We are inside the conference room ready to discover new technology solutions but the day begins with a dilemma. What do you do when the total eclipse of the sun clashes with your first keynote speaker? 

A crowd gathering outside the Sheraton hotel, smartphones at the ready to capture the total eclipse of the sun

Technology solution: don’t be eclipsed

 

Answer: give the delegates a quick break.

It was a clever tactic at the start of ETAG’s  fifth Technology Solutions for Tourism conference in Edinburgh smoothly handled by James McVeigh – as head of digital marketing and innovation at Festivals Edinburgh he knows a thing or two about turning a challenge into an opportunity.  He despatched us all from the conference suite in the Sheraton Hotel with good humour, a kindly warning not to look at the sun…and strict instructions to be back within 30 minutes.

And – once we had all returned in good time and good mood – it allowed Nick Hall founder of Digital Tourism Think Tank to make the point that the best tourism technology involves live human experience.  

For the rest of the day speaker after speaker showed how smart technology can be used to take us into the real world, with maps, games, tours, beacons beckoning, online ticketing and Google nudging.

Our thanks to ETAG for another stimulating day at the smart edge of tourism. This year’s themes – mapping, storytelling and the rapidly increasing power of videos – were demonstrated by Terri Scriven, Industry Head of Travel at Google who focused on the impact of Youtube videos on travel decisions. And Colan Mehaffey Head of Digital Media at National Trust for Scotland who showed us how the NTS used digital tech to win the Battle of Bannockburn (so to speak) bringing thousands of real visitors to the site in real time.   

There was also chance to see new ideas emerging from both small and well established companies in Scotland. And as always there were many more bright ideas over breakfast, coffee and lunch. We met lots of great people and came away sizzling with new ideas – and reassurance from ETAG’s Cathy Malone who shared a tip she learned in San Francisco last year: “how to steal a good idea”.

You can see all the speakers – and the good idea Cathy stole – in the film produced by Inner Ear for ETAG.

  1. Dougal at the mixing desk

    Fine tuning: Dougal Perman of Inner Ear who were filming the event

PS: our very best wishes to Cathy Malone who announced her retirement from ETAG at the end of the conference. She will be a hard act to follow!