Social Media and Tourism Conference

The Social Media &Tourism ForumContent-Strategy-ROI…

This is it! The Social Media & Tourism Forum that will enable a networking platform for the much-needed conversation on the potentials social media has for changing the face of tourism in Africa. Our array of speakers will present key case studies, solution driven, practical and engaging presentations, that will intrigue, inspire and challenge delegates, even as social media transforms our every day way of doing things! This forum will demystify and simplify the juicy benefits of Social Media to the hospitality, travel & tour industry! Amongst other key benefits, this forum will give you...

Detailed understanding of how to formulate an engaging social media strategy for the hospitality, travel & tourism industryGrasp of relevant and appropriate social media and social networking platforms for driving growth in the tourism industry both domestically and internationallyInternational best practice for doing hospitality, travel and tour social media and digital marketing campaigns right and keeping it right! Insights into relevant web analytics and SEO optimization!Appreciation of the juicy benefits of Social Media for Tourism from an ROI perspective.A practical “how-to” guide of using social media for proactive and engaging hospitality, travel & tourism reputation management & crisis communication!

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For more information sponsorship & exhibition, please contactOla Odejayi: ([email protected], +27 72 550 0562)

16th – 17th Nov 2011Southern Sun Grayston, JHB, South Africa

Forum PresentersMike Saunders: CEO - DigitLab Kay Walten: President & CEO - Kay Walten Group, USAAkanksha Goel: Chief Enthusiast - Socialize, DubaiMarvin Tumbo: Founder - Social Light Media, Kenya Janalyn Froese: Online Marketing Manager - Singita Game Reserves Wesley Lynch: Founder & CEO - Realm DigitalSteuart Pennington: CEO - South Africa The Good News! David Ryan: Managing Director - Rhino Africa François Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSIAndré Strauss: Digital Strategist - Tisco Media Angus Robinson: Executive Creative Director - NativeJacques Maritz: JM Media FacilitatorsRuth Ibrahim: Co-Founder & Managing Director - Yellow Mesai, Tanzania Maggie Verster: Social Media Enthusiast

GLOBAL PROSPECTUS TRAINING (PTY) LTD.Johannesburg - Tel: +27 11 781 6222 Fax: +27 11 781 6044

Pietermaritzburg - Tel: +27 33 391 4229 Fax: +27 33 391 5722

Chief Executive Officer - Dhevaraj Pillay

Auditors - Russell Bedford SA (Jhb) Inc.

Legal - DA Morris & Associates

Marketing - [email protected]

Design - www.mustardseedcreations.co.za

Who will you meet?

Tourism Professionals Tourism marketing staffTourism StrategistsTravel & Tourism Professionals Hoteliers Lodges and Game Reserves Tour and Safari Operators Destination Managers Public Sector Tourism officials Tourism Associations and Authorities Digital MarketersSocial Media StrategistBloggers and Content generators

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Join the conversation on twitter: #smtourism11

Forum Motivation!

From Cairo to London, Social Media is fast changing the way we engage our world and interact with each other. Media has gone digital and everyone is a participant. Communication options are exploding and information, comments, reviews are instantly and universally available. With the growing popularity and acceptance of social media and social network platforms, the voices of visitors and tourists have never been more powerful. In fact, what visitors and tourists have to say about your brand using social networks is in many ways gaining more credibility than advertisement. Once on the Internet, these reviews and comments have the potential of spreading virally in an instant!

To be sure, the emergence and growth of social media will have a significant effect on the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. For the hospitality, travel and tourism industry, social media platforms are becoming acceptable and unique avenue to promote brands and services, engage visitors & tourists…! Howbeit, the truth is that this emerging social media digital interactive culture presents the tourism industry with both huge challenges and exceptional opportunities. The plethora of options and fragmentation of markets means old school media methods are no longer sufficient! The future of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry will be greatly and significantly influenced by Social Media! Therefore, we need to respond practically to challenging questions such as:

How does the tourism industry leverage the juicy benefits of social media and social networks to achieve desired visitor experience, drive domestic tourism growth and increase global competitiveness? What should the strategy, the message, the channel and processes be?Is it worth it? What is the return on investment and how do we measure success?

This Social Media & Tourism Forum will bring together a pool of innovative and savvy experts both within and beyond the tourism industry, who will provide insightful and practical guide to developing a successful and rewarding social media strategy for the hospitality, travel and tour industry! Don’t miss it!

Ola Odejayi (@olaodejayi)Programme Director+27 11 781 6222+27 72 550 [email protected]

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Don’t miss the Post-Conference

Workshop - 18 Nov 2011

The Social Media & Tourism Forum

http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/smtourism11








Forum Agenda - Day One8.00 >> Registration/Refreshment/Connect

8:45 - 9.00 >> Introduction/Welcome (Forum Moderator)

9:00 - 9:30 >> Opening Keynote - Social Media & Tourism- A Strategic Imperative!

9:30 - 10:15 >> Steuart Pennington: CEO - South Africa The Good News! Africa’s Global Competitiveness – Benefits for Tourism!Steuart will provide an overview of Africa & South African global competitiveness from a tourism perspective. He will focus on:

SA’s Global Ranking in the premier League of NationsWhere SA does well/poorlyWhere SA has improved the most/slipped the mostSA’s Tourism ScorecardAfrica’s growing competitiveness

10:15 - 10:30 >> Chat/Tea/Coffee/Snacks

10:30 - 11:15 >> Mike Saunders: CEO - DigitLab Social Reinvention - How will your business survive the social revolution?Social Technology has thrown many businesses and industries into a state of flux as they feel the effects of this communication shift. Barriers to entry, an influx of new entrepreneurs, new platforms and a change in social interactions have business in a spin to keep ahead of the game and protect their competitive advantage. The fact is that today’s competitive advantage won’t be tomorrow’s. The Internet and social technology will make sure of that. Customers are beginning to choose a digital platform (e- commerce, social media or crowd-sourcing and group buying) to purchase from, search for and comment about your company. The interesting truth is that you can no longer ignore this business shift. Mike’s presentation will help you understand how you can reinvent its products, systems and processes to successfully transition to a new world of social technology and social media.

11:15 - 12:00 >> Marvin Tumbo: Founder - Social Light Media, Kenya Social Networking or Social Notworking? - Tourism and the Social Media Landscape!There is a thin line between social networking and social notworking. Many have launched social media campaigns but only few have achieved the hallmark successes of social networking. The question then is how do we leverage the benefits of social network for the tourism industry? For Marvin, the answer is two-fold. First, is understanding that social networking is fundamentally not about the social technologies that power it but rather the social/conversational culture that companies adopt in this increasingly social space; and Second, it involves a dynamic combination of strategy, leadership, and execution. Martin will give you practical tips for engaging social media and insights into blogging, twitter and a host of other social media platforms.

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12:00 - 12:45 >> Angus Robinson: Executive Creative Director - NativeDemystifying social media threats to Tourism! Angus will present on:

Why integrated communications are the way forwardMoving from a closed brand to an open experienceCase studies to represent how social media, mobile and other digital channels have fundamentally changed campaignsUsing social media and digital channels to deliver experiences before, during and after travel

12:45 - 13:30 >> Network Lunch!

13:30 - 14:15 >> Janalyn Froese: Online Marketing Manager - Singita Game Reserves Developing a Tourism Social Media Strategy - A Practical Case Study!

14:15 - 15:00 >> Wesley Lynch: Founder & CEO - Realm DigitalExploring the Benefits of Social Media for your business using Facebook ApplicationsWesley’s presentation will focus on:

Identifying the latest social channels and platforms for your businessExploring Facebook ApplicationsWeb Engagement Management – (Increasing fan engagement through Social Media)Various Case Studies – How to use Facebook applications effectively!

15:00 - 15:45 >> François Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSITravel & Tour multi-media - Participate to be Popular

Your multi-media travel strategySegmenting your marketCreating your content strategy mix

15:45 - 16:00 >> Chat/Tea/Coffee/Snacks

15:00 - 15:45 >> Jacques Maritz: JM Media Facilitators“Traditional Media vs New Media”— Optimizing the power of media to drive hospitality, travel and tourism industry successEver wonder whether new media (i.e. on-line media) will replace traditional media? Can we still use traditional media for tourism success? How do you optimise and build relationships within media? This presentation will answer the sort of questions. Jacques will provide practical insight into traditional mass media and the how the media functions. He will help you understand what you need to know and do, as a participant from the Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry in terms of leveraging & optimising media exposure. You will get better understanding of how to optimise certain new media aspects, how to compile media data and how to access the mass media for maximum hotel, travel & tourism success!

Forum—General Discussion & Delegates’ Inputs

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Forum Agenda - Day Two

8.00 >> Refreshment/Connect/Network

8.45 - 9.00 >> Welcome & Day One Recap (Forum Moderator)

9:00 - 9:45 >> André Strauss: Digital Strategist - Tisco MediaWeb Analytics & Optimization for Hotel, Travel and Tour Industry

9:45 - 10:30 >> Kay Walten: President & CEO - Kay Walten Group, USATourism Content Marketing- The Medium & Message in the Age of ParticipationKay will present a practical and insightful presentation on how social networks have changed ownership of brand messages. Brands are being defined by its users as much as by the brand owner. Using this change to your business’ advantage is part of a well-defined social media strategy. Different social networks invite different degrees of participation and messages. This presentation will help you understand how to utilize user-generated messages to your advantage to grow your business and market your destination.

10:30- 10:45 >> Chat/Tea/Coffee/Snacks

10:45 - 11:30 >> Marvin Tumbo: Founder - Social Light Media, Kenya “imeasure”- Tourism + Social Media = ROI?It is proven that Social Media delivers Return On Investment and Jason Falls puts it best when he writes, “Eyeball for eyeball social media delivers more cost-effective impressions, clicks, and site visits than any commercial, pay-per-click ad, or news article. Bank on that!” Social Media is word of mouth on steroids and when you add Tourism into the mix, what you have is a lot of conversation shared among friends and with whole world at large about experiences in your country, in your hotel, with your staff, good or bad. And whether you have an official presence or not, these conversations about you are going on and will continue to go on. But with an official presence on social channels, it is important to have clear metrics in terms of what social media is turning over in exchange for the investment in time and resources both monetary and human. This presentation will help you understand the metrics with which to measure your social media investment from an ROI perspective. It will also enable you to better determining not only the investment to put in, but also how to coordinate all your social media activities for desired outcomes.

11:30 – 12:45 >> Ruth Ibrahim: Co-Founder & Managing Director - Yellow Mesai, Tanzania The “pro-active” in Tourism Reputation Management

12:45 – 13:30 >> Lunch

13:30 – 14:15 >> François Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSICrisis communication in the era of Social Media!

8 Steps to handle a crisisNothing is local anymoreHow to survive the crisisOnline PR strategies to diffuse the situationHow to use Social Media in crisisDo it now - Your blog is your pressroomClaim your social properties: Use them to your advantageWhat employees need to know about Social MediaListen to everything with your River of Information

14:15 – 15:15 >> Akanksha Goel: Chief Enthusiast - Socialize, DubaiSocial Media best practices for event and festival promotion!Social media has become an important part of any festival or event. Practices like streaming feeds from Twitter or providing text-to-screen commentary lets audiences participate in events and allows brands to collect feedback. However, there also exist the perils of potential negative feedback exposed to thousands of visitors. This session explores way to handle negative publicity risk & easy to use tools that can be leveraged to enhance a visitor’s event experience. Also drive innovation in event marketing as the speaker deep dives into global case studies & best practices.

15:15 -15:30 >> Connect/Tea/Coffee/Snacks

15:30 - 16:15 >> Maggie Verster - Social Media EnthusiastStaying sane with/despite Social Media (SSSS)How do you manage your brand’s social media strategy across so many potentially important platforms without going crazy? Should you twitter first and then Facebook or should you blog and then Google plus it? This talk will practically look at effective free tools and management frameworks that can help you automate and amplify your efforts without losing focus on what is really important building relationships that sell your brand!

16:15 - 17:00 >> David Ryan: Managing Director - Rhino AfricaSocial Media for Tourism Success Stories: Rhino Africa Safaris’ Case Study!

General Discussion & Appreciation

Close of Forum

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“In the age of digital participation, you don’t just do different things, you do

things differently”









Post-Conference WorkshopExplore Tourism Social Media Marketing 18 November 2011

Meet the lead facilitator—Kay WaltenKay is the President and CEO of Kay Walten Group, a North American Consulting Firm that focuses on social media marketing for tourism businesses. Kay Walten Group works with tourism destinations and businesses to define effective social media strategies within the framework of destination or business marketing plans. Kay has developed an Explore TourismTM Seminar series to empower tourism businesses and destinations through marketing education, networking and collaborative information sharing that is currently on tour in Mexico.

8:30 >> Registration & Morning Refreshment

9:00 >> Introduction & Welcome

9:10 >> The Marketing Mix Understanding the need for marketingMarketing tactics and optionsMarketing for tourism businesses and destinations

10:00 >> Social Media as marketing tool for Tourism How social media fits into a marketing strategyWhat is social media and social media marketingReview of effective social media networks for tourism

11:00 >> Coffee/Tea/Snacks

11:15 >> Effective Facebook strategies for Tourism businesses Facebook for businessIs Facebook your target audience?Facebook plans and strategies for tourism businesses

12:15 >> Twitter for destinations and tourism Taking Twitter apart – what is it really and how do I use itBest practices for Twitter and how to make it work for you Using twitter in tourism

13:15 >> Discussion & Feedback

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