personal reflections

Five aspects of TBEX11 Vancouver I’ve enjoyed even more than the free beer

1. Connecting with The Points Guy Brian Kelly and meeting Johnny Jet while drinking free Kronenbourg 1664 beer at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

a couple of men smiling at a party
The Points Guy and JohnnyJet at TBEX11 Vancouver Art Gallery

2. Hearing Jen Leo of LA Times, Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere, and Chris Christensen of Amateur Traveler crack witty comments while interviewing bloggers on a live podcast of This Week in Travel. The Peroni beer cost $5, but free pizza on the patio at Cafe Il Nido.

a group of people sitting around a table
Live Podcast of 'This Week in Travel' at TBEX 2011 Vancouver

3.  Learning from Room 77 that my room is on the preferred view side of the Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver hotel for the English Bay water view. Free breakfast in the 25th floor lounge is a bonus.

a high angle view of a city
Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver view of English Bay

4.  Pool party at the Fairmont Waterfront hanging with Jason Elliott of start-up MyHotelGuy.com  – a luxury hotel travel website ‘exclusively for the next generation of lifestyle driven travelers’. The booze was rather expensive at the Fairmont, but I didn’t pay. I think I owe someone some money.

a building next to a body of water
Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver view from pool deck

 

5. And the aspect of TBEX11 way better than the free beer was winning an iPad2 at the TBEX2011 TripAdvisor After Party (while drunk on free beer, eating delicious free appetizers and meeting so many bloggers with sites on all aspects of travel).

a man holding a box
TBEX 2011 Vancouver TripAdvisor After Party iPad prize winner

This post is my blogger homework assignment for the TBEX11 Non-Narrative Writing workshop. This narrative piece was written instead since I did not have an hour of time to hit the streets of Vancouver and create a travel list on Saturday. My feeling, as with the International PowWow in San Francisco last month, is the incredible value of these conferences results from the contacts made in the social settings of parties. The links provided in this post lead to some knowledgeable travel bloggers and hotel related blog contacts I made during this Travel Blog Exchange 2011 Vancouver conference.

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5 Comments

  • gpapadop June 12, 2011

    Congrats you lucky ______ 🙂 Looks like a great time!

  • The Points Guy June 12, 2011

    Congrats on the Ipad! If you wan’t to unload it, maybe I can give you some points or something 🙂

    It was great meeting you and catching up. I’ll try to say hi before I head out today. Safe travels!

  • Dawn (LyonSHARE) June 12, 2011

    I think I had something to do with 1. Room 77 shout out (hope you took photos!!) and 2. expensive drinks at Fairmont (you don’t owe anything). Fun times!

  • Ric Garrido June 13, 2011

    Hi Dawn Lyon. I was giving you anonymity, but an anonymous PR Professional must be an oxymoron.

    Thanks for the drink. I really didn’t know who paid, just that I hadn’t. Last night another PR person bought me a beer and fries.

    I’m waiting for those TBEX blogger disclosure guidelines. At this rate I will need to add a PR ‘Links for Drinks’ page to my website :).

  • Chris (Amateur Traveler) June 30, 2011

    I don’t drink beer, so things I like better than free beer would not be setting the bar high enough 🙂

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