Talking About Travel Writing to People Who Don’t Write

Paul Shoul addresses a crowd

I joined my friend Paul Shoul on Sunday and drove into Boston to the Travel and Adventure Show. We were set to speak about travel writing and photography, and at the appointed time, 2:15, we had a decent but not full crowd of about 40 people.

As I commenced my presentation that is clearly only for someone who has aspirations to be a writer or a blogger, I forged on, and people were interested. But when I asked for a show of hands about who was a writer, or a blogger, no one raised their hands. OK.   So I would be talking about writing techniques and examples with a group of non-writers.

I’m glad that they enjoyed Paul’s photos, these got their attention, and they were rapt with interest. I realized that you can’t always find writers in a big group, and it made me appreciate our enthusiastic crowd every year when we do the same presentation at the Javits Center in NYC.

I got some great news yesterday when I was approved for a press trip to Agrigento, Etna, Syracuse, and Noto Sicily in March. It’s after the TBEX conference that’s in Catania. I’ve never been to Sicily, and so on March 8, I”ll find out all about it.

I’m trying to fill up my travel plans for the year, in a few weeks I’ll travel to NYC for the big IMM meeting. There I will meet with many tourism boards and I bet I can line up a few trips too!