The Social Media & Tourism Forum

Content-Strategy-ROI 16th 17th Nov 2011

Southern Sun Grayston, JHB, South Africa 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 industry Grasp of relevant and appropriate social media and social networking platforms for driving growth in the tourism industry both domestically and internationally International 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!

Forum Presenters
Mike Saunders: CEO - DigitLab Kay Walten: President & CEO - Kay Walten Group, USA Akanksha Goel: Chief Enthusiast - Socialize, Dubai Marvin Tumbo: Founder - Social Light Media, Kenya Janalyn Froese: Online Marketing Manager - Singita Game Reserves Wesley Lynch: Founder & CEO - Realm Digital Steuart Pennington: CEO - South Africa The Good News! David Ryan: Managing Director - Rhino Africa Franois Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSI Andr Strauss: Digital Strategist - Tisco Media Angus Robinson: Executive Creative Director - Native Jacques Maritz: JM Media Facilitators Ruth Ibrahim: Co-Founder & Managing Director - Yellow Mesai, Tanzania Maggie Verster: Social Media Enthusiast For more information sponsorship & exhibition, please contact Ola Odejayi: (ola@gptrainingsa.com, +27 72 550 0562)

The Social Media & Tourism Forum

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?

Who will you meet?

Tourism Professionals Tourism marketing staff Tourism Strategists Travel & Tourism Professionals Hoteliers Lodges and Game Reserves Tour and Safari Operators Destination Managers Public Sector Tourism officials Tourism Associations and Authorities Digital Marketers Social Media Strategist Bloggers and Content generators

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! Dont miss it! Ola Odejayi (@olaodejayi) Programme Director +27 11 781 6222 +27 72 550 0562 ola@gptrainingsa.com

Join the conversation on twitter: #smtourism11

Dont miss the Post-Conference Workshop - 18 Nov 2011

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 Marketing - m2@globalprospectus.co.za Design - www.mustardseedcreations.co.za

Chief Executive Officer - Dhevaraj Pillay Auditors - Russell Bedford SA (Jhb) Inc. Legal - DA Morris & Associates

Forum Agenda - Day One

The Social Media & Tourism Forum

12:00 - 12:45 >> Angus Robinson: Executive Creative Director - Native Demystifying social media threats to Tourism!
Angus will present on: Why integrated communications are the way forward Moving from a closed brand to an open experience Case studies to represent how social media, mobile and other digital channels have fundamentally changed campaigns Using social media and digital channels to deliver experiences before, during and after travel

8.00 >> 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! Africas Global Competitiveness Benefits for Tourism!
Steuart will provide an overview of Africa & South African global competitiveness from a tourism perspective. He will focus on: SAs Global Ranking in the premier League of Nations Where SA does well/poorly Where SA has improved the most/slipped the most SAs Tourism Scorecard Africas growing competitiveness

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 Digital Exploring the Benefits of Social Media for your business using Facebook Applications

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 todays competitive advantage wont be tomorrows. 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. Mikes 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.

Wesleys presentation will focus on: Identifying the latest social channels and platforms for your business Exploring Facebook Applications Web Engagement Management (Increasing fan engagement through Social Media) Various Case Studies How to use Facebook applications effectively!

15:00 - 15:45 >> Franois Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSI Travel & Tour multi-media - Participate to be Popular
Your multi-media travel strategy Segmenting your market Creating 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 success

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.

Ever 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!

ForumGeneral Discussion & Delegates Inputs

Chief Executive Officer - Dhevaraj Pillay Marketing - m2@globalprospectus.co.za Design - www.mustardseedcreations.co.za Auditors - Russell Bedford SA (Jhb) Inc. Legal - DA Morris & Associates

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

Forum Agenda - Day Two

8.00 >> Refreshment/Connect/Network

The Social Media & Tourism Forum

13:30 14:15 >> Franois Muscat: Internet Marketing Consultant - WSI Crisis communication in the era of Social Media!

8.45 - 9.00 >> Welcome & Day One Recap (Forum Moderator) 9:00 - 9:45 >> Andr Strauss: Digital Strategist - Tisco Media Web Analytics & Optimization for Hotel, Travel and Tour Industry 9:45 - 10:30 >> Kay Walten: President & CEO - Kay Walten Group, USA Tourism Content Marketing- The Medium & Message in the Age of Participation

8 Steps to handle a crisis Nothing is local anymore How to survive the crisis Online PR strategies to diffuse the situation How to use Social Media in crisis Do it now - Your blog is your pressroom Claim your social properties: Use them to your advantage What employees need to know about Social Media Listen to everything with your River of Information

Kay 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.

14:15 15:15 >> Akanksha Goel: Chief Enthusiast - Socialize, Dubai Social Media best practices for event and festival promotion!

10:30- 10:45 >> Chat/Tea/Coffee/Snacks 10:45 - 11:30 >> Marvin Tumbo: Founder - Social Light Media, Kenya imeasure- Tourism + Social Media = ROI?

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 visitors event experience. Also drive innovation in event marketing as the speaker deep dives into global case studies & best practices.

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, payper-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.

15:15 -15:30 >> Connect/Tea/Coffee/Snacks 15:30 - 16:15 >> Maggie Verster - Social Media Enthusiast Staying sane with/despite Social Media (SSSS)

How do you manage your brands 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 Africa Social Media for Tourism Success Stories: Rhino Africa Safaris Case Study! General Discussion & Appreciation

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

Close of Forum
In the age of digital participation, you dont just do different things, you do things differently
Chief Executive Officer - Dhevaraj Pillay

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 Marketing - m2@globalprospectus.co.za Design - www.mustardseedcreations.co.za

Auditors - Russell Bedford SA (Jhb) Inc. Legal - DA Morris & Associates

The Social Media & Tourism Forum

Post-Conference Workshop 18 November 2011
8:30 >> Registration & Morning Refreshment 9:00 >> Introduction & Welcome 9:10 >> 10:00 >> The Marketing Mix Understanding the need for marketing Marketing tactics and options Marketing for tourism businesses and destinations Social Media as marketing tool for Tourism How social media fits into a marketing strategy What is social media and social media marketing Review of effective social media networks for tourism

Explore Tourism Social Media Marketing

11:00 >> Coffee/Tea/Snacks 11:15 >> 12:15 >> Effective Facebook strategies for Tourism businesses Facebook for business Is Facebook your target audience? Facebook plans and strategies for tourism businesses Twitter for destinations and tourism Taking Twitter apart what is it really and how do I use it Best practices for Twitter and how to make it work for you Using twitter in tourism

13:15 >> Discussion & Feedback

Meet the lead facilitatorKay Walten

Kay 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.

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 Marketing - m2@globalprospectus.co.za Design - www.mustardseedcreations.co.za

Chief Executive Officer - Dhevaraj Pillay Auditors - Russell Bedford SA (Jhb) Inc. Legal - DA Morris & Associates