A Google account is a free tool that allows you to access a variety of free services.More specifically it allows you to access Google Analytics and Google Alerts, both of which are extremely useful to those who wish to measure their websites progress and obtain the best possible return on investment (ROI). Setting up a Google account is quick and easy watch the video and see how!
Today I attended the QTIC - State of play seminar in Brisbane City on tourism trends.
7.30 am start is quite early when you live in Bayside Brisbane … I had forgotten what it meant to be in the car each morning for 1 hour (since I have a nice comfy home office). But I do enjoy listening to Meschel Ash Kip and Lutzy from Nova.
So after almost 2 heart attacks realising that underground parking in the city for 3 hours averages close to $45 dollars, (I am great at reversing right in front of the entry boom gate) I shopped around and found one for $30. Ha. $30 dollars. Christ. What a bargain. Not.
The event was well worth the traffic and the parking cost though. I even managed to catch up with my former amazing colleague Emma Berg from Gold Coast Tourism.
QTIC’s even had 3 fabulous speakers:
Jane Ianniello, International Director – Tourism, Travel and Leisure, Roy Morgan Research presenting on the aging Australian population… over 50% of Aussies are over 50! and they are the ones who travel the most with the most disposable income. Is your business doing anything about it?
Tracy Vincent, Senior Consumer Analyst – Research, Tourism Queensland who presented on the growth of the short break market…. in Queensland there has been a shift from week long holidays to short breaks (1-3 days). Small and medium businesses, here is an opportunity to piggy back on each other and present some nice options to the customer who can bundle packages himself.
Keith Dugdale, Chief Executive Officer, IOWEU International. I had never heard Keith speak before, and oh my god, I think I need to attend a few more Toastmaster public speaking meetings before I reach his level of expertise in front of an audience. Keith’s presentation was all about training front line staff to talk to the customer the way he/she wants to be talked to. This reminded me about a nice story of how badly I was treated at a “a Taste of Texas” restaurant in Cleveland, QLD…. (next post?)
All in all, a top quality event, that QTIC, once again set up. I even won a Riverlife sports adventure in Brisbane voucher! Thanks to Emma who trashed one of ur biz cards by putting my name on it! I owe you!
I am very glad that I am using my fingers to communicate on this chilly morning as I have (almost) no voice left! See, I almost lost my voice last nite at the end of the 3-hour training session that was held by the Scenic Rim Regional Council at Beaudesert. It is UntangleMyWeb.com’s third workshop in Beaudesert and we can now say that 80 local small and medium business operators have now received training on how to improve their online visibility!
Here is a little video I took before the event started so those who missed out can have an idea of what peoples’ expectations were:
This couldn’t have been achieved without the amazing team at the Council. Tanya Lipus who organised last night’s workshop as part of the RimBiz series, Kerrie Algeo who looked after the operational side, from registration to finding a longer Internet cable at the last minute and Kevin Liepins who first contacted UntangleMyWeb.com to set up online marketing training for the region.
Over 20 small and medium operators, from very diverse industries and backgrounds attended the workshop. People came from as far as Warwick and Tamborine to attend.
Accommodation houses, wineries, tours, alpaca farming, HR consulting, event organisers, foundations and many more learnt about writing compelling content for humans, how to make their content SEO friendly, how to take the plunge with Web 2.0 and social media, how to grow links to their site and how to measure all their efforts using Google Analytics! Our youngest attendee was still at high school but has no issue with understanding the importance of Facebook as a marketing tool!
It was an excellent and very interactive night, hence the state of my voice this morning! The workshop started at 5.30pm and finished at 9pm, which is great as the attendees are very busy during the day running their own businesses! One of the highlights was the Target Market exercise, which revealed that we often take too many things for granted and don’t spell it out on the content of our websites! I think there will be a lot of content editing going on in the Scenic Rim this morning!
Finally, you can download the online marketing workshop presentation Online Marketing Workshop presentation and I look forward to reading your comments about last night. Click the comment link (blue) below and let me know what you learnt, liked and disliked so I can too, improve how I communicate with my target market
