![\"IMG_4928\"](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2636\/5831390242_c35961db91_z.jpg\")
<\/a>\nMe and Mike Barish at the bar at TBEX opening night speaker’s party. Hockey jerseys from Canada Tourism.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
I realize these opening paragraphs makes me seem like a tiresome namedropper; let me assure you that I’m not saying these things to impress you. I’m mentioning these people because they were present at TBEX 1o. Some of them were there this year, too, Jim Benning and Mike Yessis from World Hum, Grant Martin from Gadling, Spud, again, and Don, and Jen Leo who is a font of good advice and positivity. And plenty of friendly PR people, too, who wanted to meet you and talk to you about your blog and if the destinations they represent were a good fit for what you do.<\/p>\n
TBEX 11 was full of flaws and there was plenty to criticize, but my expectations were very much in check. I didn’t love SxSW either, though I enjoyed the time I spent hanging out with Sheila Scarborough and the World Hum crew, and Austin Hill and Kelly Goodman of Travellious, and… BlogHer in Chicago made me absolutely crazy, but it was the first time I got to meet Eileen Smith, who hosted me in Santiago, Chile, earlier this year, and I believe it was also the first time I met Jessica Speigel — those are two people who I can not believe I did not always have as friends, so much do I adore them. To get to TBEX 09, also in Chicago, right after BlogHer, I roadtripped with Kelly and Peter Carey across the US, the three of us strangers on a big adventure. I still think so fondly of that trip, of the big diner breakfasts, of “So, are you here for the glow in the dark mini-golf, then?”, of a lot of laughing and the great landscapes of the west.<\/p>\n
I will not go back to BlogHer or to SxSW. I left BlogHer because it refused to cough up any opportunities and while I did find moments of enjoyment in SxSW, I was mostly overwhelmed by the crowds. If my finances permit, however, I think I will return to TBEX in 2012 because in spite of the flaws and frustrations I have experienced during my involvement, TBEX is an event that has me heading home, three years in a row, with opportunities I did not know I’d received while I was standing in the crowded, noisy halls.<\/p>\n
I’ll admit to engaging in some back channel sniping about TBEX in the lead up to the conference this year. I was on the organizing committee, a role that felt like it was in name only. I participated in three conference calls, that was it. I did not actually organize anything. There were some other things that happened that I found frustrating, mostly because more than anything, I wanted TBEX 11 to be awesome. And you know what? It was awesome. For me.<\/p>\n
It was hard for me to read the critiques of my sessions, but that’s what happens when you sit at the front of the room. One write up said that “even Jen Leo couldn’t save the panel” that I was on, that the critic was looking for concrete takeaways. I remember seeing a comment that was kind enough, but also said that they “didn’t know why I was on that panel.” I have to admit, I didn’t really know why either, but I loved participating, it was fun.<\/p>\n
I have wanted concrete takeaways too, but it has taken me some time to learn that I will not get them\u00a0 in conference halls. They appear afterwards, sometimes much later, years later, even, when a tiny conversation evolves into something much bigger over time. The sessions are a mere introduction. They’re the opportunity to say, “I enjoyed your session about Thing 1, but really, I would love to hear more about how you deal with Thing 1a. Can we trade email?”<\/p>\n
Conferences are about seeds and unknown things started . I am happy to sit on the floor in a back hallway to play the uke and sing songs with Andrew Evans and Natalie Taylor, to have lunch with Kim Rogers, to wander the city with Leif Pettersen, to drink coffee with Keith Savage, to hear what Gary Arndt is scheming up next, to have Doug Mack in the carpool home, to hear stories from Marilyn Terrell. These things are just as valuable, no, more so, than sitting in a hall expecting answers because they are conversations that allow us to exchange questions.<\/p>\n
I no longer go to conferences looking for answers, I go looking for connections. It is work to find them, and I am bad at it, and a little bit lazy at making new friends; it is so much easier to be with people I know. But tying all these little strands together, finding like minds to talk with, and being open to the idea that TBEX 11 is about possibilities, that changes what I bring home. I don’t even know, now, today, what I took home from TBEX in Vancouver, but I trust that something good will come of a conversation, a passing introduction, a side remark. That knowledge allows me to overlook the flaws.<\/p>\n
I’ll be candid, I’d expected much less from TBEX 11. That was, I think, somewhat uncharitable of me. TBEX has been a magnet for people I absolutely can not get enough of. It’s a playground for ideas about travel and blogging. I had an amazing time, and while I couldn’t for the life of me tell you, this minute, what I got out of it besides time with friends, old and new, I know I got something. I’ll let you know when I find out what that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I feel fairly certain that the reason I sit (somewhat unhappily due to a nasty bout of flu) in this lovely hotel is because I attended TBEX last year. In the lobby of the cramped New York hall where TBEX 10 took place, I met a delightful young woman, Teresa Faudon,\u00a0 from the Austria Tourism … <\/p>\n