Women in Travel Summit 2018

I haven’t gone to many conferences in my life but since I want to get more into the travel space (and get paid) I thought the Women in Travel Summit would be a good place to start and I was right. It was a group of women on the move from starting a blog to blogging for over 10 years. From social media beginners to micro-influencers. There was a lot of talent in a really cool space.

One of the other reasons I was drawn to this conference (or summit) was the location. I had never been to Quebec City and I thought this would be an excellent reason to check it off my bucket list. I had heard many good things about Quebec.

Quebec City has such a cute old town and we were at what they claim to be the most photographed hotel in the world, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. It was such a grand space for the Women in Travel Summit that I constantly felt underdressed. The hotel was so elegant yet not overly fancy in it’s furniture. It was a great combination of old and new elements with all the remodeling that they had done over the years and continue to do.

I learned so much from the sessions but most of all I learned a lot from the other ladies that were attending or sponsoring. I walked away from the summit with a stack of connections that I wanted to nurture and a to do list for my blog and my business.

What’s to come from the summit?

I have been toying with the idea of offering photography workshops and these ladies confirmed that it would be a good idea assuming it was an affordable travel tour. I think so many that I see out there are run by men and really expensive. I would love to be able to get more women comfortable with taking photos for their blog and their social media without having to break the bank. I want to see more women supporting other women. I think too often we were tearing each other apart and not holding each other up. It’s time to come together and change that.

Besides working more with hotels like the Frontenac I would love the opportunity to work with tourism boards. The sponsors of this event included Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Billings, and Portland (Maine). Portland, Maine will be the next location for the summit. Yay! Such a cute little city and the last that I visited on the East Coast when I was trying to finish my 50 state quest. I’m thinking I should return for the summit next year but I’d also love to check out Tbex. I once had a ticket to attend but didn’t end up going. It wasn’t the right time. Sometimes it’s hard to know what the right thing to do it and listening to your gut doesn’t always work.

I knew before going into the conference that I also wanted to work with more brands with my Instagram account. I love photography and I think I’m pretty good at it. I love being able to collaborate but also to get paid. Ha! Isn’t that the dream? To do what you love and get paid for it. I think too often with influencers saying yes to offers of free stuff that we’ve failed to put a value on our time and our services. I think we should all fight for compensation. It’s just fair. We all have bills to pay and they won’t pay themselves.

Women in Travel Summit Tours

If you ever get to Quebec make sure to check out the St Roch food tour or one of the walking art tours. They are wonderful ways to learn about the city. I also took a micro beer tour but the beers up there were just too hoppy for this girl. If they offered a whiskey tour that would have been more my speed.

One of my favorite tours was the wellness tour at Monastère des Augustine. We got to hear the history of the first hospital in Canada and were able to experience yoga in a space dating back to the 1600s. What an experience to have! Talk about combining old and new. I highly recommend a visit for some history or even just for lunch.

If you are a woman in travel or that’s your audience I highly suggest looking into the women in travel summit.

My key takeaways

Most of this I already knew but it was really good to have the reminders.

• How to work with a tourism board or brand. It’s all about relationships not just asking for free stuff. What’s in it for everyone, not just you.
• Work on my SEO and my keywords. Use branded hashtags. Find ways to be found.
• Use Pinterest!! This was one of my most valuable sessions at the summit.
• I need to monetize my blog more with affiliates of things I really believe in that can help someone travel more.
• If we all don’t work for free than we can all get paid.
• No matter how good you are there is always going to be competition so how can you stand out and be better?
• Just because you don’t have 30k followers does not mean you can’t and won’t get the job. In fact, sometimes smaller is better.

Let me know if you have any questions. I might have to follow up with more blog posts on specific topics to delve deeper than just this overview.