Schedule
Tuesday, January 17
3-6 p.m. Registration
Wednesday, January 18
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Registration
8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Internet Café
The Internet Café will be open throughout the conference. Stop in to check email, catch up on work and connect with your social media sites.
Ask South Dakota Tourism Room
Stop by to learn more about the South Dakota Department of Tourism. During each of the networking breaks, staff will be available to chat with industry members. Here, you can ask questions or just talk with a Tourism staff member. Anything from co-op programs, online partnerships, creative consultations, and new marketing initiatives can be discussed. Visit face-to-face, pick up business cards, or drop your questions into a specific team box.
10-10:50 a.m.
Meet Your Regional Staff
Listen to and learn from the four regional tourism directors the benefits of belonging to an association and about the marketing opportunities they offer members. The regional organizations specialize in promoting their specific areas to visitors and are focused on maximizing your business' exposure. The directors will give a recap on their year and equip attendees with tools to cross-sell South Dakota's Great Faces and Great Places.
11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Visitor Industry Alliance Luncheon
Note: Additional $15 fee for this luncheon. (See the registration form.)
12:30-1 p.m.
Welcome and Tourism Briefing
Jim Hagen, Secretary of the Department of Tourism, will welcome attendees to the conference and recap our marketing efforts from 2011. Jim will energize the industry with a glance at the 2012 marketing efforts and exciting new initiatives for the upcoming peak season.
1:15-2:45 p.m. KEYNOTE
The Trust Edge with David Horsager
Trust is a fundamental, bottom-line issue. Without it, leaders lose teams, salespeople lose sales and organizations lose reputation, retention of good people, relationships and revenue. But with trust, individuals and organizations enjoy greater creativity, productivity, freedom and results.
Through a captivating presentation, David Horsager combines humor and illustrations with business insight and analysis. He will show you how the little things, done consistently, add up to huge results. Attendees will walk away with concrete steps they can immediately use to improve their lives and careers.
Learn the eight pillars of the most successful organizations, three ways to build connections and key ways to build morale, sales and customer loyalty.
3:15-4:30 p.m. BREAKOUT SESSION
1
How NOT to Lose Time and Money on Social Media
Businesses are scrambling to get on board with social media, yet questions are the same. How do I make the most of my time? Where should I focus? How much time should I dedicate? What should I expect for results? Unfortunately, businesses are not asking the most important question: Why? Matt Bailey will clear the social media landscape and show that not all social media is the same, so expectations and uses cannot be the same. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, and each business can use the strengths to their advantage. Learn how to harness the power of social media and make social media work for you!
NEWS FLASH! – You are the Customer Service
The customer is always right, but that doesn't mean you're wrong. Renee Rongen will show attendees there is no magic involved and you need not be a rocket scientist to master great customer service. You simply need to be empowered as an ambassador of your own organization. Get back to the basics and learn the five cardinal rules to acquiring new customers and developing long-term customer relationships. This is a must-attend if you are in the service industry and you have customers! Oh, that's right, everyone does! Then this workshop is for you! Learn while laughing as award-winning humorist and business guru, Renee Rongen, takes you on the road to increased sales and heightened employee morale and productivity.
Tribal Tourism
Tribal Tourism continues to be a major draw for visitors to South Dakota. Come and listen to Ivan Sorbel as he presents a portion of his Lakota Culture, History and Reservation Tourism Training.
6:30-10 p.m.
The Glacial Lakes & Prairies Tourism Association is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. The association invites you to come dressed in clothing from your favorite decade from the last 50 years. Whether it's a poodle skirt or tie-dye, get all dressed up and enjoy fun and festivities. Dinner will be provided.
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7:30-9:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Internet Café
The Internet Café will be open throughout the conference. Stop in to check email, catch up on work and connect with your social media sites.
Ask South Dakota Tourism Room
Stop by to learn more about the South Dakota Department of Tourism. During each of the networking breaks, staff will be available to chat with industry members. Here, you can ask questions or just talk with a Tourism staff member. Anything from co-op programs, online partnerships, creative consultations, and new marketing initiatives can be discussed. Visit face-to-face, pick up business cards, or drop your questions into a specific team box.
8-9 a.m.
Case Study Roundtables
Promoting the Outdoors
South Dakota has some of the best outdoor recreation opportunities in the region. How can we showcase and market these opportunities best? Come to this informal discussion on promoting the outdoors. We'll cover what we're already doing and how we can do it better. We'll look for new ideas on how to promote fishing and hunting in our state and talk about marketing adventure sports in South Dakota. The discussion will also touch on how we can make a listing of outdoor suppliers in South Dakota to best assist our visitors.
Best Practices – Importance of Hosting Writers and Tour Operators
What is a fam tour? Why host? What practices should we use to determine how much to offer a writer or a group? In this session, members of the Media & Industry Relations and International & Domestic Trade Sales teams will discuss best practices when hosting special guests. We'll also discuss the ways which are most efficient in partnering with our office on these great opportunities. Audience participation is encouraged with ideas of their best practices, feedback on hosting, and ways to make these opportunities as seamless as possible.
Recap of Regional Research and Marketing Meetings
If your busy schedule did not allow you to attend, come to this discussion and hear a recap of the regional research and marketing meetings that were held in the fall of 2011. This session will inform you of results from the Department of Tourism's research and marketing studies.
How South Dakota's Visitor Industry Can Invigorate Bicycle Tourism
All forms of bicycling, on-road and off-road, are growing in South Dakota. The state is poised to become known as a bicycling destination that is equal to states like Colorado and Oregon. In this session, presenters will define bicycle tourism, how to gauge and promote the economic impact of bicycle tourism, how to serve this market, and identify issues that need to be addressed.
9:15-10:15 a.m. Repeat Case Study Roundtables
10:30-11:45 a.m. BREAKOUT SESSION
2 (Repeat Breakout Session 1 from Wednesday)
12-1 p.m.
Destination Luncheon
Several industry partners will showcase their businesses during this luncheon. This is a great opportunity to mingle amongst the industry and learn something about another business.
1:15-2:30 p.m.
BREAKOUT SESSION 3
Search Engine Marketing – Beginners
Search engines are the number one method that people are using to find information. Are you positioning your business to be found? What does it take to compete in search engines? Matt Bailey will present 10 search engine tips for increasing your website's visibility online and how you can get more visitors and more sales through simple changes. Matt will also present the five biggest budget busters in setting up a Google AdWords campaign. Come prepared to take notes and walk away with immediate steps that you can use to start building your rankings and sales today!
This session does not repeat.
Zap the Gap
Job applicants are plentiful and unemployment is high, but the threat remains the same. Making the wrong generational choice can cost organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. In this highly-charged, participatory presentation, Meagan Johnson outlines the dominant generational forces in the workplace and how each generation's "generational signposts" drive motivation and influence company loyalty and delivery of customer service. Meagan does not just explain the differences between the generations, she demonstrates how to move from conflict to collaboration.
Best Practices – Learning from Other States
In this session, attendees will hear from the current National State Tourism Director of the Year, George Zimmermann, from Michigan. The Pure Michigan campaign has been wildly popular and successful, even called one of the best state tourism campaigns of all time. George will show the audience what the marketing campaign looked like in Michigan before Pure Michigan and he'll explain why the decision was made to develop a new marketing initiative. He'll describe the return on investment garnered from the campaign and how the campaign was received by national, regional and in-state audiences. Attendees will hear the lessons Michigan's visitor industry learned throughout the campaign and what they can learn as a result of this effective marketing campaign.
3-4:30 p.m. BREAKOUT
SESSION 4 (Repeat Breakout Session 3)
Search Engine Marketing – Advanced
If you have already mastered the steps for optimization, come and get ready to take it up a notch! Through analytics, usability and online research tools, rankings can be boosted even more by integrating these other disciplines. Find the "money words" in your analytics, which will laser focus your SEO. Develop better usability, which increases both conversions and rankings. Take your marketing to another level and become a link-building machine. Learn from Matt Bailey how successful online marketers are able to promote their business and see amazing increases in rankings, visitors and conversions.
This session does not repeat.
Zap the Gap
(Repeat of Meagan Johnson's session above.)
Best Practices – Learning from Other States
(Repeat of George Zimmermann's session above.)
6-7 p.m.
Social
Relax and unwind with your legislators and colleagues. Cocktails and appetizers will be served prior to the Awards Night Gala.
7 p.m.
Awards Night Gala
Celebrate tourism with Governor Dennis Daugaard and First Lady Linda Daugaard, Department of Tourism staff, legislators, and your colleagues. Enjoy a glamorous evening filled with fine cuisine, an awards presentation and laughter.
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