Join Gadling At The Travel Blogger Show In Los Angeles

by Grant Martin on

Gadling is going to be headlining at the Travel Blogger Show again this year, this time in Los Angeles, California. The event takes place between September 8 and 9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and is an extension of the American Society of Travel Agents Trade Show, so there will be a modest mixture of bloggers, travel agents and other industrial professionals in the mix.

Talks will cover a wide range of topics, but the part that you won’t want to miss is Don George’s three-hour session on The Essential Elements of Creating a Successful Blog. The session plans to walk through the steps of blog creation from domain selection to content creation and traffic optimization, and there’s not a better person in the community to lead the talk.

Registration for the event is ongoing and includes access to ASTA’s Travel Retailing & Destination Expo. You can check out further details here.

Is the Travel Blogger Show worth your time?

by Grant Martin on

The market for travel blog conferences is quickly starting to saturate, with the Travel Blog Exchange, Travel Bloggers Unite and the Travel Blogger Show now available for any wayward writer looking to network and learn more about the blogging community. Remaining this year is the Travel Blogger Show, an arm of the The Trade Show (largely geared for travel agents) that’s held in Las Vegas this September 11th.

Knowing full well that a blogger’s budget is limited and that quality and relevance matter, I took a moment to ask David Appel, CEO of Tripatini and show organizer about some differences that TBS might have over TBEX or TBU:

How is the Travel Bloggers Show different than TBEX?
“Tripatini as an online travel community and blog attracts a much broader, more inclusive audience than TBEX, to begin with – we’re not just bloggers but also travel industry and regular travel enthusiasts, from basic backpacker to hyper-luxe. Add to that the fact that our other main event co-sponsor is the American Society of Travel Agents, which brings a lot of travel trade into the equation and lets us take an approach that speaks not just to all those fun and doughty characters we’re so fond of in the travel blogosphere — along with those who want to be them — but also business people, public relations folks, and more.”

What can aspiring writers hope to learn at TBS?
“We’re aiming to provide a little for everyone, whether you’re a blogging newbie or a seasoned veteran. We had a great lineup at our first conference last year in Orlando, including the likes of Chris Elliot, Matt Kepnes, and – well, Kim Mance of TBEX, as it happens. And this year we’re shuffling the deck a little, with not just Gadling on board but also stars like George Hobica of the highly successful AirfareWatchdog and Wil Klass of SpotCoolStuff. They’ll be offering their own takes on what every blogger needs to do or do better, such as SEO and monetization; finding new audiences; taking it viral; how to best use blogging as a business person to promote yourself or your clients; and how to survive and even thrive in the fast-evolving blogosphere of the future.”

So there you have it, TBS delineated in two succinct ways. Come out to visit your favorite bloggers — we’d love to see you.

[flickr image via Laser Guided]