Conclusion of MITBCA 2012 #mitbca2012

Attending such a big event like MITBCA 2012 was truly an eye-opener on how social media works; the importance of it in relation to tourism and how to get the most out of it.  What made it more interesting, most of the speakers are avid travel bloggers who travel out of passion. Sheila Scarborough (USA), Ali Watters (Scotland), Kiruba Shankar (India),  David Hogan Jr. (Malaysia), Shane Dallas (Australia), Joe Lee @ Klubbkidd (Malaysia), Anuradha Goyal (India), James Craven (UK), Iman Brotoseno (Indonesia), Windy Ariestanty (Indonesia), Michael Aquino (Philippines), Anis Nabilah (Malaysia), Hanie Hidayah (Malaysia) and Dr Mridula Dwivedi (India), Stephen Doss (Malaysia), Khairul Anuar bin Shaharudin @ Kruel74 (Malaysia), Nisha Jha (ndia), Jojo Struys (Malaysia), Shahul Hameed Shaik Dawood (Malaysia)   …they were all fantastic.

Overall, I think the event was a success. And most importantly, I learned from the best on how to harness the power of social media  reach and impact in tourism. This conference has definitely brought me to a new level in blogging about travel. I met new friends; travel bloggers, travel writers, tourism agencies/operators, national tourism organisation, hotel operators and many more. Helping the Tourism Ministry to achieve it’s target of attracting up to 36 million tourists  to Malaysia by 2020 is now seems all possible.

Thank you to the Ministry of Tourism, especially to Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen for organising MITBCA 2012. It was a blast and although it was only a two-day conference, I came home a learned and inspired blogger who is now working on narrowing down her niche to art and travel.

Here are photos of me and few of the speakers as well as some of my new found friends.

Sheila Scarborough is a writer and speaker specializing in tourism, travel and social media. She has written for many blogs and print publications and is also a certified US Navy Master Training Specialist, with years of experience as an instructor.

Alistair Watters is the founder and owner of TravelBlog.org – one of the world’s leading travel websites. He founded TravelBlog.org in 2002 and has developed, marketed and run the site ever since. He is an expert on travel, communities, website development and online marketing. In his spare time Ali loves scuba diving and underwater photography. He actually lives in KL for already 3 years now.

Shane Dallas is a passionate traveller who explores the world to immerse himself in different cultures and experiences. Shane has visited more than 60 countries and territories across five continents, and apart from excursions to regular tourist destinations, he has also journeyed to countries not often frequented by fellow travellers such as Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia and North Korea. Known as “The Travel Camel”, Shane has written several travel articles, and has participated in numerous segments on ABC radio in Australia to discuss holiday destinations and travel related matters.

David Hogan Jr is the editor, writer and photographer for Malaysia Asia, a very niche travel blog about tourism around Malaysia and Asia in general. Born and bred Malaysian, he has been running this travel site since 2008 and found that there is so much more in his own backyard than what most locals would think there is. Ever since embarking on a journey around Malaysia in general, he has shared his experiences on the site and also on multiple Social Media platforms. David is also the only travel blogger in Malaysia to have his articles featured on the Lonely Planet website since 2009. He has won the prestigious Sabah Tourism Award for Best Online Media in 2011 and has been featured in many other international travel blog sites.

Hannah Pearson from Sedunia Travel, Ilya Houben from Wonderful Malaysia, yours truly and Steven Wong.

Fariz Luqman, Fid Abdullah and me.