Why you Should go to Travel Conferences by Yourself #Rant
Traveling by yourself might be scary. Going to a new place might be scary. Meeting and talking to new people might be scary. But do it anyway!
During my recent trips to #BACon14 and FTU Advanced, I had an epiphany. Traveling by yourself to travel conferences is a good great idea. Let me explain. Some people love sitting in large conference rooms and talking about miles and points for hours on end. I fall into that category. However, there are some people that cannot handle sitting in large conference rooms listening about miles and points for hours on end. My travel companion fell into that category. Regardless of how much we all love miles and points, our passion is not shared by everyone. #sadbuttrue
Instead of “torturing” your companion (her word’s not mine) and “boring them to death” (my words), why not leave them at home and come by yourself? We are all adults, we can handle getting on an airplane by ourselves and finding our way to the hotel, right?
Before I go on, let me clarify that I am only talking about traveling to travel conferences by yourself and not about vacations in general.
Going to travel conferences by yourself might be scary, but it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and talk to new people. If you go with a companion, chances are you will spend most of your time talking to them and not meeting other people. The people at travel conferences are just like you. They love miles. They love points. But best of all, they can keep a conversation about miles and points going for more than a few minutes. I bet you don’t have that luxury back home, do you?
Meeting new people is a great way to expand your knowledge, share your travel stories, and make new friends. I’ve even gone on a few great vacations with people I met at travel conferences. Bluntly, some of the most interesting people I have ever met were at travel conferences. You typically don’t interact with these people unless you go to CVS and Walmart often ;)
Grant and Randy Peterson
Plus, if you are new to the miles and points game, you can learn a tremendous amount just by listening and talking with others. I have always said that everyone who attends travel conferences is capable of having their own travel blog – that is how much travel knowledge we each have inside our heads.
So in conclusion… come by yourself! It is the greatest thing you can possibly do if you want to learn more about miles and points!
#rantover
Wait…Is this a rant? :-)
Happy rant? Do all rants have to be angry?
Agreed! I just signed up for DC in December (by myself) and had already signed up for San Diego by myself.
Having gone to Sea FTU in April by myself, you were the friendliest person I met the whole weekend (and I’m from Seattle)!!
Thanks for being friendly, Grant.
You’re welcome Jeff, glad you think like me and go solo (more fun that way!)
Oh man this is so true…
You know it Ozaer! Have you been to many travel conferences by yourself?
I hear you. but look at it this way…. at the end of the night, you probably got some, when (most of) the bloggers traveling solo didn’t …. or, here’s another option, travel MMS style and bring your girlfriend’s mother along. That way she’ll have someone to talk to when you’re talking points and miles… .
by the way, your photos take a long time to load. I’m guessing you don’t resize them before you load them. I’m really happy with a free program called FastStone photo resizer. Email me if you have any questions.
keep on trucking,
Kathy
http://willrunformiles.boardingarea.com
Good morning Kathy, I resize the images to 1000px or 800px before uploading and use WPSmush.it plugin to optimize all the images. It’s probably my shared server that is slow. I appreciate the feedback as always.
Nothing wrong with travelling by yourself on Vacation either. I try to take at least one personal trip by myself every year, I’ll probably change that to every two years soon and then every longer when I have kids.
It’s important to do things without your partner and that includes travelling. Travelling solo helps you to grow as a person dramatically and it’s a shame more kids in the US don’t take time off before their studies to travel internationally which is more the standard in European countries (and Australia).
I’ve really only traveled by my self once internationally. I spent the weekend in Copenhagen after flying up from a work meeting in Hamburg. There are pluses and minuses about traveling alone, but it has been fun to go by myself. I also did a mini 4 day trip to Albuquerque by myself. Both very memorable trips!
I went to Australia with grad school, and while there tacked on a 10 day trip on my own up to the Whitsundays. One of the best trips of my life. I don’t do trips on my own hardly at all anymore, but I think it is a good idea even if you have kids. Ours are 6 and 8, and there is no reason my husband and I couldn’t each take a short trip on our own every year or two. Or even a longer one. I took a very short overnight trip to St Louis last fall to go to an anniversary party for my best friend and it was great.
That said, I did feel a bit awkward at times when I was at Chicago seminars on my own. People are very friendly, so you just have to plunk yourself down at a table full of strangers and you’ll be welcomed, but it’s that initial move that can be hard.
I totally agree with you. Most people in this hobby are introverted and being a first timer is scary. Whenever I go to these conferences, I try to go up to someone who is alone and to talk with them. I know I would appreciate it if I was a first timer. I usually break the ice with “is this your first travel conference? Pretty cool to meet hundreds of people who live miles and points and don’t get annoyed when you talk about miles and points for hours, right?”
I believe SERVE subaccounts CAN participate in AMEX sync promos, and probably small-business Saturday.
I think so too Chris.
So, I am fairly new to the game. What is the best way to find out about these conferences?
TIA,
Rick
Hi Rick, if you follow the big blogs on BoardingArea, you will see the conferences announced.
Pingback: Around P2B - 10/5/14 - Jetsetter's Homestead
Pingback: Chicago Seminars Friendships and an OC Meetup on Saturday October 25 at 12pm | Travel with Grant
Pingback: Orange County "The OC" Meetup on Saturday November 15 at 6pm at In-N-Out | Travel with Grant
Pingback: Marathon Man: "Manufactured Spending is like Card Counting" and my #WestCoastDo Thoughts | Travel with Grant
Okay you may have just convinced me to go to DC but I’m such a cheap ass I’m having a hard time justifying the $500 plus cost all-in.
This is where travel hacking comes in. Use Avios/SWA to fly from CLT-DCA and find a hotel nearby that you can use points to pay for the stay. The price of admission is going to be hard to avoid though.
Pingback: FTU Dallas this Weekend, “Do not be afraid to talk to me”Travel with Grant | Travel with Grant
I agree on this in regards to blogger conferences too – talk to everyone! I’ve met some good friends at BlogHer and similar conferences.
Thanks Liz, chatting with people at conferences is great :)