Free Idea: Podcaster-in-Residence Saves Hawaii Tourism?

I have always loved the concept of artist-in-residence or writer-in-residence, like our client Lannan supports. It is an altruistic gesture in most cases, a generous soul or organization that supports a creative person in finding her/his muse, or voice.

Alas I am a Capricorn and many roads lead back to business in my mind. I was at a meeting today with Robin Graf, Stacy Keen, and Nancy Daniels at their hotel, The Wyland Waikiki. We were talking about PodCamp Hawaii and we were agreeing how every blogger/podcaster is a "travel blogger" when in Hawaii. This place is like no other in the USA, and there are stories to show and tell literally every where you are.

So I had this great idea! What if a hotel sponsored a podcaster-in-residence?

At first I thought for an extended one month stay.
Posting 2-3 videos a week, capturing the moments, the stories, the guests, the staff - in sum the personality of the hotel. But in this case, it would be not exclusively about the podcaster finding her muse, but also about creating media for the hotel. The Hawaii hotel industry is feeling pain right now. We've had two airlines go out of business and the price of oil aka plane flights has gone up. Hawaii also is just coming out of a massive expansion and upgrade of capacity, and plenty of people complain about the high rates.

Then I Thought About a Rotating Podcaster-in-Residence.
What about inviting several podcasters to spend 4-7 days in your hotel? And post 2-3 videos? You would then get a diverse collection of styles, both cinematic and content-wise. You could leverage the audience of several name-brand podcasters, instead of just one.

Naturally, I am Biased Towards Video Bloggers.
What's not to love about video? Especially if you are not the one doing all the shooting, editing, encoding, and posting. He He.

Radical Cherry on Top: Shared Among Several Hotels & Restaurants
What if someone like the HVCB sponsored this, and had a social media expert plan out the campaign, set up the site and hosting mechanisms, found the right podcasters, etc. and it was all shared among the many? Fewer costs per place, more diversity of content, broader audience appeal. The more I type the more I like this idea.

_What are Free Ideas? They are just that. I have more than I can use, so I am going to be adding Free Idea posts on a regular basis. We all know that as hard as it is to come by a good idea, it's even harder to execute. So if can, can! If want our help, contact us.

Do You Want to Help Launch PodCamp Hawaii?

Background
Shane and I have been podcasting since Oct 2004. We have given talks, blogged and podcasted about it, and of course have delivered over 640 episodes of Beach Walks. It has taken on average two to three hours of every day.

Through the podcasting (and now Twitter etc) networks, we have met amazing people who are our neighbors as well as very distant friends. Our techies complain about the echo chamber, about the people who don't get it, about the missed opportunities. Our local businesses see tourism waning somewhat. They are still averse to much that our geekdom can offer, and we have decreasing visitors and increasing dissatisfaction between the tourists and the locals about their effect on each other and the disproportionate benefits received as well as fees charged.

The PodCamp Dream: October 25-26, 2008; Honolulu, HI
I can imagine a PodCamp event where people come together to learn about a technology that can bridge these gaps, that can let the world see our beauty and experience our aloha, that can listen to our gripes even, and that can elevate us to the stage of importance we truly deserve. One that reaches out beyond the conference attendees, and into the Hawaii we locals know and love.

Please download and read the Fact Sheet PDF (PDF) I posted here as it outlines the many "firsts" that a Podcamp Hawaii can achieve. I want to work closely with the tourism industry. It will create opportunities for attendees and members of the HVCB to collaborate in mutually beneficial ways. It will change our location on the PodCamp map, the internet technology map, and the tourism industry map.

In the UnConference spirit of transparency, I am posting the call for team leaders aka co-organizers here. There's lots more information available, so please contact me if you want to know more.

UPDATE May 27: I will fill in names as we fill in positions.

Here's What I Think It Will Take
Here are the minimum requirements I see as necessary to have a successful event of this kind:

1. I will assume responsibility for being project leader. I imagine this will require at least 5-8 hours a week of my time, for the first three months, increasing somewhat steadily until October.
2. I want at least 6 other committed "organizers" who are willing to provide 3-5 hours a week until the event. I am open to co-chair arrangements as well.
3. We will seek the ongoing assistance of as many "volunteers" as we can find.
4. Each organizer will take charge of a specific area, will supervise her/his volunteers, and will coordinate with me and each other on the master details of the event. The commitment of time and responsibility is most important; we will all be learning on the job.
5. Volunteers will be given specific assignments in bite-sized pieces with due dates. Volunteers will be able to come and go as their interest and schedules dictate.
6. I can assure you I have the interest, the ability, the connections, and the drive to create this large scale event, provided I have a team of 6 other people who are willing to give a solid commitment and who themselves are willing and able to plan and delegate work to our beloved volunteers and sponsors.
7. Here are the 6 key areas of responsibility I see for now, each requiring a team leader:
   • 1 - Communication: will manage both publicity and outreach, will develop a marketing plan to use traditional and new media channels
   • 2 -Venue: will coordinate room assignments, AV & wifi needs, decoration, signage, food service, etc. Kyle Nishioka has agreed to be Team Leader!
   • 3 - Activities & Travel: will coordinate lodging suggestions for non-Oahu residents, will manage the matching of an attendee with an appropriate HVCB member, will help plan social activities, etc.
   • 4 - Sponsors: will develop the sponsorship packet and contact sponsors; will help them deliver what we need to promote them adequately, will help think of ways to get gifts, shwag, and messaging, etc.
   • 5 - Web Site & Media: will manage the main podcamp hawaii web site and related sites on other social platforms; will manage media creation and delivery to support the other teams; will support web editors in keeping the site content fresh and compelling. Shane Robinson has agreed to be Team Leader!
   • 6 - International: will develop a plan for inviting attendees and sponsors from Asia and Europe; will determine what countries we should reach out to, based on available volunteers and connections that we can gather; will determine translation needs for the website and during the event. Matt Olson has agreed to be Team Leader!
8. I will form the LLC to run the money through and manage the legal and accounting details. There will be open book accounting, online, for all to see. Podcamp provides that no one is paid; all service is volunteered free of charge. I will work with all of the team leaders and support them in having the tools needed to get their respective tasks accomplished.

I want to fill these 6 seats by June 1st.

I really hope we have the level of interest to do this - I think it will be an amazing learning opportunity and one Äiwaiwa event!

If we have more than 6 people who are interested, there are more tasks to be organized and I think having a co-chair arrangement is also doable. Please contact me to learn more.

Tourism: Festivals are Powerful Economical Tools

Dan McConnell DDB Worldwide just spoke here at the Hawaii Tourism Authority Festivals and Events conference I am attending (and twittering and blogging too.)

"Upgrading your web site" is only about 10% of what the internet has to offer today. Yet many of our Hawaii web sites are still web 1.0, not 2.0. So that means we have a long ways to go together to compete effectively. Our speaker also teaches at the University of Washington and encourages CEO's to embrace blogging and social media. Dan's company gets it: the most recent blog post is featured on the home page.

Festivals make your marketing dollars go farther.
We are planning an unconference, Podcamp and Wordcamp combined, that we hope to use to bring together the tech leaders from around the world and connect them with locals to share culture and knowledge. We hope the local business and tourism community will collaborate with us to showcase our beautiful state and akamai kama'aina.

The following points help tell us the full story, as festivals and events draw visitors while the internet is the key player in making it happen.

Secret Draws: Beaches, Outdoor Locations, and Information

• Outside the mainland, beach/resorts are the most popular destinations
• Outdoor venues by far the most popular
• Travelers want local culture; what is a community all about?

What more can I say? We have this here in Hawaii, best in class.

Beach Walks has proven this over and over again. People come by searching for Hawaii and they return over and over again because we share a slice of real life - good and bad weather, local people (not just celebrities), local sites (not just perfectly staged sunsets.)

The Internet is Where It's At. Where Are You At?

• The internet is the most influential method of travel planning; can't play it up enough.
• Most travel planning self-serve online.
• Cable and internet are very important to 25-44 year-old group
• 70% of online users also watch TV while online.
• Internet spend increased over 18% from 06 to 07.

Yet we in Hawaii are behind the curve. How many of our tourism, PR, communications, and advertising execs blog or podcast or twitter? Virtually none. (Please LMK if you do and I don't know about it! I want to give you free buzz and free hugs.)

This conference did have online payment and registration, but no other internet follow-up. There could have been follow-up to attendees, reminders or links to maps and parking info, a listing of attendees so we can network with each other, post questions for the speakers, etc.

On-site, no mention of web site resources for the conference. Power point slides were printed and enclosed in our packets which is very helpful to have; however most will be ʻōpala by 6 pm today. They could be posted on online for wider distribution, archival access, for sharing virally, and to practice sustainable green best practices.

Where is money being spent?

• Festivals and events get about 10% of the total marketing spend
• Traditional advertising dollars going down; cable specialty shows garnering higher rates by delivering a targeted audience.
• Outdoor is the million dollar baby; spending is increasing; people like to get messages while they are outdoors.

Dan's final advice? "Be local, think global. Concentrate on the internet."
Since there are no sessions today focused on building internet skills and awareness for the attendees, I hereby offer my skills as a trainer. If you are in tourism and want to attend a program to see how the internet on steroids can help you, please contact me! I will organize it and guarantee you will leave ready to blow your kids' minds about how tech savvy you became.

The time is now. You can learn to use these tools. I personally guarantee it.

Old Media and New Media Working Together

I just love it when this happens.

We do a daily video podcast aka internet TV show called Beach Walks with Rox. Last weekend, YouTube featured us on their Travel channel page. We had over 80,000 views in less than three days. (We will eventually be rotated off this page...)

The episode was about a tree and mulch blessing (or oli in Hawaiian) the was conducted by the Lani-Kailua Branch branch of one of our clients, The Outdoor Circle. It featured awesome chanting by Haunani and ʻIlima Stern of Aloha Blessings.

And a circle it is, as I then sent out a few press releases to local media. Erika Engle, author of "The Buzz" column in the Star-Bulletin Business section, called me for an interview and wrote a really terrific article, ostensibly because of the YouTube story but she delved deeper and we got into an interesting (IMO) discussion about how businesses, especially Hawaiian tourism businesses, can use these new media and social networking online tools.

After I gave her a boat load of examples, she asked, "Why doesn't every business upload their stuff to YouTube?" Great question, dontcha think?

What I don't get is why the online version of the article does not have links to our business website and the the Beach Walks site being discussed. It's easy to do, but traditional print media seem to be "link averse" as if they will lose a site visitor. More importantly, they provide an even better resource by including the link (which creates more customer loyalty) and they always code it easily enough to open in a new window - keeping the main media site alive and well on the viewer's computer.

Oh, and I sure wish I could have left a comment on Erika's page to thank her and add to the conversation. I wonder, does it get lonesome writing without response?? Leave your comment here for Erika and I will send her the link to this page.

But in any case, the article was written well, accurate, and managed to mentioned the many people involved. Mahalo Erika! And mahalo to Mary Steiner, CEO (and blogger) for The Outdoor Circle who emailed this morning after having read the article. Hmm, I wonder if she has a Google Alert that notifies her whenever "outdoor circle" gets mentioned online??

Surfing Tip: Right-click (or control-click) on all of the links in this article if you want them to open in a new window. It's a web surfing power tip that comes in handy frequently.