BAcon: Day 1

As I reported before, getting to the BoardingArea Conference – affectionately known as BAcon – was quite an ordeal involving an airline strike that made for an unplanned overnight in Oslo, Norway. This has been a travel tale of taxis, buses, trains, and planes. Oh, and another flight canceled due to weather. But the 39-hour commute for a 2-day conference was worth it because when Randy Petersen hosts an event, you just know it will be fantastic.

Day 1 of BAcon was abbreviated, allowing time for everyone to travel to Colorado Springs. Nevertheless, Randy had an event-filled day for us beginning with his meet-and-greet at 3 pm. It was great to see some of the long-time bloggers again and meet many new ones.

Time was short because shortly thereafter, the program began in earnest. Leading off the event were Chris McGinnis (BBC/CNN/The Ticket) and Charisse Jones (USAToday). They led a media discussion for the next hour that could have gone on easily for a couple more.

The next session was led by Hyatt Hotels, helping us to understand how branding relates to blogging.

After these great discussions, including time meeting many of the behind-the-scenes support team of BoardingArea, we enjoyed a social hour where we had time to talk more travel and meet more attendees. This time could have gone on forever, because there just was not enough time to speak with each of the BA bloggers. More travel discussion occurred at the dinner table and included travel trends, business and international travel as well as how social media has become such an integral part of travel. The evening was wonderful for sharing and exchanging information and ideas and not surprising, it was quite late when we finished. Being on Central European time lately, it was already morning time according to my body before dinner wrapped up. Though all so worth it as I will catch up on my sleep on the flight back to Norway on Sunday.

All in all, a great beginning for this first-ever event. Kudos to Randy and the House of Miles team for an extraordinary first day. Great things for our readers, the media and the travel industry are certain to result from this gathering.