To the question I’m often posed, “ why do you write a blog and who are you trying to reach?” I’d have to say the following.
1. For myself – I blog to sort out my thoughts, to hang concepts and interesting links where I’ll find them later, to develop my own voice and most importantly attract conversations with others. There’s a wonderful lline in the movie Shadowlands about the Oxford don, C.S.Lewis – “we read not to feel alone”. I think that’s especially true of bloggers – we blog to attract company, to give witness and, most importantly to share.
2. For my clients – I serve, or try to, leaders in the travel, tourism and hospitality communities responsible for marketing and managing precious places. Their lives are hectic, full of meetings, responding to stakeholder’s priorites and changing external fornces, often hard to discern and evaluate. So my blogs are designed to be a safe haven from the storms of uncertainty and change. A place where they can make sense of the strange forces buffeting their agencies. Well, that’s the intent! The reality is that most of these same leaders don’t read blogs or use the encyclopedic resources of the internet to learn, so I also write for….
3. The next generation of leaders in their organizations. Those who can see the future more clearly because they are creating it. I write to provide them with the facts, insights and the arguments they need to make their propositions ring true to their busy leaders.
I’d like to say a big thank you to my readers and followers, whoever you are and all the other bloggers I have followed and met in 2009. You’ve inspired and informed me immensely during the year.
It's been quite a year (summarized in my newsletter (Download Speak out ), made possible by the support of many. As an expression of my appreciation, there are three stockings under the Christmas Tree:
You may of course, chose all three, but I'll give you a sneak preview!
Stocking A A letter template and gift suggestion that the next generation of destination and business leaders might give to their bosses this Christmas; and
Stocking B. A selection of seven videos that your organizations could and should view to understand what’s happenung in their world; and
Stocking C. A set of technology forecasts for 2010. They pertain mostly to place marketers and folks interested in how all this social media will evolve in the business world...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
