There is a little bit of luddite in all of us, resisting new technologies, and proclaiming how they will never last.
Technology, however, was the key to bringing a new conference to Penticton, one that could potentially have ramifications far beyond the 240 people expected to attend or the money the conference may inject into the local economy.
Tomorrow is the first day of the 2013 Wine Bloggers’ conference, the first time it has been held in location outside the US.
And it’s here due to the lobbying efforts of Tourism Penticton in partnership with social media expert Allison Markin, who saw the potential in not only using social media to promote Penticton but the larger potential in drawing a group of bloggers here to sample the region’s wines.
Uncounted numbers of readers will now be reading about both B.C. wines and the region that produces them as the conference attendees live blog and tweet while enjoying tasting sessions or excursions taking them around the region, from Summerland to the border.
You can’t buy that level of exposure.
So, thanks to Twitter, Facebook etc — all of which have been declared a flash in the pan, dead, or just passé at some point — the South Okanagan Similkameen is going to be shown off to a huge swath of people who may have never thought about visiting the region before.
The communications landscape is changing. Once, it took days for stories to travel around the world and now, wine aficionados will be reading up to the moment impressions from their favourite writers.
We applaud the foresightedness of the team who saw the potential in this new landscape to reach out to a worldwide audience and offer them a taste of the South Okanagan.
