Smackdown in Bridgetown - 2 Days Only!

The Travel Oregon team is psyched to host the annual "State Tourism Smackdown" this week at the Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland. Open to only state tourism office personnel who have responsibility for marketing and/or advertising programs and state tourism ad agencies, this annual event is a collaborative work session about how each state is responding to consumer trends and what's worked (and what hasn't worked) in our marketing programs over the past year.

This year's topics include: how does sustainability factor into marketing, analytics (oh yes, we could not resist!) and the ever popular sharing of best practices from the states. We're also factoring some fun into the mix with a tour of the Pearl District, our agency Wieden+Kennedy and the wine country. Watch this blog for more updates from Smackdown!

No TravelCom For You!

As many of you know, neither Mo or I were able to make it to TravelCom this year...however both Travel Oregon and the Arizona Office of Tourism are well represented by Ashley Moran and Casey Ambrose respectively...so we want to hear about the experience from our readers.

What did you think of the conference?

How many times did you hear the word Web 2.0?

Did you learn anything new?

What did you feel was missing from the conference?

Are you sick of mobile yet?

How was the bar?

Is Chicago really that windy?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments field, we would love to hear from you.

Oh and be sure to tell everyone you see from TIA that you think Honolulu would be the perfect location for TravelCom in '09.

And the Winner Is...

Innovation has long been the harbinger of progress. Innovators have touched every facet of our lives, from electricity to penicillin to the microchip. Innovators are those who bring the future to the present via their dreams and willingness to take the risks that others often eschew. TIA honors innovation, via the TravelCom Innovator Award.

Thoughts// Last week I had the honor of being part of the 2008 TravelCom Innovator Award Selection Committee. The Travel Industry Association's Innovator Award recognizes "those special companies whose outstanding innovations in the areas of technology, e-commerce and distribution have transformed their business and had a broad impact across the travel industry".

On Thursday—between catching the March Madness action and a bottomless cup of coffee—I spent most of the day reviewing and "grading" this year's submissions.

This year, the committee received nominations from 33 up-and-coming and established technology/travel companies with a wide variety of product or service offerings including the more esoteric "back end" technology products such as Simpleview CRM (formerly CVBTV) and Amadeus. The nominees also included more "consumer facing" services such as Larry the Travel Guy from Air New Zealand and Where2 GPS navigation from Avis. It's also quite noteworthy that several of the nominees were featured on the Interactive Trend Report over the past year. They included:

• Yapta: Allows users to bookmark airline fares, tag and share them with others
• Kayak.com: The popular meta airfare search engine
• Tripit: Organizes all of your itineraries, schedules and travel plans (no matter where they were booked) into one, easy-to-read page
• Travelocity Experience Finder: Allows consumers to plan their trip to destinations based on experiences and themes
• Orbitz Traveler Update: Airport info hub that combines data from FAA, TSA, traffic reports, parking updates, taxi lines, flight delays, weather information and fellow traveler updates.

So who won? Well...you'd have to wait until this year's TravelCom Conference to find out. Let's see if I am better at picking the winners here as opposed to hoops brackets!