Flying
Yesterday morning, before my 10 hour dash through the wilds of Pennsylvania, I joined Benet Wilson of Aviation Week and Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines on a panel on new and social media at the ACI-NA Marketing and Communications Forum.
Benet, as I’ve noted previously, writes the Towers and Tarmacs blog. Paula shepherds the Nuts About Southwest blog. Attending were 250+ marketing managers for airports as well as folks from the airline industry, government and related industries.
I started off with my latest rant - that social media isn’t media and it isn’t technology. It’s what happens with the cost of global communication, publishing and mass organization drops to zero. it’s the cumulative impact of millions of people suddenly able to find others all over the world who share their point of view and the ability of those people to organize. I purposely tried to stay off of technology since this wasn’t a very tech-savvy crowd. From the reactions before, during and afterwards, it seems I made the right choice.
Paula told an interesting story about how the management of Southwest Airlines spends way too much time pondering the wisdom of their open seating policy. They finally decided to put the question to the blog’s readers. The overwhelmingly supportive response convinced them they are on the right track and they are (of course) happy they didn’t have to spend a fortune on some consultants to tell them that. And they are happy not being up all night wondering if they are making the right move.
The questions from the audience were all very well informed - people are definitely moving up te learning curve on social media. One woman asked us what she should tell her boss who is convinced that blogs and the Internet are the sole preserve of a small gang of edgelings (those kids and their Internet…). This is a vast improvement from the question I would get a few years ago… “isn’t blogging and the Internet just for tech geeks?”
All in all, it was a fun panel and we could have gone on for hours discussing the topic. That’s for another time.
Update: Pictures from the drive and the panel are here.
Look Who’s Talking
Benet Wilson is talking about blogs in the airline industry. She’s pointed out that American Airlines has a blog - but hasn’t updated it since April.
Ironically the last entry is titled “Let’s keep talking.”
Yes, let’s talk.
Three Rivers
DSC_0205 - Version 2, originally uploaded by david parmet.
Good morning from Pittsburgh.
I had a nice drive along the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday - pictures are here.
After my panel this morning, I’ll be heading back out - this time taking the northern tier - Route 80. I’ll post a wrap up of my talk this afternoon.
Flying In
Next Tuesday I’m speaking at the Airports Council International - North American Marketing and Communications Forum. I was invited to speak by Benet Wilson of Aviation Week - someone I keep running into at various social media conferences, so she must know her stuff!
Ironically I’m making the drive - all the way from my home in Pound Ridge, NY to Pittsburgh, PA. What can I say, I love driving through Pennsylvania.
I thought long and hard about what I would tell the assembled airport marketing managers. Clearly they are in a tough spot - between the needs of passengers and the requirements of security. And if the weather shifts, guess who gets the blame?
So I’m going to forgoe my usual history of social media and get right to the point. The decision to fly into one airport or another can be just as easily impacted by convenience as it could be by something someone read on Twitter or a travellers forum. It’s very easy to find out if one airport has better parking, quicker check in, nicer dining choices or a parking garage that is a bus ride and a load of hassles away from the terminal. And it’s just as easy for airport marketing managers to read what’s being said about their properties on the Internet as it is for you or me.
The hardest part of social media is learning to listen. But it’s often the most important thing you can do.
Mr. Blogger Goes to Washington
Twin Princess Number One and I had a great couple of days in Our Nation’s Capital - a well deserved break from school and sibling rivalries for the Girl and a chance to show her some history and introduce her to the world of social media for Daddy.
Thursday we got a guided tour of the Capital building led by Zach the Intern from Congressman John Hall’s office. While Zach impressed us with his knowledge of the history of the building - and obvious love and enthusiasm for his opportunity to work on the Hill - he really blew me away by arranging a floor debate between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Bohner on a proposed extension of UI benefits just as we entered the House Gallery. So I pointed her out to the Girl and mumbled something about positive female role models. She was more concerned with lunch.
Friday was Blog Potomac and while I will leave the details to another post, I have to give kudos to Geoff Livingston for the event. It was a great lineup of speakers and a great venue.
And now… back to work.
