Tourism Academy 2016: Biggest Highlights

We are all super excited as we plan Tourism Academy's 2017 session content. Registration is now open, so grab your spot today. Stay tuned to TourismAcademy.com where new speaker and session content will be posted soon. If you have a great idea for a session or would like to speak at this year's event, then please head to our call for presentations to share your thoughts.

To give you an idea of what types of sessions and events you can expect in 2017, here's a glimpse of some of last year's conference highlights, including the most memorable iDSS, CRM and digital marketing sessions:

Tourism Academy 2016 Top Digital Marketing Sessions

Instagram: More Than Just A Pretty Picture
We dove into Instagram's best practices and how to overcome the top challenges travel marketers face when developing strategy, getting organizational buy-in, and tracking success on this popular social network.

Roundtable Workshop: Design Thinking for DMOs
We've received nothing but positive feedback around this hands-on sessions where the group prototyped real solutions to the biggest travel obstacles. Design Thinking is a customer-centric philosophy for solving problems. This hands-on workshop illustrated how to empathize with visitors and meeting planners to spot problems, create new ideas, and gather customer feedback.

Video Panel: DMO Video Success Stories
This panel of video experts included destination marketers and video production professionals who walked through ideation, creation, distribution, tracking and more - to help attendees jumpstart their own video strategies.

Influencer Marketing: Build It or Buy It?
A fun and rowdy panel where destination marketers and professionals working in the influencer space debated whether to invest in influencers who are already established in your area, or build influencer strategy from the ground up by empowering your existing audience to become influencers.

Snapchat: What's the Real Story for DMOs
This session demystified Snapchat and featured insights from destination marketers who are early adopters in this space. Attendees also had a big laugh as we all learned how to vomit rainbows on the big screen (only at Tourism Academy folks!).

Tourism Academy 2016 Top iDSS CRM Sessions

The Importance of Email Deliverability in iDSS
Cyclone, the latest version of iDSS, features enhanced email marketing functionality. This session focused on the importance of email deliverability, email deliverability best practices, and the product roadmap for iDSS email enhancements.

iDSS Design Thinking Workshop
Thank you to all who participated in this workshop where we applied design thinking concepts to get your valuable feedback and ideas around developing new features in iDSS.

Mastering Reports & Queries
Attendees became reporting gurus after this session on iDSS reports and queries. We shared actionable insights for our users to take their reporting to the next level.

Success with Sales Leads
Lead distribution and partner lead responses are at the heart of the iDSS platform. This session covered how to set up lead requirements, economic impact formulas, and more.

Empower Partners with The Xtranet
In this hands-on session, iDSS experts walked through the Partner Xtranet and showcased how partners can login, respond to leads, update information, manage website content, pay invoices, add events, access reports and more!

Evening Events & Networking

When you come to Tourism Academy, we want you to get out and truly experience the host city. Last year we had a ton of fun in Philadelphia trying amazing restaurants, seeing historic sights, and going to a Phillies game. A couple folks even ran all the way up the famous "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The entire group got together for an opening reception with gorgeous views of Philadelphia's City Hall and we all rocked out at the blowout Tourism Academy Party, held at the oldest jazz club in Philadelphia. There will be plenty of fun at this year's event too - with another appearance by the Tempest band and many other special surprises.

If you have any questions about registration, session content, or traveling to Tourism Academy, please get in touch. We look forward to seeing you in June! You can register for the event here.