Comments on: World Travel Market: a very bad week for trees

By: Alastair McKenzie

Alastair McKenzie — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:32:00 +0000

A bit of an update. I was reminded of this post a couple of weeks ago when I saw this http://blog.poken.com/2011/01/31/poken-included-in-mcis-annual-meeting-of-worldwide-event-planners/ post on the Poken blog. Watch the video. We could really use the document collecting feature... not to mention the jeans! I'm beginning to feel a bit evangelistic about Poken (perhaps I should ask them for a commission deal!). It's ridiculous that every day of the week, social media-enthusiastic travel PRs and media are gathering in trade events, product launches and press briefings.... and not using technology like this. It would only take a few forward-thinking PRs to put Pokens (is that the plural?) in goodie-bags to start building a little critical mass.

By: Abi from Inside the Travel Lab

Abi from Inside the Travel Lab — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:06:28 +0000

Not just WTM, I’m afraid. On several work trips I’m presented with hefty tomes and glossy magazines. Out of politeness (if nothing else!) I’d like to keep them but airline weight limits (and my back) have clearly defined limits…Either a memory stick – or even a press section on a website (both airport security and my feeble frame can stretch to a stack of business cards if you want to password protect it) would be much better. Lightweight, environmentally friendly, computerized search for details when you need them….Much better!

By: Nikki Bayley

Nikki Bayley — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:49:48 +0000

I was really excited this year to attend Go Media in Canada – and reading up on the website before I went, it seemed to suggest that it would be memory sticks all round for info – great! Of course, the reality was that you’d be often given both a memory stick AND a wodge of info, to the point that when I got to the airport, I was 4kg over the baggage limit… so had to dump brochures, pamphlets, booklets etc etc!
Flinging all that into bin makes me feel bad. I know how much work goes into these things but from a green perspective it makes no sense to give me a brochure which i’ll inevitably have to dump… and also – how useful is it anyway? If I need an image, I need to call it in anyway – just give it me all on a stick in the first place! I’ve decided to say no to Big Paper at WTM, this year. I’ll take cards and sticks – but that’s it. Enough already.

By: Jools Stone

Jools Stone — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:58:27 +0000

Not actually got mine yet, but I first heard about pokens prior to the last tweetup here in Edin about a month ago. Didn’t see many folk brandishing them there to be honest. Maybe there will be a big enough nucleus of geeky people at WTM to wear it with pride, high fiving each other to swap details…or it could just be me..

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:52:01 +0000

Thanks for the comments folks.
Jools, was fascinated by the Poken idea – have you found others with a Poken to share contact details with? It’s the first I’ve heard of it.
Alastair – your idea of an App is a good one, and a low-tech equivalent for those of us without fancy phones. How anyone will get through 2kg plus of trade show bumph is beyond me.
Kailos, I was stunned by that video clip from FITUR! I’m going to post it on Twitter now.. thanks for sharing

By: Kailos

Kailos — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:31:08 +0000

Hi Andy!

I have a post about Fitur called fitur and Dyogenes sydrome talking about the same issue, in my case I took pics of all the kind of people that went to the fair to get free stuff.

I don´t know what this people do with all the posters and stuff…

http://www.tremendoviaje.com/en/2010/01/26/fitur-diogenes/

By: Alastair McKenzie

Alastair McKenzie — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:24:20 +0000

I don’t know if they still do it, but Fedex used to sponsor free mailing for international delegates attending Pow Wow (similar sized convention in the USA) each year.

You could go into the mailing room – and get a couple of jiffy bags to mail brochures back home. The trouble was the weight limit was only 2 or 3 kgs, which forced everybody to discard tons of brochures in a vast heap.

I always used to think how disheartening that must be for the exhibitors who, like you Andy, spent so much time & money producing them and getting them to the venue.

What we need is for World Travel Market / Reed Exhibitions (are you listening guys?) to develop an Android & iphone app so exhibitors & visitors can ‘bump’ smartphones and automatically transfer brochures and other docs.

By: Jools Stone

Jools Stone — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:10:33 +0000

Yeah the amount of waste at these big trade shows is quite sickening, not to mention disheartening for some of the companies producing the stuff. The USB pack is a much better idea definitely. And I’m looking forward to getting my Poken to swap details with others sad enough to have one. http://www.poken.com/web/guest
This’ll be my first WTM, any tips for navigating the maelstrom which awaits me?