It’s the last day of the World Travel Market event at Excel today. I went yesterday and loved it. Nothing like having a meeting with a wonderfully exuberant American women from the Texas, Chicago, Florida or Las Vegas stands talking about all things ranch and festival and city and then strolling over to the Africa section and quietly chatting about elephants with people wearing desert boots, no make-up and khakis. It’s the whole world under one roof. There were even some animals this year in the Abu Dhabi stand:-
This year there appears to be a greater interest in blogging and vlogging and social networking in general within the travel industry and consequently there were proper allocated events for “tweet ups” and conferences involving bloggers. GREAT – in the past when I’ve introduced myself as a blogger at WTM, everyone has looked blank and it’s obvious that they know I’ve been invited by my friend and haven’t a clue what I’m talking about and clearly know nothing about the travel industry.” Then when they ask me what sort of stuff I write about I slightly panic and wonder if I should remove the post I’ve just written about “furry muffs” or some other inappropriate topic or even quickly delete the whole thing. This time I was able to discuss my recent blog trip to NYC and the Disney stuff I”ve done and it was great – I handed my card with my elephant bottoms on left, right and centre but had to advise them to only check out the travel section, otherwise they might stumble upon furry muff blog posts again and be too scared to carry on reading. I have amassed a wonderful selection of business cards in return from all round the world and am currently working out how to get to the Maldives, via Thailand, Cambodia, Las Vegas and Zambia.
There was a travel industry party to go to after the event as well which was fab. I had a lovely time. One man who I was chatting with told me he thought I was an “old soul” which I took as a compliment until this morning when it has occurred to me that perhaps he meant I was an “old sole” – the shoe or even fish variety – neither of which are a good thing in any way.
Got back to find my daughter had left me a message:-
Very odd. Not at all clear where or what the “disgusting” arrow was referring to. There was nothing there – although it was actually pointing at me.
janelle
November 10, 2011heh he…lovely post. be careful of those “safari chaps” who talk about “old souls”….xxx j
Family Affairs
November 11, 2011WHY??? I like being an old soul with an elephant’s arse x
James Chetwode
November 14, 2011I’ve just found your elephant bottom card, thanks for popping by our stand I love your blog, thank god I’ve never had to go house hunting with my mother.
James CI
Family Affairs
November 14, 2011Thank you and great to meet you – will look at your camp international stuff with my son at some point!