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A free bi-monthly series of 60-minute online conversations with eTourism Community friends and colleagues sharing insights into the current climate and future direction.

Why? Because for more than 20 years, eTourism Summit has looked beyond today to “See Tomorrow” in an intimate setting that stimulates exchanges and ideation. We’re dedicated to providing a year-round forum to facilitate a continuing real-time exchange of ideas in this fast-changing environment. We hope you’ll join us as both presenters and audience.

See you there!

Upcoming Conversations

Size Doesn’t Matter: How Your Destination Could Benefit from Launching a Paid Event Passport

June 23, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

Building a paid passport with Bandwango doesn’t require a million dollar budget. In fact, paid event passports have been launched by destinations of all sizes and have become some of the most popular and successful use cases with Bandwango clients. In this webinar, two destination partners will share how these passports worked to measure engagement for their events. Plus, we’ll break down the ways Bandwango clients use the funds generated from these passports to power fundraisers and merchant engagement.
 
Panelists:
  • Andi Day, Executive Director of Long Beach Peninsula
  • Kendra Davis, Event Coordinator at Visit College Station
  • Emilie Harris, Director of Marketing Operations at Bandwango
 

 

Register Now

Past Conversations

To start watching, click play on any of the videos listed below.

Team Reconstitution: Your Organization’s Future

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

COVID. A dirty word for Tourism practitioners… and yet, an unparalleled opportunity. For Destination Organizations, this is a time to re-evaluate, reassess and reconstitute. How will you ensure your organization’s structure and talent align with the needs of your community today and into the future? As the rate of change accelerates for all of us, join this provocative discussion on the future of work, community engagement and optimizing our human capital.
 
Moderator: Tammy Blount-Canavan FCDME, Executive Vice President & Principal, Fired-up Culture
 
Panelists:
  • Chuck Davison, CDME, President & CEO, Visit SLO CAL
  • Gretchen Hall, CDME, President & CEO, Little Rock CVB
  • Paul Nursey, President & CEO, Destination Greater Victoria
 

 

Harnessing Social to Fuel Travel Recovery

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

Harnessing Social to Fuel Travel Recovery
The pandemic has provided many DMOs the opportunity to explore new ways of inspiring and connecting with travelers. The MMGY social team will host top travel marketers from around the world to discuss how they’ve been able to leverage both established and emerging social media as the go-to source to help ignite travel recovery and drive economic growth.
 
Moderator:  Brandon Billings, VP, Social Media and Content Strategy, MMGY
 
Panelists:
  • Kim Sidoriak, Chief Marketing Officer, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism
  • Matt Sheaff, Director of Communications and Stakeholder Outreach, Rhode Island Commerce
  • Courtney Hersl, Content Marketing Manager, The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel
 
Sponsored by MMGY Global

 

Better Strategy Starts with Better Data: How to Become a Data-Informed Tourism Organization

Wednesday, May 5, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

In this interactive session we will discuss how to identify, measure, collect, report on, and most importantly act on your destination’s data and analytics. After the onslaught of COVID-19, we’ve all had to throw out the playbook and look for new, more timely metrics to make decisions.  Tourism organizations making clear data-informed decisions are leading our industry and will continue to do so. They’re also getting more out of their marketing improving ROI and growing market share. We’ll walk through how to make the most out of all your data, and where you can start improving today.
 
Moderator:  Joseph Dabbs, Sales Director, Advance Travel and Tourism
 
Panelists:
 
  • Jacquelyn Blackwell, Digital Strategy Manager, Advance Travel & Tourism
  • Daniel Leifeld, Business Development Manager, Key Data
  • Dan Rowe, President & CEO, Panama City Beach CVB
  • Robb Wells, President & CEO, Visit Beaufort, Port Royal and Sea Islands
 
Sponsored by Advance Travel and Tourism and Key Data

 

Destination Optimization Summary from Miles Partnership
Download PDF

Recovery Requires More Than Marketing

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

With the recovery from COVID-19 gaining momentum, marketing to drive demand is only half of the equation for bringing visitors back to our markets. The destinations that recover fastest are going to be the ones that can inspire consumer confidence to push interest into action. Miles Partnership has supported hundreds of DMOs to look beyond their own channels to the power and reach of major platforms from Google to Facebook, Apple to TripAdvisor. CA Clark and Kim Palmer will summarize three strategies your DMO can take to create the critical holistic balance between marketing and optimization to support your destination and local businesses. We’ll talk with Nerissa Okiye, Tourism Director in Martin County on Florida’s East Coast and Cabinet Secretary of Tourism Jen Paul Schroer from the state of New Mexico about their experiences in leveraging these strategies to support the community – the tips, lessons, and suggestions from the ‘front line’ of destination marketing during this crisis.

CA Clark, VP of Technology and Kim Palmer, Destination Optimization Program Director are two of the industry’s most experienced and well-known authorities on the trends and challenges facing DMOs, as well as the ever-changing opportunities across platforms such as Google in the travel industry. CA and Kim lead the development of the Destination Optimization Program and each brings decades of experience working around the world with destinations and their tourism and hospitality partners.

  • CA Clark, VP of Technology, Miles Partnership

  • Nerissa Okiye, Tourism Director, Martin County Florida Office of Tourism & Marketing

  • Kim Palmer, Destination Optimization Program Director, Miles Partnership

  • Jen Paul Schroer, Cabinet Secretary of Tourism, New Mexico Tourism Department
     

Sponsored by Miles Partnership

Metrics Don’t Equal Strategy: The Rise of Destination Intelligence

Wednesday, April 14, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

 

It is the ‘Golden Age’ of data in the DMO industry. However, this bounty of insights and information has arrived at a challenging time; while the need for destination intelligence has never been greater—the budgets to invest in and sustain those resources have reached historic lows. Join Madden Media’s Matt Clement and a panel of DMOs for a frank discussion on how the pandemic and societal challenges have shaped the role of destination intelligence for the DMO industry. How should DMOs tailor their approach to research and destination intelligence? Which information streams are critical and which are ‘nice to have’? How can destination intelligence platforms supplement the work of a research director or help make up for the loss of that FTE on staff? How can destination intelligence platforms make sense of the data ‘noise’ and enable enhanced decision making, more effective communication and improved advocacy efforts? Join the discussion for upfront answers to these critical questions as well as insights on how to best utilize destination intelligence to prepare for the coming recovery.

Moderator:
Matt Clement, Managing Partner, Madden Media

Panelists:

  • Matt Borud, Marketing & Innovation Administrator, Idaho Department of Commerce
  • Kalene Griffith, President/CEO, Visit Bentonville
  • Brett Stawar, President & CEO, Visit Port Aransas

Sponsored by: Madden Media

Taking a Closer Look: There’s Nothing Like Having 20/20 Vision in 2021

Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

Many books will be written. Historians tell us that the world will be seen as ‘Before Covid’ and ‘After Covid.’
One year after everything stopped, it’s clear that this interruption was a defining moment. As the bottom fell out after 10 years of record growth, what are the new questions and who will answer them? What do DMOs need to ask themselves: teams, stakeholders, and communities?

Moderator:
Will Seccombe, President, Connect Travel

Panelists:

  • Valerie Bradley, Vice President of Marketing, Visit Macon
  • Justin Bresler, VP Marketing and Business Development, Visit Denver
  • Liz Mabe, Digital Marketing Director, Discover Puerto Rico
  • Jackie Saunders, AVP of Marketing, National Harbor

How an Evolving Marketing Strategy Drives Value-Based Visitors to Your Destination

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

Let’s face it. 2021 continues to be the year of change. As marketers, we’ve implemented our strategic vision, however we find ourselves pivoting to adjust to the changes within the ever-evolving marketing landscape. But one thing remains constant – our goal of attracting the highest yielding visitors to our destinations. Join Visit Tampa Bay’s Chief Marketing Officer, Patrick Harrison, Gulf Shore & Orange Beach Tourism Advertising Manager, Morgan Barna and Epsilon’s Vice President of Travel & Tourism David Chastain as they share with you how to best create an “always-on” marketing strategy.

You’ll learn:

  • How a consistent digital media strategy drives positive outcomes
  • New strategies for reaching individuals with a means to travel and how to prioritize these value-based visitors
  • How Gulf Shores & Orange Beach was able to pivot and succeed through impacts of COVID-19, natural disasters and more
  • Insights learned from Visit Tampa Bay’s recent hosting of Super Bowl LV

Moderator:
David Chastain, Vice President of Travel & Tourism, Epsilon

Panelists:
Morgan Barna, Advertising Manager, Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism
Patrick Harrison, CMO, Visit Tampa Bay

Sponsored by Epsilon

Balancing Resident, Sustainability, and Tourism Business Needs: Risks & Rewards

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 | 1:00 pm ET

Leading up to 2020, more and more destinations struggled with – and introduced new approaches to managing – excess demand. At their core, destination organizations exist to strengthen quality of life and sustain the very things that make a destination appealing were at risk. As the world moves towards recovery, destinations are once again tackling the issue of effective management. This lively discussion will dive into differing views on the approaches, as well as the risks and rewards.

Moderator:  Steve Paganelli, Head of Destination Marketing, Americas,TripAdvisor

Panelists:

  • Amir Eylon, President & Partner, Longwoods International
  • Cathy Ritter, Director, Colorado Tourism Office
  • Jennifer Wesselhoff, President & CEO, Visit Park City
  • Kalani L. Ka‘anā‘anā, Director of Hawaiian Cultural Affairs & Natural Resources, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority

Sponsored by Tripadvisor

See the Forest AND the Trees: Top Learnings From 2020 as Guideposts for 2021

Moderator: Adam Stoker, President & CEO, Relic Advertising + EKR
 
Panelists:
  • Cheryl Shallanberger, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau
  • Robb Wells, President & CEO, Greater Beaufort – Port Royal Convention and Visitors Bureau
  • Rachel Brown, Executive Director, Visit Durango Colorado

Sponsored by Relic

DMO Data Hoarding and How to Declutter (an industry self-help group discussion)

Clutter is nothing more than decisions you will never make. Hoarding is the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. In our DMO industry, we often hoard data.  We’ve had to justify our existence for decades so we’ve created this fear if we don’t report the same metrics we did last year we may lose our budget.  We experience distress at the thought of getting rid of the items we have in our spreadsheets. There is so much data out there: Marketing attribution, STR reports, Surveys, website statistics, jobs data, relocations…  and tons more. We need to declutter! DMOs are spending too much money and they don’t need everything available. Together we can create a method using the correct insights and best data to make a better case to our stakeholders much easier and more compelling in the future. 
 

Moderators:

  • Ted Sullivan, CMO, Entrada Insights
  • Esra Calvert, Chief Data Advisor, Entrada Insights

Panelists:

  • Zeek Coleman, Director of Data Intelligence, Visit Savannah
  • Mitch Whitten, Executive Vice President for Marketing & Strategy, Visit Fort Worth
  • Janette Carter, Director of Marketing & Communications, Visit Tampa Bay
  • Andria Godfrey, Vice President, Longwoods International 
 
Sponsored by Entrada Insights