Comments on: Lessons learned from the Valencia blog trip

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:54:32 +0000

Keith, it would be great to meet up with you sometime. We should make sure we are on the same trip. Maybe Scotland??

Sarah, thanks for your insights. I’m looking forward to following some of the next trip from a distance – I’m sure you guys will have a fantastic (if hectic!) time. Good to see that you’ll be there to keep Terry in order as well One of the biggest surprises for me (and like you have pointed out great news for the organisers) is that the #blogtripf1 noise is still continuing, 2 weeks after the event. That is a powerful message to those tourist boards who are considering similar initiatives.

John, you know what us bloggers are like; we live for flattery! Appreciate the comments, and I look forward to your write up too. Will I support the Dutch? I’m pretty neutral about it; happy that two of the best teams have made it to the final (unlike the usual negative Italian advance). Hoping for a good game.

By: JohnONolan

JohnONolan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:25:24 +0000

Fantastic write-up once again Andy (you’re going to get sick of me saying that soon). I’ve just finished up a very similar piece myself discussing what I learned from the trip, which I’ll be publishing on Monday

Have a great weekend mate!

(Hope I can count on your support for Holland on Sunday too!)

By: Sarah Lee

Sarah Lee — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:40:11 +0000

Great piece Andy, providing a good overview of the trip. I’m going on the second Valencia blogtrip next week so it will be interesting to see how this one develops based on Land of Valencia’s recent experiences with #blogtripf1 (although a couple of weeks to learn everything, make sense of it and act on such learnings is probably a little too much too soon).
I take you’re point about time on this trip, but having been on numerous press trips I have to say this is par for the course. You very rarely have more than an afternoon to yourself (if you’re lucky) and have to fit in checking emails and other activities around the itinerary – usually very late at night when you’re supposed to be sleeping! Looking at some of the comments here I think this is where travel journalists used to working in this way take a different perspective to bloggers. A journalist is rarely able to spend time on press trips writing up their story, invariably leaving it instead until they get home again and they can also be stymied by packed itineraries leaving them little scope to go it alone.
However, as you have highlighted, this is where you get creative and find a different angle to the same story. I know unlike most bloggers, journalists get paid for their final story, but just because you have to wait a week or even a month to write it doesn’t make it any less creative or interesting.
What is telling however is the immediacy and the scale of the buzz which #blogtripf1 created, which from what I can tell isn’t going to die down soon, thus creating a wealth of great content and information on the destination that will last much longer than a story in a magazine or paper. Great news for the hosts but also good news for bloggers associated with such an event.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:10:34 +0000

Sounds like an excellent time. Maybe someday I’ll have the chance to meet you on one of these.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:08:44 +0000

Diego, hope to see you again, and be sure to tell me if you come to London!
Clare, as we spent so long eating it was no surprise – almost back to normal now
Ayngelina, you’re absolutely right. There are many good things about such a trip, but it’s not a holiday

By: DIEGO

DIEGO — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:34:27 +0000

GREAT…SEEYOU IN 2011… BLOGTRIPF1…DIEGO

By: ayngelina

ayngelina — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:03:58 +0000

Great overview. I’ve never been invited on a press trip but I can imagine it could be challenging at times.

By: Clare Appleyard

Clare Appleyard — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:36:06 +0000

3 kilos in 5 days Andy? Wow, that’s quite impressive in its own right

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:45:24 +0000

Thanks for all the comments.

Karen, they are two important points as you say. To be fair to the organisers of this trip, they were honest from the start that this was a first step for them and very much a mutual learning process. They got so many things right and were very eager to take on our feedback regarding flexibility. I’m sure the next trip will be even better.

As for the opportunity cost of a blog trip, it’s always a real consideration. I guess where my calculation is different to yours is that I’m not running my blog as a direct revenue earner, and as a result spend little time on site maintenance (it probably shows!) But my paid writing can be scheduled to fit my own plans, and I was able to write my blog posts for paying clients and complete my commissioned articles before I left, leaving a clear few days. I also took calls while travelling and was able to respond to clients as normal during the trip. Ok once in a while, but not something to do every month.

So was there an opportunity cost for me? In spending less time at home with my wife, yes. But there were positives for the development of my own business in terms of networking and raising my profile that I would say were worthwhile – and I’m away from home far less than I used to be when I had a ‘real’ job!

Clare, I think you have it exactly right. Blog posts have their place to provide the richer descriptive content and storytelling. There’s a place for each form of media. As for all the fine dining, I put on over 3kg in the five days in Valencia; that tells its own story.

Jimmy, Melvin and Victoria, thanks for your kind words. Meeting you guys and the rest of the group and sharing best practices was, as you say Victoria, perhaps the no.1 highlight and benefit from the trip.

Thanks to all for your comments.

By: Clare Appleyard

Clare Appleyard — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:14:30 +0000

What a great review Andy, and you’ve raised some great points. The thought of doing a trip like this a month sounds wonderful, but when you put it in the context of taking away from your paying job (so to speak), time away from your wife/family and so forth – these trips can clearly be stressful in their own way.

That said, it must be wonderful to see so many places (which you can then highlight to return to at a later stage and spend more time on) and dine on such fine fare – again, giving you an idea of restaurants to return to and dishes to re-sample.

For instant updates, Twitter and Facebook are absolutely the way to share real-time information, pictures and events – but the blog reviews are great for meatier information and more pictures!

Thank you for sharing Andy!