Let the Good Times Roll at the NATJA Annual Conference

tmadmin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:34:41 GMT

The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) will hold its annual conference in Cleveland, Ohio, next week—June 2 to 5, 2009. As well as a great list of speakers, the conference features an evening at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Featured speakers include:

• Keith Bellows, editor in chief, National Geographic Traveler

• Joe David, author of Gourmet Getaways

• Christopher Elliott, travel blogger and National Geographic Traveler’s reader advocate

• Kevin Fliess, CEO and co-founder, TravelMuse

• Fran Golden, travel editor, Gatehouse Media

• Jeffrey Lehmann, host of Emmy-winning PBS series Weekend Explorer

The schedule includes sessions on: getting your foot in the door with an editor, surviving new media, tips on workflow for editorial photography and how to grow your business. There is also the opportunity to tour the city and attend a destination shoot and critique.

NATJA is a professional association of writers, photographers, editors and tourism professionals dedicated to redefining professional development for the travel industry. Members can register for the conference for a special rate of $475.

Be sure to say hello to Kevin!

Preparing for DEMO

tmadmin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:42:07 GMT

In just under two weeks, Team TravelMuse (Kevin, Eric and I) will head to San Diego to take part in our version of the Olympics—[DEMOfall '08|http://www.demo.com/DF8PTR], a launchpad for emerging technology. Although we haven’t been working on this for four years, it’s certainly taken a huge amount of planning and practice to get ready for this prestigious event.

At DEMO we will launch our latest product, the most complex release our product and engineering teams have tackled so far. With no challenge too small, they have worked diligently towards the deadline of Sept. 7. As we approach the final lock-down stage, Bugzilla has certainly been getting quite a workout! We’re really excited to show off our new product and let you try it out for yourself.

Kevin and Eric (TravelMuse Co-Founders) are our demonstrators at DEMO. We joke with our PR team about how many times we can get the word DEMO into a sentence. We’re going to give you a demo of our demo for DEMO. Anyway, Kevin and Eric are doing well with learning their scripts and can be seen listening to iPods (are they getting in the Michael Phelps zone?), clutching cue cards and muttering away to themselves. Coach Nathan has them on a regular practice schedule, and Eric, every now and again, gives me impromptu recitals.

I think we have compared this experience to a mix of memorizing your lines for a school play, to practicing the tricky sections of your piano recital, to being in a competitive race. Basically, you have to know your game plan and practice, practice, practice.

Meanwhile, I’ve been taking care of the logistics with the DEMO team, writing product marketing copy and finalizing press kits and give-aways.

Later this week Kevin and Eric will have a live audience with our company—definitely the toughest crowd yet! Everyone has been working hard to produce their piece of the puzzle and is counting on them to show it off at its best—which I’m confident they will.

Team TravelMuse DEMO schedule:

Saturday, Sept. 6: Arrive in San Diego and rehearse in the evening.

Sunday, Sept. 7: Demonstrators’ meeting and set up booth #24.

Monday, Sept. 8: Watch other demos and give demos at booth #24.

Tuesday, Sept. 9: Team TravelMuse presents at 8:52 a.m. and gives demos at booth #24.

If you’re attending DEMO, we’ll see you there, otherwise you can follow us on Twitter @[TravelMuse|http://twitter.com/TravelMuse], and we’ll post more to the TravelMuse Company Blog soon.