SoMaFusion :: travelogue

It’s a good idea if you are a new company (or even if you are more established) to have very clear goals in mind when making the effort (and spending the time and money) to go to an industry event like a conference or exhibition. And I mean a different industry than your own. We were at the World Travel Market this week so that’s what partly prompted this post – as well as Manolis’ fascination at the absence of some companies that we ‘d expect to have seen there.

Planning ahead and having some ‘deliverables’ (what a horrible term) – or rather knowing why you are there – helps against wondering aimlessly for days and not doing any real work. Let me be clear. I don’t mean signing contracts. I mean realising that some things that you will gain even though intangible will have a lasting effect.

Be visible for existing clients
Let’s be clear. Your clients need the reassurance that they are not a one-off for you. They feel better if they know that you are interested in their sector and not in your own little ivory tower. If you specialise in a sector this is especially important. How can they trust that you understand their needs if you don’t learn about their industry? Being in some of their key events shows willingness to engage, learn and be part of that industry.

Be visible for prospective clients
Digital communications is a relatively new field. Especially if your core audience is small and medium sized businesses (like it is for SoMaFusion) you have to recognise their time constraints. In the current difficult climate they probably don’t have the time to seek you out outside their industry. Being there means that you are involved and you can talk about the issues of the day as they are shaped by the event you are going to. You don’t have to book any contracts (nobody does in these things anymore, people need more time and planning). You just have to be there. Trust me, they’ll remember you.

Check out the competition
Who is out there? Who is present? Who makes the investment of time and effort? These are the people you need to learn from, these are the companies that are working with the same mind frame. Knowing who they are and what they are saying provides insight into how your industry engages with the industry in question. Learn. Make friends. You never know when you’ll get a big contract and you’ll need help from companies and people who have the same principles as you.

Check your rhetoric
Are you sure that you explain who you are and what you do properly for the audience? If the only people that ‘get’ what you do are other digital communications people and you only get a blank stare outside your industry then clearly something is wrong. You need to go back and adjust your arguments and examples. Going to an industry event offers you ample opportunity to do that by engaging with people who are outside your own comfort zone.

Learn learn learn
It doesn’t matter if for example the big travel planning systems are too big for your clients (or too small). It doesn’t matter if the trade exhibitors are only slightly connected or completely unconnected with what you currently do. Ask them questions, ask for case studies and literature (opt for digital copies otherwise you’ll need a suitcase to carry things around), engage, discuss, see what their problems are. They are offering services in the same industry, you never know what lessons you can take.
Try to also learn from prospective clients. How do they exhibit, who are they talking to, what are their problems. If you are observant enough you ‘ll know the big issues of the day very soon and you’ll be able to plan and help in the future.

Be inspired
This is what most companies forget. Seek inspiration in everything – displays, people, events, colours. Take pictures and videos, make observations, use them when you plan your next campaign or when you brainstorm. In other words get out of the office, get outside the confines of your own industry and challenge yourself to see things from the perspective of another industry. You never know what great ideas will hit you.

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Being at the World Travel Market these days we were quite surprised at not seeing any of the digital comms companies and social media consultants we know from Greece. Our portfolio is obviously very much geared towards hoteliers and tourism when it comes to the Greek market (we have a different concentration in the British market) and many of our clients were at the exhibition so we did have to be there. Obviously it’s not just a client – thing, we were there for a variety of reasons but I’ll let Sofia explain that in another post.

What left me a bit flabbergasted was not seeing some of the best Greek digital comms companies there or any social media consultants- especially since most of them have been planning to work under the National Strategic Reference Framework (the EU structural funds) which would allow agencies to work closely with development projects – like for example e-travel solutions projects and get funding from the EU.

Let me be clear – and a bit blunt. The money is quite a lot. The level of investment that will be made into these projects will be quite significant and we have been following with interest all through the summer what the various Greek agencies have been offering in terms of e-booking solutions, communications and digital development projects. We saw such a high level of interest and services descriptions that it’s a bit of a shame that they were not at the World Travel Market to explore their options and ideas both with Greek hoteliers and travel people and with other countries that partake in the EU programme and where present at the exhibition.

For SoMaFusion, being there and discussing new developments and projects with the people concerned shows an interest and a desire for engagement and learning that is quite valuable. Our aim has always been to understand the need and provide the relevant solution and we find that these events help our understanding. And not only that. Our presence at an event that is key to any travel professionals calendar – especially at a time when the financial crisis has everyone worried – offers an opportunity to discuss within a potential clients’ own context. So we went to them rather than waiting for them to step out of their own market to come to us.

And boy was it useful! It’s quite astounding to see people from all over the world sharing similar concerns about world travel and the new expectations out there when it comes to travel destinations. It’s quite uplifting to realise that it’s not just our existing clients who look ahead and want to plan for a more engaged comms model but a lot more people, seasoned hoteliers from Greece and abroad are interested in what more they can do and how they can adapt new ways of doing things to their existing models.

It all certainly gave me a sense that we are going in the right direction.

Sofia will be writing soon about our upcoming projects with two travel solutions outlets in Northern Crete – their businesses involving travel, accomodation, activities etc. – as well as details of the discussions we had with some travel professionals from various countries.

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Manolis and I went to the World Travel Market today – met old friends and made some new ones. In my question “so, how did you find it this year” I heard a lot of “like last year“, “it’s going to be a tough year“, “we only come to maintain contacts anyway” and similar equally subdued comments.

There was a general worried stance that you could almost taste in the air – the financial crisis is making people nervous and nervous people tend to go back to their comfort zone – for seasoned travel destinations that sadly means playing the game based on price rather than quality and engagement.

Still you have some people – and it’s usually a people thing rather than on a company or country level – who look ahead beyond the financial crises and want to be ready and engaged. For them it’s not just a retention issue but rather a qualitative turn towards visitors who are engaged and demanding. Those visitors are the ones who will make a destination better through feedback and ideas.

For SoMaFusion I have to say that it was a good experience. We had some good meetings with existing clients from Crete (more on that later) and met some new people that we’d love to work with. I was quite impressed by some discussions we had with a truly visionary hotelier from Crete who is eager to engage with his customers and business contacts beyond the old ‘brochure and business card’ model towards a more interactive type of communication. These sort of discussions make these events truly worthwhile.

Work and business contacts aside it was a good exhibition I thought with a good mix of tour operators and booking/ travel systems with country and city presences as impressive as ever. Having said that it was as big and as chaotic as ever and I would have loved to see more tech tools to make navigating the exhibition easier – but hey, I’ll write a separate blog post on that one.

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The nature of communication is something we discuss often at SoMaFusion.

Yesterday we spent the evening debating an old favourite of mine – content over form and the ways in which content and its presentation can cause an emotional impact. We ended up – to put it in simple terms – debating how people communicate better.

Manolis – I have to say – has a practical mind which he sets loose when it comes to discussions like these and he goes all theoretical on me. I on the other hand have a tendency to be convinced by examples and I need them in order to be able to visualise the argument. Being a words person I was insisting about the importance of the written word and how it can excite and help communicate. I don’t think we were in total agreement but Manolis was trying to find me a good example.

This morning he sent me this video (our first on YouTube by the way) and by way of an explanation the words below.

Berlin 2009. The ITB Berlin Travel Show – one of the biggest tourism exhibitions. The video is amateurish, accidental. The music is from my home. The people are from everybody’s home. Africa. How is it possible for a few notes to simply excite people’s body and soul. To mentally elevate them. What is the inner strength of this music that manages to stir us up. The Dionysian rhythms, the dances of the ‘possessed’.

Amazon, Palestine, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Black Sea, Epirus and Crete and a handful of dancers with lyra and laouto. Astounding.

We talk about communications. What do you think they are doing?