Why We Are Going to TBEX

Written by Kyle about United States. Feelin' thoughtful

Kyle, Gary, Greg, Jodi, and Bessie in Bangkok

For those of you out of the clircle of Travel Bloggers ("what? There are more people like you?"), there is a 2 day event in New York city called the Travel Blog Exchange (or TBEX, for short) that we will be attending this weekend. It is an event with over 300 participants including PR reps, fellow travelers, bloggers, advertisers, and everything in between. There will be all kinds of topics covered from writing ethics to making better videos.

But honestly, We are attending because of one single word: community.

What we've come to realize when talking to friends and family back in the states is that there aren't a whole lot of people that understand why we make the conscience decision to live our lives in various world locations. This is completely understandable as this is not a normal thing for people to do. It's like telling someone you want to be a mime for a living; they understand that it makes you happy, but they have no desire to do it themselves. To have some true understanding, you have to find other mimes. For us, that's where TBEX comes in. (except with less mimes and more travel folks)

TBEX gives us the opportunity to meet people who understand why we're flabbergasted that a meal at a D.C. restaurant can equal a whole day's expenses in Thailand. It allows us to connect with other people who also lack a home address but are full of of memories. It will remind us that there are many other people out there who have been doing the same thing that we have, except much longer and much harder than we have. Most importantly, it gives us the chance to meet other travelers who we can call friends.

Will we get some tips on how to improve our search engine rankings? Most likely.

Will we find out how to promote ourselves better? I guarantee it.

Will we come out of it with some more blog followers? I hope so.

But, honestly, none of that matters. If we can meet one more friend, it will all be worth it.

Kevin, Kyle, Bessie, Juno in Korea

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June 25, 2010 Keith: Wish I could have made it to TBEX this year. Here's to making friends on the road!

June 28, 2010 mumsie: Pretty cool! Meeting kindred spirits -- and you get to do it in the Big Apple! (I wonder how many Thailand days That is equivalent to?!) I'm curious about the impact TBEX will have on you. :) p.s. What are search engine rankings? LOL

June 30, 2010 Bessie: It was a great time with kindred spirits indeed! Search engine rankings = how popular a website is. :)

June 29, 2010 Earl: I just wanted to say that it was excellent meeting up with you both this past Saturday. And I hope that we will be able to meet again somewhere overseas in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy your month in Chicago!

June 30, 2010 Bessie: Thanks, Earl & it was awesome to connect with you! Looking forward to catching up with you again somewhere.

June 30, 2010 Sherry Ott: I love the mime analogy...perfect! It was super meeting you both in person. I know it won't be the last time I see you!

June 30, 2010 Bessie: Agreed, Sherry, we'll definitely cross paths again! I'm looking forward to following your travels to Europe. It was great to meet you!

June 30, 2010 Juno: You made pretty good points there. Wish I could make it to TBEX this year. As a beginner I could learn so many good tips from that! Well there's always next time. Yes I've read next year is going to be in Vancouver, right? It's far but let's hope I will be in closer area next year! :-)
thanks for mentioning me on this. It was winter already? Wow.. Time flies.
And hope our path will cross again! :)

June 30, 2010 Kyle: I don't know how informative some of the panels were, but they were good at kicking us into gear and realizing the things that we should be doing. Overall, it was good to meet other inspiring travelers. Hopefully we'll see you on the road!