Phoenix Tweet-Up!
Blogging/Journalism — By Chris on September 11, 2009 at 11:59 am
Much has been written about Twitter, but for those who haven’t used it, the microblogging site can seem like a waste of time. I’m a Twitter fan (although not as much as I once was), primarily because the service does allow you to connect with like-minded people.
I’ve “met” countless travel bloggers, as well as those in the travel industry, through their Twitter updates. The next step? Meeting them in person, of course! In Rome, I met the gloriously fun Christine Cantera, aka MissExpatria, who showed us a lovely wine bar and trattoria as well as first-class gelato. So when our Phoenix plans were set, I sent out a note looking for “travel tweeps” to have a “tweetup.”
While Phoenix doesn’t have too many travel tweeters, the one who did respond was a great one: TomTravel2, aka Tom Lewis, a travel agent and blogger who has more than 5,000 followers. He brought along his co-worker, Alliance Travel Partners owner Judi Walker (also known as @alliancetravel). I brought along my husband, who goes by @DonFaustPhoto.
Our lunch, at Arcadian Farms in Scottsdale, was as fun as I expected. People in the travel industry are great conversationalists as they are always either on their way or just back from interesting places. As a rep for high-end clientele, Judi’s trips are particularly exotic – later this month, she’s off on a yacht trip to the Galapagos.
Our conversation (over excellent salads) ranged from best cell phone plans abroad to the economy’s effect on travel to the state of the Mexican tourism industry. And of course, we also talked Twitter. Tom has become almost a celebrity among his fellow travel agents; at the annual conference of Virtuoso agents, he was sought out because people had read his tweets. A warm man who greets you with a hug, not a handshake, Tom’s not letting it go to his head (as he himself said, self-deprecatingly).
I came away from the lunch happy that I had made not only a contact, but a friend. And that’s the best possible outcome of Twitter, in my view.
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2 Comments
Chris thanks for the kind words about our tweetup! I agree that it is always fun to meet travel tweeters face to face. We see each others tweets and profile pictures often and it is really nice to personalize those associations. The travel community is a fun group of people, and those who tweet seem to be among the warmest when I meet them. Judi and I both loved getting the perspective of the journalism side of the business as we mostly meet suppliers and other travel agents. It was also a pleasure to meet Don. He is a very interesting guy. We will have to tweetup again the next time you’re in Arizona.