Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards 2012

This is my first time attending a conference designed specially for bloggers who blog about travel and also for the key industry people in tourism. There were many people at the conference especially from the tourism sector (ministry people, hotel owners, tourist guides, tourist spots owners etc), marketing people from various corporate groups (AsiaMedia, Maxis, etc), PRs from distinguished organizations and then finally, you throw in the bloggers. Put all these people together in one room and what I get as a blogger?

Opportunities at your grasp.

But what concerns me now is my "rojak" blog. I love travelling but staying loyal to that one niche is hard because I'm not a hard-core traveler like this blogger. As one of the speakers, the well known David Hogan Jr puts it, "The narrower the niche, the broader the opportunities." 


Not to mention the UGLY TRUTH about travel bloggers as shared by the famous Alistair Watters (Founder & Owner of Travelblog.org) and Shane Dallas (The Travel Camel blogger of travelblog.org), blogging about travel in truth don't earn them much money. They do it because they are passionate about it. Shane Dallas also shared with us that all his trips were self-paid. He was strict to himself by saving money from his job as a government servant. And he's single. (Don't know why I have to mention this. LOLOL) In fact, money came from writing for printed/online publications or maybe from pictures that possibly National Geography are interested to buy and also getting invited to give talks about it. That's where the actual money comes from. Most likely caused indirectly by the buzz of your blog. Overall, I'm truly inspired by their stories. =)

From left: Alistair, ME!, and The Travel Camel.

The problem with the blogging world in Malaysia is there aren't many blogs sticking to one niche. If there is, most probably it's about food, technology and celebrity gossip. Sadly, I don't know any blogs that specifically blogs about tourism. (except for my friend I mentioned above. Even her blog title is relevant. LOL)

I don't think I can continue this blog as a travel blog with ignorantbrat as the URL name despite bagging an award in the Tourism Travel Blog category. (And gosh, I feel I don't deserve it after attending this conference!) Haha. Popularity votes by the public does have its ups and downs. But hopefully will continue to blog on it as a personal blog. =)

I met several individuals that made my whole experience at the conference joyful.

Mr. John Phang (owner of CP Welness Sanctuary)... who sat next to me throughout the whole conference.

Mr Phang, my seat neighbour. Very cheerful.

Mr Phang was the first person to say hello to me on the first day. He even shared a meaningful quote with me which reads as “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  ― Winston S. Churchill. He's a very friendly guy. Too bad I couldn't meet the rest of his family during the Award Ceremony later on that evening.

Other people of worthy acknowledgement is Ms Jessi!! I've been reading her blog for a while. Mostly because she's so enthusiastic about the things she does in life. Beautiful photos and she did an inspirational story about her slimming down on her blog. Gotta admire her spunk. Recognizes her hair of red anywhere!

Jessi from thejessicat.com!

Jessi told me she was the official blogger for this event. Nice! =)

Of all the speakers, I can't really say which ones were my least or most favorites. But these two people below definitely held the microphone the most. Hehehe..

James Craven of Hybrid News Ltd UK and Sheila Scarborough, Writer,
Speaker and Trainer Specializing in Tourism, Travel and Social Media

I believe Tourism Malaysia did a smart move in inviting these prominent figures to Malaysia. Thank you for holding such a conference! There were many speakers that gave good talks to the audience and worth mentioning. Anuradha Goyal, Hanie Hidayah, Anis Nabilah, Dr Mridula Dwivedu, Mike Aquino, Nisha Jha, Stephen Doss, Windy Ariestanty, Iman Brotosena, Kiruba Shankar Sivaraman (the piggyback ride was memorable! Haha), David Hogan Jr, Jojo Struys, Joe Lee and Khairul Anwar.

From left: Sheila, Anuradha, Anis, emcee, Ali, Shane, James, Hogan and Dr Mridula.

With that I end my post by summarizing that the overall experience was definitely  refreshing, thought provoking and more ways than one, life changing. =)

Ps: Here's Ali's experience on MITBCA.

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