Just a brief post today explaining what I have been up to in the last few weeks, which goes hand-in-hand as an explanation for why I haven’t been doing any posting here for the last few weeks.
I am back in London, which as you may recall is a comfortable place for me. Although right now I am sitting here with a cold, in the cold, and thinking that the comfortable place portion of the U.K. may be more of a summertime thing.
London Underground in a bit of a retro B&W style
So, I was in London for a rather major travel conference last week, World Travel Market. Yes, I was supposed to be in South Africa, but I had a little travel glitch there (I’ll be talking about it more in my newsletter, along with other news if you’d like to subscribe and check it out later this week).
World Travel Market, otherwise know as WTM, is a rather large travel conference bringing together tourism boards from around the world with tour companies and others, increasingly including a larger and larger dose of travel bloggers looking to strike up business opportunities.
I was there with Ayngelina of Bacon is Magic to talk to a couple dozen people about working with our new joint travel blogging concept, Navigate Media Group. A few months ago, nine full-time travel bloggers formed up that group to see about the possibilities of doing some collaborative travel blogging and marketing projects. WTM was one of the conferences where we talked to a number of destinations and companies about the possibility of working with us.
Bottom line — this concept is being received rather nicely. What that means for you, my loyal readers, is that I’m liking going to be doing some travel in the next year that I wasn’t originally planning on, but that I’m positive will be worth following along on this site, my newsletter, and a few other places I am going to be writing for.
Exciting times are afoot.
I love when I run into an old-school double decker bus in London
One project I can tell you about, after a few months of secrecy, is that the Navigate Media Group is working with Samsung Mobile all this month. We all have been given the new Samsung Galaxy SIII phones to test out and try all month, and in fact, I’ve had mine for a few months.
You might have seen some of the photos I took with the phone in some of my recent posts, from Denia in Spain and also from Valencia and yet another one from Costa Brava.
I am truly impressed with the camera on this phone.
I’m not sure I have actually taken my Nikon DSLR out of my backpack in the couple months I have now been using the Galaxy SIII. For sure, I will still be using it to do my time-lapse photography, but for 80-90% of the photos that I need to publish on the web, this Galaxy SIII camera is pretty effective… and a lot easier to carry around.
I’m not much of a food photographer, but seems like even I can do so on this phone.
Next week I will be headed to the South Tyrol region of Italy on behalf the wonderful folks at Samsung. In a bit of a different twist on my normals travels, I decided that I am going to do a bit of luxury spa travel in that area of the world.
I’ve been working pretty hard this year and I deserve it. Well, I think I deserve it, so I’m going to indulge.
Sounds like your new venture is off to a great start! I like using my iPhone for photos that I can post instantly and it does have a pretty great camera, but I still like my regular camera best.
You had me laugh out loud at the remark about remembering liking London from when it was warm – I totally understand that! Being back in Chicago, I have to remind myself that I still love it here, even under this film of coldness!
And I think DSLR neglect is a common symptom of new smartphone acquisition. I feel a little guilty how little I use mine now that I’ve got a solid camera on the 4S.
Congrats on the Navigate partnership with Samsung – it’s a great idea you’ve all teamed up on!
The Navigate Media Group project sounds like a great idea, I’m sure it will be a success with solid people like Ayngelina and yourself involved.
I really need to get out to more big events like WTM, seems like I’m missing out on more than just drinking parties!
The Navigate Media Group sounds like a great concept that will only grow in time with more travel bloggers and companies coming on board. It sounds like a great mechanism for enabling travel bloggers and travel related opportunities to meet.
As for old school London buses, I love them too. When I very little and living in Melbourne, Australia there was an old school London double decker my mum and I did a day tour on. I don’t remember anything about the tour but I do remember the bus and the joy that it aroused in me and still arouses in me every time I see a picture of one.
Congratulations on your new Navigate Media Group. I love to see these collaborations starting up. It’s the future of successful bloggers like yourself — and a great way to sustain the traveling life.
Great stuff!
~Josie
Funny you said your new phone is making you neglect your DSLR, because I’ve only just started neglecting it and I’ve had the phone for two years! With iphoneography blowing up everywhere I wanted to remain a traditionalist, but you can’t argue with its usefulness!
Love the shot of the bus btw 😀
Best of luck with the Navigate Media Group – sounds like it will some really exciting travels for next year!
I’ve been contemplating buying a Galaxy SIII for a couple of weeks now. Still not sure whether to get that or just spend my money on a nice SLR and get a cheap phone instead. Anyways, I like the photo of the red double decker bus is a great one.
I have a galaxy SIII because I do some work with samsung, and I have to say I love it!
That apart, I’m a London based food and travel blogger, next time you are over here, get in contact and I’ll buy you a beer. I was even at WTM and would have loved to meet you!
Already saw several posts on the Samsung Galaxy SIII pass by:)