My Top 10 learnings from #asvaconf16

Myself and Gordon Morrison from Visit Scotland (plus my glitzy - and very pointy - award)

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend the annual ASVA Conference for a third time at the beautiful Crieff Hydro Hotel. ASVA stands for the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions and its members include all the well known faces of the Scottish tourism industry from Edinburgh Castle to New Lanark World Heritage Site *shameless plug for where I currently work*!

This year's conference was focused on 'Achieving Excellence' and there were some fantastic speakers over the two day event from tourist attractions in the UK, Europe and Canada! I always come away from events like this not with a fistful of dollars (I wish), but with a notebook full of ideas to take forward, inspirational quotes and random scribblings that I have to try and decipher afterwards. 

I had plenty to think about after this year's conference, and have just managed to sort out all of my notes into some cohesive thoughts. I've pulled together a list below of my top 10 takeaways from the conference, and although these were originally focused on the tourism industry there are many ideas or tips that are transferable across many businesses and organisations. 

Oh, I should also mention that at the conference's award ceremony I was chosen as the winner of the Rising Star award which is given to one individual under 30 from an ASVA member organisation who has shown real commitment to their role and made significant change within their organisation. Yahoo! 

Anyways, onto the learnings - here they are...


1. The customer experience is 50% emotional – focus on building the customer experience and not on the ‘thing’ (attraction) (Royal Yacht Britania)

2. Invest in your staff and show them appreciation in a way that appeals to them (this may be 121 time, rewards/gifts or a gesture)

3. Know your customers and create tailored packages and experiences to meet their needs and desires. (The Famous Grouse Experience)

4. Your welcome is extremely important, so use the right staff in the right place.

5. Trip Advisor is big business (Scotland pages had 66 million views in the last 12 months) so be as visible on the platform as possible and reply to comments.

6. You have to keep innovating / changing and developing new ideas to stay ahead of the competition. (The Famous Grouse Experience)

7. Video is a fantastic marketing tool to convey your marketing messages and brand. (Sumerlee Museum of Industrial Heritage)

8. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas! (Nova Scotia Marketing Board)

9. Be as authentic as possible. (Astrid Lingren World)

10. Be valuable to and for the community. If you look after your customers they will look after you! (Royal Yacht Britania)

Did you attend the ASVA conference and have any other key takeaways? Let me know!

Thanks for reading, Melissa
@_Melissa247

Workin' 9 till 5...before the interview?

As part of a recent job application for a role as a 'Tourism Marketing Officer' I had to create a  7-8 minute presentation, to show at my interview.


The focus of the presentation was to answer the question 'How would you market Carrick's most attractive tourism facilities to a domestic tourism audience?' 


Needless to say, my first reaction was to Google where this 'Carrick' place was! I had 4 days to work on the presentation, so most of my weekend was spent working on it. I found myself falling back into patterns learned at University, which certainly helped in laying out the order of the presentation. First of all I conducted research about the domestic tourism market in Scotland, other popular places to visit in Scotland the area of 'Carrick' and its facilities. I then devised a marketing campaign named 'Carrick Rocks' and designed it's logo, based on the Gaelic word traditionally used to name the landscape based on its rocky terrain. I then outlined which digital platforms would be used, with a focus on new and emerging social media technologies in order to attract a younger audience. Although in the end I didn't get the job, the feedback from the employer on my presentation was excellent, and it allowed to me to discover some exciting new technologies which will be useful in future projects. 


I think it's a good idea for employees to set their candidates a small task before interview, as from how much effort they put into the task, the employer can gauge how enthusiastic they are about the role. It also helps to highlight their talents when sometimes a piece of paper headed CV and questions like 'How would your friends describe you?' don't really let the candidates true potential shine through. 


Here are the slides from my presentation (uploading the presentation to Slideshare has made the kerning / font go a bit crazy, apologies!)

Carrick Rocks

View more presentations from _Melissa247.

What do you think, should you have to do a lot of work when you don't even have the job yet?
Have you ever had to prepare a presentation for an interview?


Let me know, Thanks for reading!
Melissa x


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