Learning the Keys of Technology and their power in the Tourism Industry with Todd Lucier (and Natalie too!)

In Spring 2008, the Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resource Council, as part of their annual Nova Scotia Masterclass Series of workshops, arranged for two, 2-day hands-on technology workshops with Todd Lucier of TourismKeys.ca. As a welcomed bonus, his daughter Natalie joined him which made for an even more interactive experience for the workshop attendees in the April sessions.

For those of you that are not familiar with Todd, he is a self-taught guru in online tourism marketing through technology available to us online and offers helpful and informative tips, tools and findings on his website, http://www.tourismkeys.ca/, and blog. Todd facilitates workshops throughout Ontario and presents at Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism (GMIST) each year.

The first of the two technology workshops was held in Port Hawkesbury at the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Strait Area Campus while the second session was held in Dartmouth at the new NSCC Waterfront Campus.

In both sessions, Todd introduced participants to ways that they can enhance their websites using free, online tools such as Wordpress and Blogger blogs, Animoto for creating audio/video slideshows of pictures and more. He explained why blogs are becoming more important and beneficial to have and walked participants through the setting up and building of a blog using Wordpress.

Participants had been asked to bring 10 digital pictures of their property and/or area to use over the two days and with these pictures, slideshows were created in the free online tool, Animoto. While everyone was working on this, Natalie was setting up a sound room in order for participants to record a short, 30 second blurb on their business. After these were recorded, Natalie, a radio and television arts graduate, edited the clips and added Celtic music to the background which allowed everyone the chance to add them to their animoto creations. Once finished, the files were then uploaded to YouTube and then embedded into the newly created blogs.

These workshops gave operators a hands-on approach to learning about social media and the ease and benefits of using it.

For tips and tricks and informed opinions, please visit Todd's blog.