Conference | Down Home Traveler

After I moved to Texas, I was taking road trips and attending events however I felt as if I couldn’t fully share how great these adventures were with my family back in Vermont. In 2011, Down Home Traveler was born. Since then, it’s generated into not only a way to share my adventures with my family and friends but with all readers alike. Still, something was also missing. I didn’t feel as if I was really connecting with other travel bloggers who shared my same passion. Lately, I’ve felt like I’ve been in a bit of a “traveling rut”. I’m so glad those days are over!

Let’s fast forward to last weekend. I had the privilege of attending the Family Travel Conference at the Omni Hotel in Dallas. I’ve spent the last couple days trying to find a way to put my experience into words. The event opened my eyes to the world of other travel bloggers, educational and business training but I most importantly I gained new relationships with not only businesses but with other travel bloggers. I can not tell you how grateful, excited and proud I am to be a travel blogger!

The Family Travel Conference was held at the Omni Hotel. Although, I didn’t stay at the hotel during the conference, the Omni staff was phenomenal during my visit. I will need to write more about the Omni in another post in order to try to even touch upon how great they made this experience. One special event was when the bloggers split up into groups and went on a different tour of the hotel. Keep an eye out, I’ll be letting you in on my special tour!

We had some great speakers! Not only did they present and speak to us regarding their successes and passed on their wisdom, they stayed all weekend. This provided us with an opportunity to not only know and learn from their experiences but gather connections that we probably wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. We touched upon how to use social media to grow brand / blog, how to capture our audience thru storytelling and video, learned how to edit and create our own video (which was terrifying as I am NOT tech savvy) and travel trends.

This probably sounds like a lot of “work” related experiences, but the entire weekend was filled with a whole lot of fun! For starters – let’s talk about the Dallas Zoo!

The Dallas Zoo was open just for us. We got to see various animals, feed the giraffes, attend the lion show and eat dinner next to the elephants!

I have a friend who literally just got back from running the half marathon at Disney World this past weekend and I had to tell her that Saturday there was more than one “happiest place on Earth”. The second place was in a conference room at the Omni. Not only did we get to meet these two but Disney gave away two trips to Disney World / Disney Land!

Saturday evening we took a little field trip up to the Galleria Mall. Did you know it’s one of the most visited places in Texas?! I surely did not but I do love the mall this time of year. You are about to see why.

Although there are palm trees on the outside, within the doors you will see the World’s largest indoor Christmas tree! (You can read more about the tree and events from when I visited the Galleria last year.)

Finally, what did we eat? Well, it felt like we were royalty and it was all fat and calorie free (so I told myself)! And yes, it was all more delicious than it looks! Believe it! At one point during dinner, I found myself at a table where others were also taking pictures of the food. I pointed it out as I’m usually the only one. Grace Duffy said “You’re with your kind now.” It felt so good!

What resonated with me the most is something that Krista Parry (SnowMamas) said – we are doing this “for the greater good”. We’re not here to compete with one another, to see who can get the most sponsorship or make the most contacts. We’re here to encourage each other as bloggers and to encourage our readers to get out there and experience travel with family and friends. I love blogging because I love to travel. They go hand in hand for me but more importantly I hope that I encourage my readers to go out and try something new. I try to provide the resources and references so anyone can do that, families, couples, single people, girls getaway weekends, etc.. I hope that I am able to do that for all of my readers.

Thank you to Family Travel Conference for inviting me to attending this conference as a local. Thank you to the sponsors and organizers for creating an absolutely amazing event and unforgettable experience! Thank you to my fellow bloggers for getting me out of my blogging rut and giving me the encouragement that I needed. I look forward to continuing my relationship with so many of you. Finally, to my readers – thank you for letting me do something that I truly enjoy!

Family Travel Conference is founded by Kim Orlando (Traveling Mom), Kyle McCarthy (Family Travel Forum), Eileen Ogintz (Taking The Kids) and Joanne Vero (Travel Media Showcase).

The speakers of the event were outstanding. If you have an opportunity to visit their blogs or look into their work, please do. Genevieve Brown (of ABC News), Rob Burgos (Full Circle Post), Valarie D’Elia (Travel With Val), Paul Eisenberg (Micato Safaris and Shermans Travel), Christi McNeill (Southwest Airlines), Melanie Nelson (Blogging Basics 101), Krista Parry (Snowmamas), Wendy Perrin (Conde Nast Traveler) and Kaleel Sakakeeny (New Media Travel).