ARCHIVES: 2016 Concurrent Sessions

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Please note: the following program information is from the 2016 conference. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 / 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

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2016 Video Marketing Trends

​Luke Stafford, Mondo Mediaworks

​As online video continues to grow, where does it fit into your overall marketing strategy? Videos are a fun, impactful way to communicate with your past, present and future customers. In this session you'll find new, inventive ways to use the medium to broaden your customer base and strengthen your brand. Even if you have a $0 production budget, you'll hear helpful information about leveraging YouTube and social media video opportunities. You'll also see some benchmark video projects featuring Vermont brands.

Real-life Bricks and Social Mortar: Online Chatter to What Really Matters

​Tori Carton, Hotel Vermont

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Learn to create a content strategy that is integrated across your social platforms to attract more visitors, greater loyalty, enthusiastic ambassadors, organic word-of-mouth campaigns, and a larger share of new and return guests. Dare to take the #hashtag to a new level: engage new customers, raise brand awareness, increase website traffic, and enable direct business. Take home platform demographics, best practices and ideas to start a truly integrated campaign of your own, and learn to apply the best metrics to measure your success. Platforms covered: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Google+, LinkedIn.

Social media management is time consuming and is often an afterthought that can play out in a haphazard manner.  Detailing real-life case studies and proven methods to produce real business from virtual efforts, this workshop will engage the audience with actionable tips and inspiration that can be used to boost integrated campaigns for any size or type of property, and close with a discussion of how to measure success on social platforms. 

​Trends of New England Travelers and Use of Online Information

Jonathan Lhowe, VisitNewEngland.com;  Karen Rose Brown, VisitNewEngland.com

​​​In the past twenty years VisitNewEngland.com has seen the New England.com online environment progress from, “what is the internet?” to “now I have to do what?” The online options to research, plan, and purchase lodging and activities continues to expand. Meanwhile the travelers are segmented by age and interests and there is never a large enough marketing budget to take advantage of the many online opportunities. We will explore the demographics, trends and online advertising options available to market to travelers planning trips to New England so marketing budgets can be divided rationally for the best results.

Research Track Sponsored by ​Expedia Media Solutions

What is Your Niche within the Vermont Travel Industry? How to Identify, Package & Promote It!

Pam Knights, Pam Knights Communications

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​What makes your property unique within the Vermont travel industry? What do you offer visitors that helps you to stand out from the competition? How do you identify those unique selling points and integrate them consistently into your messaging and marketing? How do you brand and package what you offer and what marketing tools do you use to reach your target audience? Join branding specialist Pam Knights to gain insight into these important questions, and get ideas for developing more creative marketing programs. Drawing on Pam’s extensive experience promoting the fresh food movement, she'll focus on identifying and promoting local food and farm connections and area activities for lodging, dining and agritourism properties. She’ll address how to create travel packages that go beyond “romance and golf," to include educational programs such as cooking and craft classes, and seasonal events. She’ll talk about how to use these promotional activities to entertain and educate your guests, gain media coverage, and fuel your social media posts and email marketing campaigns.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 / 3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

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​A Roadmap for Practical and Tactical Communications Solutions

Nicole Junas Ravlin, People Making Good PR

Content Creation. Storytelling. Owned media. Tapping influencers… today’s marketing is buzzword bingo. It’s one thing to talk about telling your story and it’s another to actually do that in an effective way. This session will provide a roadmap to effective communication and storytelling that will result in an engaged customer. We’ll focus on using owned media outlets and how to tell an effective story about your business: what are the keys to really compel someone to make a purchasing decision? How do you communicate that? What do you do after you communicate that? And, how does this translate to your overall earned media approach? Participants will leave the session with an outline of steps for effective corporate communications storytelling and some ideas on how to measure their campaigns successes.

Five "Secrets" to Exceptional Customer Service

Carrie Gendreau, The Training Connection

Customer service can mean the difference between a “good” organization and a “superior” one.  Our guests may not demand perfection, but they do desire satisfaction.  They want to feel important.  Our guests may not remember what we say, but they will remember how we made them feel.  Our customers crave an “experience”.  Our success will be a direct result of delivering this satisfaction.  
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In this interactive workshop we will explore the “secrets” of identifying and delivering this satisfaction that will not only keep our guests, but delight them with exceptional customer service and keep them coming back.  

Creating Successful Trails

Sara Granstrom, Middlebury Tasting Trail and Lincoln Peak Vineyard; Jessica Savage, Vermont Trail Finder; Megan Smith, Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing

From wine to cheese, snowmobiling to paddling, birding to marble – there’s a trail for that. Trails provide itineraries for visitors, drive traffic to remote sites, and strengthen partnerships between businesses. In this workshop, Commissioner Megan Smith of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing (VDTM) will discuss the growth of trails in Vermont. Since taking the reins at VDTM, Megan has overseen the development of the Vermont African American Trail, the Byways Itineraries, The Palate to Palette Project and Google Maps for both group and individual travelers.  Megan will share ways to bring groups and non-profits together to attract travelers to authentic Vermont experiences. Sara Granstrom of Lincoln Peak Vineyard will share her experience creating the Middlebury Tasting Trail with several other businesses. She’ll talk about how the group started with the basics—forming the group, publishing a rack card, and creating a website. The goal of the Middlebury Tasting Trail is to draw more visitors from both in- and out-of-state to Middlebury, and the Trail is having such an impact on Lincoln Peak Vineyard and other participating businesses. Sara will describe the successes and challenges of the Middlebury Tasting Trail as well as lessons learned, plans for the future, and alternative ideas that others may want to consider. Jessica Savage of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation will introduce Trail Finder, a free, interactive mapping site designed to help Vermont and New Hampshire residents and visitors explore outdoor treasures. Trail Finder has won national awards and is being used as the model for other statewide trail mapping information sites. Come learn how you can be a part of this exciting project!

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 / 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

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How Storytelling is Working in Vermont 

Howard Tietjen, Madden Media; Jasmine Bigelow, Stowe Area Association 

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Building upon the success of last year’s presentation, Digital Marketing through Storytelling, Howard Tietjen and Jasmine Bigelow will review the story-telling campaign designed for Stowe, Vermont. Jasmine will share her experience, results and future plans as well. 

How and Why You Should Attract the International Traveler

Scott Johnson, Travel Market Insights, Inc.; Sue Norrington Davies, Tour Mapper; Lori Harnois, Discover New England

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The International Market is the fastest growing segment for our industry.  Learn how to attract these visitors who are known to book in advance, stay longer and spend more.  This panel will show you the research trends and teach you how to take advantage of the resources available.  

Research Track Sponsored by ​Expedia Media Solutions

REPUTATION

Are You Seeing Your Online Reputation Big Picture?

Diane Barr, ImageReps, LLC

According to a TripAdvisor study, businesses is the hospitality and tourism sector planned to spend 65% more on reputation management efforts in 2015 and even more in 2016. However, the term online reputation remains vaguely defined and many businesses are not sure where to start, yet alone how to manage or measure their efforts. This session will provide attendees both an overview of online reputation management, and specific tactics that they can apply to their business. Key takeaways will include: How to ensure your business is visible to consumers online; Where to gather information about your business and make it meaningful; Who is talking about your businesses and how you can create meaningful conversation; What data should your use to evaluate and improve your online reputation.

LEADERSHIP

Be a Better Leader

Christina Miranda, Redpoint Marketing PR, Inc.

Being a leader is more than just telling people what to do. Successful leaders inspire others, earn respect, delegate responsibly, and manage conflict without drama. Developing your leadership skills will make your relationships – with colleagues, supervisors, and subordinates – more productive and effective. Heck, it might even help you get your kids to do their chores without whining. (OK, no promises on that one). This session will help you discover your own “conflict personality,” reveal easy-to-break habits that are causing you grief, and provide a new lens to use when managing relationships. Come learn tips and strategies you can put into practice immediately to gain more respect and better motivate those around you.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 / 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

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Branding.  Don't just exist...really LIVE.

Christina Miranda, Redpoint Marketing PR, Inc.

​There is a reason why branding is often referred to in medical terms…as in… revive a brand, breathe life into a brand, this brand is on its last legs, a brand’s DNA, give that brand a shot in the arm. Branding is like breathing. If you’re alive, you’re doing it…even when you’re not thinking about it. This is scary because that makes it easy for you to run your brand on autopilot. Why should you care about that? Because brands that run on autopilot aren’t getting the most out of life, and there is a direct correlation between the strength of your brand and the strength of your bank balance. Come learn some simple yet powerful changes you can make – to your operations, your marketing, your customer service, and more – that will have a huge impact on your brand…and your bottom line.

Vermont Arts and Tourism: Expanding Your Marketing Reach

Kira Bacon, Vermont Arts Council; Jennifer Williams, The Chronicles of Conifer; Luke Stafford, Mondo Mediaworks

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Tourists come to Vermont for many of the same reasons we choose to live here. Our culture is steeped in spectacular fall foliage, skiing, craft beer, and an abiding creative spirit. Regardless of their reasons for visiting, it is likely that just around the corner tourists will find an art gallery, a foot-stomping bluegrass concert, or a glass studio with live demonstrations. Having an arts encounter while visiting Vermont can both deepen the experience and increase the chance of a return visit. Visitors to Vermont want to take something home as a unique memento of their time here. Why not a work of art, or the memory of a chamber music concert in a restored opera house? Your business stands to benefit from incorporating nearby arts gems into its services and marketing - from your website to regional itineraries to your list of amenities featuring "Made in Vermont." During this presentation, we will: Offer tools and resources to help you inform guests about the arts and culture scene in Vermont; Demonstrate ways that the Vermont Arts Council can help you promote arts events at your property or service; Illustrate how the Arts Council is using social media to promote the arts and tourism in Vermont and introduce ways for you to benefit by connecting with our campaign.

International Visitor Research – A global shift!  Its Impact and Potential for New England and Vermont

Scott Johnson, Travel Market Insights, Inc.

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Global outbound travel is now a major part of the world’s economy.  International travel to the U.S. over the past ten years has significantly outperformed growth in domestic travel, and led in helping the U.S. recover from the economic downturn. The International Visitor Research session will focus on the global shift in international travel.  Attendees will learn how International travel has shifted for the U.S., New England and Vermont.  The session will highlight how international visitors are “regional” travelers.  Discover who your international guests will be in 2020 and the outlook for inbound travel to the U.S.  Garner Insight on visitor demand, how they gather information and book travel.

Research Track Sponsored by ​Expedia Media Solutions

Experiental Tourism

Eloise Beil, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum; Beth Krusi, Montshire Museum; Nick Monte, The Chocolatorium-Village Peddler; Todd Paton, Rock of Ages Granite Quarry

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No matter where they come from, today’s visitors want more out of their vacation time – they want to participate in or be a part of something that’s memorable and unique to your destination. Discover the importance of creating a visitor experience; how experiential offerings can increase your competitive positioning and enhance sales. Learn how other Vermont businesses have successfully integrated experiential activities at their destinations.