (CC): What strategy did you employ to actually reach out to the travelling public to develop such an engaged team of tipsters and bloggers? What was your internal strategy to get the participation of Tourism B.C . employees?

William Bakker (WB): It all started with Tourism BC staff. We asked a few people to share tips and experiences on a blog, separate from HelloBC in 2005. It didn’t take long before more and more staff wanted to blog as well. It wasn’t hard at all. In 2006, we asked our Visitor Centre Network to participate and some did, providing us with local content from around the province. Consumers told us they loved the authenticity of the content. It forms a nice balance with the official information, so we decided to integrated into our main consumer website and include consumer postings as well.We kicked off the consumer blogs a couple of weeks before we launched the integration this spring. We sent an email to an internal list of consumers who have booked with us in the recent past. That worked really well. When we launched, we already had a great number of entries. Because the blog entries are so well integrated with the rest of the site, we get a large number of visitors to the blog section. It’s addictive. People love to share good experiences, so it’s growing organically.

CC: You have been using Google-generated maps extensively on the HelloBC site, which brings such a rich element to your destination content. What challenges have you experienced incorporating Google-earth into your site? Where do you see HelloBC heading with Google mapping technology in the future?

WB: We originally offered computer generated driving directions from Mappoint. But the web service was limited in its configuration so in some cases, driving routes were suggested that didn’t make much sense. We have suspended this service until a new, better configurable web service will be available.Interactive Maps won’t just be a feature in the future; it will evolve into the way the website works. Everything will have a location based context. The Information Architecture of HelloBC is based on regions , cities and communities. In the future, the boundaries between these destinations will become more and more transparent, through the use of interactive maps. A consumer will be able to plan a trip by just dragging the map around. We’re laying the foundation for this by structuring and geo-tagging our content. It will be an ongoing evolution.

CC: Your Tourism B.C. Flickr sets are an awesome collection of B.C. images, and It appears that many of these are viewer-submitted images. With viewer engagement generally quite low on most blogs and social media sites, what’s been your secret to having such an active Flickr account?

WB: All the photos consumers submit on the blog on HelloBC are also automatically posted on Flickr. As a result, these photos create additional value for us on Flickr with no additional effort on our part beside the initial investment of the integration with the Flickr web service. And you have to join the conversation as an equal member in a transparent way on social networks. One of the things we did was meet with a Flickr user group in Vancouver to discuss how we could approach Flickr. We’re still working on implementing some the ideas we heard from that group.CC: Can you elaborate on the success (or “opportunity”) of your winter photo contest? What would you do to improve a photo contest in the future?

CC: Can you elaborate on the success (or “opportunity”) of your winter photo contest? What would you do to improve a photo contest in the future?

WB: The main objective of last years winter photo contest was to get some first hand learning about User Generated Content so we kept the scope small. Some of the learning was incorporated into the new blog section. Keep an eye out for what we’re doing this year for the winter contest and you’ll see first hand what we’re doing to make it better.

CC: I’ve heard whispers that you are defining your USG strategy going forward to not only include roles for consumers, but also roles for the tourism industry and even B.C. residents. Can you elaborate on some of the challenges you face developing such a multi-layered and ambitious strategy?

WB: We’ve already taking the first steps for all the groups you mentioned. Consumers and residents can submit on our “tips from travelers” blog. Communities can post on the “tips from us” blog. The tourism industry can provide information about their products through the HelloBC Listing Program. Now that all these groups are involved, it’s a matter of learning from what we’re doing today and evolving it further to make it even better.

One of the things we’re going to test soon is running a pilot with a few communities. We will give them access content to the official information on HelloBC for their community to expand the information we currently have. If this is successful, we can scale this out to all communities who want to take advantage of this. We’ve received 5 million visitors on HelloBC this year already, so it’s a great way for communities to connect with potential travelers.

I personally think that HelloBC could evolve into a social network where Tourism BC, the tourism industry, residents and consumers share and connect with new and returning travelers to make it super easy to plan a trip and enhance the experience when somebody is on vacation here.

CC: With so many DMOs looking to add UGC elements to their online marketing strategies, can you offer some advice (or pitfalls to avoid) when attempting to engage the public to solicit destination content?

WB: I believe that User Generated Content needs to be integrated into existing activities. If you just bolt it onto an existing website, you’re missing out on some great opportunities. Also integrate it into other tactics. We’ve sent blog entries in eNewsletters, published in guides and used it in adverting for example. But be respectful of the creators of content and ask for permission and give proper credit.

Secondly, we’re strong believers into ongoing evolution of our tactics by taking small, but frequent steps. This is especially important with User Generated Content and Social Networks because it’s a volatile environment and you have to listen to your community. You might be surprised with what they have to say and they can point you into a direction that you never even thought off. Flickr started as a tool for a multiplayer game for example, and the Craigslist’s business model is almost entirely based on asking their community what to charge for.

CC: Is there something in particular that you are hoping to achieve at the Canada-e-Connect conference?

WB: I’m looking forward to talk to the other Canadian destinations and share learning. And listen and learn, I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks William, for giving us such excellent insight into your innovative practices leveraging social media at TourismBC!

Canada-e-Connect keynote presenter Anthony D. Williams is the co-author (with Don Tapscott) of WIKINOMICS: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Mr. Williams is also Vice President and Executive Editor for New Paradigm, based in Toronto.

This morning I spent some time reading through the Wikinomics website, and I’ve found it to be an exciting resource. In a recent post on their blog, Denis Hancock uploaded a video captured at the Seoul Digital Forum. The piece features Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt defining the term Web 3.0 after being asked the question by an audience member.

From the Wikinomics blog:

His prediction for how the Web 3.0 might play out focuses on a “different way to build applications”… and it sounds a lot like the next evolution of the mash ups concept Don and Anthony wrote about in the book. Key sound bites include “applications that are pieced together”… “applications that are relatively small”… “applications can run on any device”…”applications are distributed virally” (social networks, email)… and perhaps most interestingly:

“That’s a very different application model than we’ve ever seen in computing. Very different from the mainframe era, very different from the PC industry, and likely to be very, very large. There are low barriers to entry, the new generation of tools… make it relatively easy to do, solve a lot of problems, and work everywhere.”

View Eric Schmidt’s live response here:

Destination marketing expert Bill Geist maintains an excellent and very active blog called Bill Geist’s Zeitgeist.

Bill has terrific perspective around destination marketing, and he intuitively believes that more transparency in marketing through social media helps to build trust with visitors and consumers.

Yesterday, the Zeitgeist featured a post reminding that adding authentic, dynamic customer reviews on travel websites simply makes good business sense. And for good reason too:

Excerpted from Bill’s Blog:

“In Tuesday’s Z-News, we opined on the reticence on the part of some destination marketers to allow consumer generated comments on their websites. We, naturally, think it’s a necessary step…but that’s just us.

Minutes after the Z-News was posted, I came across an interesting bit of research (thanks to Ben at the Church of the Customer Blog) that indicates that 77% of businesses that included online consumer reviews are seeing increased site traffic…and 42% report higher average order values.

Just a little more for your pipe…”

Many organizations still resist featuring customer reviews on their sites for fear of negative feedback, but we have to remember that a chance to overcome an objective or solve a customer problem can be a chance to win-over that customer, guest, or visitor for life.

Joe Buhler is a global travel & tourism expert with experience in destination marketing and online tour operations. Joe is a visionary thinker about developments in web based travel, and his blog is consummate playground for thoughts about travel & tourism in the age of Web 2.0.

Here’s a snippet from earlier this week:

8 out of 10 US Shoppers Put More Trust in Brands that Offer Customer Reviews

…reads the headline of this opinion poll conducted by Bazaarvoice and Vizu Corp.

While this particular survey comes from the online shopping world, I would venture a guess that very similar results would be shown in the travel industry.

It’s one more important indicator of the importance and influence of what your customers are saying about your product or service on future buying decisions.

Are you incorporating customer reviews into your own strategies?

Link
Buhler Works [Blog]

Stephen Joyce, Vancouver-based travel trade creative and technology consultant with the Sentias Software Corp. mentioned Canada-e-Connect this week on his excellent Travel & Tourism Technology Trends blog.

Stephen also writes that user generated content is quickly becoming the content of choice for most savvy travellers (Managed Content is dead, long live UGC). And another post sparks some interesting dialogue about the reality of Expert vs. Amateur Reviews in the hotel and travel sphere.

Prior to co-founding Sentias Software Corp., Mr. Joyce was a Managing Consultant with marchFirst, Inc., a large IT Consulting company in Chicago as well as a Creative Director at Communicate.com, one of Vancouver’s premier web development studios.

Stephen and his team have developed a side project at Sentias called the Karma Exchange, a web application designed to promote everyday acts of goodwill. This initiative seems to have been the precursor for Hilton’s “Be Hospitable” UGC campaign!

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.”