Never did I think I would meet government ministers, travel to Berlin, tweet at zalebs (and get them to follow me back) and go shopping with some of South Africa’s most prominent CEOs.
Never did I think all of this could be classified as work.
But that was before I started working with the Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA).
It’s been nearly a year since Flow Communications (with me as content coordinator) was officially appointed website developer for the GTA. And in just under 350 days, we’ve developed a web presence of note for my favourite client.
What follows is a brief photo essay that tells the story of this year, one with me as the protagonist (of course) as I travelled on a journey of development and discovery in the online realm.
South Africa’s biggest business tourism event of the year, Meetings Africa is about establishing ties with the domestic product and linking it to a website platform that serves them.
It’s also about networking and brand building.
This year at Meetings Africa I represented GTA as I connected with conference and meeting establishments. What a great February!
And then it was off to Berlin for International ITB – THE leisure tourism showcase of the year internationally. Flow conceptualised a campaign that would create interest in the I Love Gauteng brand and, via a clever Harry the Hominid activation, captured an audience of international players in the leisure market.
The events wasn't all work, work, work though...Oh yes, that’s me there – drinking beer with Dawn Robertson, CEO of GTA and Erica Jago, MD of the SAB World of Beer. What a superb March!
For the Tourism Indaba in Durban in May this year, Flow created TWO mini campaigns and activations for the tourism authority. I – for the first time – recorded video content while at the event – and encouraged participants to join our online My Gauteng competition. Yes, that's me with MEC Qedani Mahlangu
The Summit (held in September) was next. And boy did Flow do well. With live blogging, video content and a trending topic on Twitter, Flowstars took up the challenge with gusto and made GTA proud. The mini-site now sports a forum for ongoing dialogue that was raised at the event.
Flow’s latest showcase is the GeePee loyalty campaign that encourages residents and visitors of Gauteng to start discovering things about their backyard. Travel, food and event benefits are free to all GeePees who sign up for the GeePee card, and a community of amaGeePees punts the campaign across social media channels. The campaign was launched at the start of Tourism Month and continues to grow from strength to strength