Collaborative Learning

Sharing Success (and Failure) Stories from the Field

Before the 2010 Adventure Travel World Summit, the ATTA will have logged months of work with numerous companies tracking successes and failures concerning the defined Collaborative Learning topics. These companies will cover the difficulties and challenges in a 15-minute opener that stimulates Delegate minds and helps to set contexts for subsequent group discussions. Each round table discussion, led by your executive-level peers, will encourage other Delegates to share and explore the real-world case studies that are presented, along with the chance to introduce their own experiences. Through sharing, Delegates will gain insights on timely subject matter, gain a better understanding of peer issues, increase networking opportunities and gain practical tools, insights and actionable plans.

IDEA SWAP!
New Product Development Hatchery

Real-world field reports will include new product concepts already successful and/or facing challenges. Teams will gather to focus on new product and niche development approaches and concepts that help organizations differentiate themselves, ensure heightened levels of specialization, to stem commoditization, anticipate shifting consumer needs, introduce new concepts, and support active exchanges of idea. Joint efforts will result in a take-home menu of product development concepts – relevant to the entire adventure travel supply chain.

~ Moe Carrick – Moementum – CEO, Moementum

SEO Releases 101

Customer acquisition is becoming more and more of an online battle. How many sites do you advertise on? How much are you spending a month on Google AdWords? How good is your SEO team (can you even afford an SEO team)? If you feel overwhelmed trying to make your site rank high on Google then stop, take a breath, and check out the power of SEO releases.

With one well-crafted release companies with the smallest of budgets can have their brand rank on page one overnight. You’ll learn to create a high-ranking SEO release that will act as a mini-brochure and drive traffic to your homepage; learn the basics of how to determine appropriate keywords, craft interesting messages for your consumers, write the ‘release’ in an SEO friendly way and discover which wires are best to push your release on. The end result: you will experience an increase in immediate traffic and the long-tail result is your site will rise in organic ranking as well.

~ Alexia Nestora, Lasso Communications

Leading the Way into Sustainability

The integrity of destinations and the well being of its people is at the core of most adventure travel businesses. The adverse effects of climate change, biodiversity degradation and poverty are not distant concepts, they have direct impact on this business. Tourism, and particularly adventure travel, has an opportunity to be part of the solution by engaging in and promoting sustainable practices.

The challenges: confusion in the market around sustainability, limited financial benefits, no increase in demand for sustainable offerings. This session will address the issues of defining sustainable tourism and solutions in the marketplace to some of the main concerns around adopting sustainable tourism practices. Through best practice cases of some of our members, we will showcase the implementation of sustainable practices, following the definitions and resources provided through the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

~ Erika Harms – Executive Director, Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC)

Traditional & Online Marketing
Blending the Best of Both Worlds

Pair the best of traditional marketing practices with the best practices in the online world, and you’ve a new model for marketing success – one that feeds itself in a sustainable cycle. Drawing from real-world case studies, teams will explore proven traditional marketing strategies that, when blended with today’s online marketing strategies, result in bottom-line impact, even as marketing budgets and teams are reduced, and expectations among value-conscious consumers are on the rise.

From awareness building to conversion, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to better leverage “old-school” marketing with the now evolved online marketing and social media world to better filter and access the right people for higher conversion rates. Joint efforts will yield take-home actionable game plans and an a la carte marketing menu that you may tailor to your specific needs, budgets and strategic emphasis.

~ Al Merschen – Managing Partner, Myriad Marketing

Pricing in a Climate of Discounting

Pricing pressures, intense competition, dis-intermediation, transparency of the Web and more are forcing operators to look a new pricing models, whether straight discounting, variable pricing, special offers approach or others. Given the current business climate, especially where consumer’s value expectations have risen and where they’re likely to intensify, we’ll look at a series of pricing models practiced in the market and explore their pros and cons.

We’ll explore the realities of the market and how it affects pricing, including the fact that pricing is now virtually visible to all, and then explore pricing strategies and solutions. Participants will gain insights into possible models to investigate and implement.

~ Kurt Kutay – Founding Director & President, Wildland Adventures