Tourism Vancouver Island’s Professional Development Days provide Vancouver Island tourism stakeholders with valuable knowledge and training on some of the industry’s most current topics.
The event will be held Thursday, March 14 at the Cowichan Golf & Country Club and Friday, March 15 at the Best Western Plus, The Westerly Hotel from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
The cost is $75+HST per person includes all workshops, lunch, networking and opportunity to win great door prizes.
“Our team at Tourism Vancouver Island is dedicated to enriching the opportunities for our stakeholders”, says Dave Petryk, President and CEO of the organization. “These professional development sessions have been developed to reflect the ever changing environment in today’s economy, and participants will receive important and relevant information to help them succeed.”
Pro-D Day Workshops:
- Understanding our Visitors, Current Trends, & Changing Conditions, Sarah Adams, Research Professional, DeltaVitae Consulting
This session discusses destination marketing and how the promotion of your product or service can play a vital role in the visitor decision-making process.
Understand the visitor in order to meet their needs means understanding their changing interests, changing economics, technology, and demographics.
Determine how to integrate research in your business.
n Social Media and Marketing for Tourism, Garland Coulson, the E-Business Tutor
What can social media do for your tourism business? Should you focus on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or something else? What about web sites; do they still work?
How can you reach people while they travel?
This no-hype, easy to follow session will help you understand what social media can and can’t do for tourism business, get the most out of online advertising, turn a website visitor into a customer, and use mobile phones and tablets to draw people to your business.
- Work Smarter Not Harder, Garland Coulson, the E-Business Tutor
Do you find that you work harder than people around you, yet they make more money and enjoy more success than you do?
Why?
In his second workshop, Coulson will show you how to work less, make more money, improve energy levels, identify the tasks that are pulling you down, handle the most difficult projects easily, and much more!
Whether you are an employee, a manager or self-employed, he offers many powerful time management tips to transform your working day and to enhance your personal life.
- Collective Intelligence in the Information Age, Juma Wood, Manager, MNP LLP
Social networks needn’t be overwhelming; they simply require a mindset adjustment.
You are part of a rapidly increasing connectivity through which you have new opportunities to grow and promote your business. Once you understand the fundamentals of how social platforms work, you can move on to exploring their power.
This innovative and interactive presentation will explore this mindset shift, and will outline practical steps to move your business into this emerging future.
- Sustainable Leisure Management, Laurel Sliskovic, Graduate, Sustainable Leisure Management
Sliskovic will present her Master’s thesis, exploring the concept of local Vancouver Island tourism and its relationship to quality of life for residents.
The results of this study indicate a strong pride of place and sense of space that Vancouver Island residents and tourism industry stakeholders have for their communities.
Strategies for creating innovative opportunities to engage residents more fully in tourism products and services will be discussed.
Tourism Vancouver Island is one of six regional destination management organizations in British Columbia that represent Tourism British Columbia through co-operative marketing and community development programs.
For more information about Tourism Vancouver Island, Professional Development Days and marketing initiatives, please visit www.tourismvi.ca.