My experience from TBEX Athens

This past October, TBEX visited Athens.

Oops! What is TBEX?

TBEX (Travel Bloggers EΧchange) is the largest gathering of Travel Bloggers worldwide, and is held in different countries in the course of each year. This past September it made a stop in Cancun and in October it arrived in Athens. The event took place at Megaron (the Athens Concert Hall) on October 23-25, and more than 850 travel bloggers, writers, photographers, and travel media representatives from 53 different countries attended.

The amount of interest in the event surpassed every expectation; just on Twitter, on the week between the 20th and 27th of October, the hashtags #TBEXAthens and #ThisIsAthens were read by more than 11 million users. Also, through the tours organised during the event, the visitors not only got to know Athens, but also got to promote our country worldwide, through internet posts and hashtags.

These numbers indicate the large force of travel bloggers on the Internet, and this is one of the reasons TBEX is now considered an outstanding event.

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Now that I’ve lain the groundwork, I will present to you my own TBEXperience.

Now you will get a sense of how intense this whole thing was! To begin with, the conference itself might have lasted only three days, at Megaron, but the side events (before, during, and after) were so many that I couldn’t just restrict myself to talking about sessions and seminars. The photography and writing workshops were beginning at the start of the week, so most bloggers were already in Greece a few days before the official kickoff of the conference. And of course some stayed for several days after its end.

For me, the TBEXperience began on Wednesday evening, at the amazing Travel Massive Party at Impact Hub. That was my first encounter with TBEX. That was where I got to hear with my own ears (it’s not the same as reading about them) each blogger’s unique story! Some left their homes; others travel the world with their children, their dogs, their lovers and perhaps just one suitcase. It was there that I saw substance, meaning, and inspiration for real living through traveling.

It was there that I drunk, laughed, shared, and was inspired even more!

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Photo via Constantinos Mytilineos

Photo via Constantinos Mytilineos

The following evening, Thursday evening, featured TBEX’s grand Opening Party.

The meeting point was at Technopolis at Gazi around 20.00. There, the wine was abundant, the Greek meze were delicious, the spirits were high, the talks were endless, and the inspiration was immense, once more. How many stories, new encounters, how many business cards and emails exchanged. It was the absolute connection for us bloggers. You would go mingling, hold out your hand to introduce yourself and start talking. Just like that!

Each one a different story that you loved to hear. Each one a different personality that you couldn’t wait to explore further! And after the presentation of the Greek products, along with the aforementioned food and drink, a great live concert by the Greek band Imam Baildi with people from all corners of the world dancing syrtaki along with RnB.

You can’t form an image, can you? This is how the evening went and, believe me, it was incredible!

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Me, entering the Opening Party of TBEX Athens

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With my BlogGang, Lucy, Jessica και Christine at the Opening Party of TBEX.

Next morning at 9 sharp the bell rung for TBEX’s first Keynote.

Various sessions followed, lunch at noon, and Speed Networking afterwards. Speed Networking was your chance to present your work to the companies that had come for this reason only. In 10 minutes you had to explain your blog’s raison d'être, the way it came about, your own work, and finally tell them what would make YOU ideal for presenting their product.

That was my chance!

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The contact with the other bloggers was the most intense part of the experience!

Could you believe that you can make new friends in an hour? It is possible, in fact! When you share the same love, same passion, same lunacy, and the same needs, then you can do it! And it all comes so effortlessly and nicely that it makes you feel you belong to a new social class; that of travelers. Because travel blogging is not simply the sharing of stories; It’s first living them - and then sharing them.

Storytelling was the connecting link with these people. And I think I am one of them now.

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Before and after the sessions, eating croissants and posing together with Lucy, Jessica, Christine, Rob and Alex!

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Me and Sabina!

Friday night we all went to the Expedia Party at Skyfall.

More partying, more conversation, more stories. How bad can that be? Not bad at all. Especially since somewhere there between the masticha cocktails, the backpacking stories, and the new travel apps, I managed to win a super light iPad, by simply uploading a photo with my co-bloggers with the hashtag #Expedia.

How lovely the next day started, with a new iPad in my hands!

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The last day was quite emotional.

It started with more Keynotes, Twitter sessions, and a lot of blah blah, but it was still hard to let go of the TBEX state of being. During the last lunch with the co-bloggers, we all seemed moved by what we had experienced. Most of us were newbie-bloggers (blogging for less than two years) and TBEX was our first conference and our first encounter with the world of travel blogging.

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With Michael Collins at the session "Be seen and be heard"

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Last lunch with Lucy, Jessica, Christine, Maria and Maria.

ΤΒΕΧ was not simply a conference or seminar experience.

TBEX was  something more intense and substantial than that. It was a true identification with like-minded people who share the same passions. TBEX taught me a lot on a theoretical but also practical level. Being able to interact with the other group members is great, and being able to follow and support their work, without competitiveness and jealousy is rare. I think TBEX helped a lot with that.

Because if the love for what you do is genuine and not circumstantial or superficial, then you don’t compete against the other, but next to the other!

The next conference is held in Costa Brava in April 2015 and then in Bangkok in October 2015. I will be there to report on a new TBEXperience.

What about you?
Do you attend any blogging conferences?

Maria Kalymnou

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