In 2014, a crack commando unit was sent to the tourism Indaba to provide social media coverage for South African Tourism and South African Airways. This team promptly arrived in Durban and got to work. Today, still wanted by clients around the country, they survive as digital communications specialists. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire ... The Flow Team.
It was an honour to be part of the team that went to Durban recently to cover the 2014 tourism Indaba for South African Tourism and SAA. It’s the biggest travel trade conference on the continent, and providing coverage of all three days kept us very busy! Flow managed South African Tourism’s travel trade channels during the conference – these include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube – and updated the southafrica.net trade news site. For SAA, we contributed Indaba coverage to their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts.
Check below to get a day-by-day summary of #Indaba2014:
In addition, the Flow Team got to join the #MeetSouthAfrica bloggers on an Instawalk, seeing the Durban city centre by bus and on foot, and taking pictures as we went:
Here’s what members of the team had to say about their time in Durban:
Andrea Weiss
This being only my second Indaba (the first was way back when), I was curious to see how this legendary travel show had evolved – and I wasn’t disappointed.
A highlight was the Instawalk organised for the #MeetSouthAfrica bloggers in downtown Durban. I loved catching the equivalent of Cape Town’s MyCiti bus (the PeopleMover), which took us to the Victoria Street Market, followed by a walk through the muti and fresh produce markets, to the Emmanuel Cathedral, ending at the City Hall.
At Indaba itself, the Global Media Face Off with Richard Quest was another highlight. He’s every bit as sharp on his feet in person as he is on television, and he didn’t let the panellists off the hook.
I also enjoyed browsing through the stands and making connections for future story ideas for the South African Tourism site, particularly in the Northern Cape (my favourite province).
Outside of Indaba, the boat trip with my colleague, Stuart Buchanan, to see the Sharks Board checking their nets was an experience. We saw the sun rise over the bluff and Durban waking up in a golden glow. There were early-morning kayakers fishing off Veitch’s Pier, surfers and paddle boarders catching some pre-work exercise, and even dolphins at play. The view of the Moses Mabhida Stadium was beautiful too.
All in all, I was pretty whacked when we climbed on the plane back to Cape Town – but exhilarated too.
Gail Cameron
#Indaba2014 was a non-stop, always-on, hashtagging, tweeting, eating and awesome four days. Running from venue to venue, trying to hold everything together, tweeting constantly and keeping two big clients happy was a massive and hugely satisfying task. Highlights for me included getting to know the #MeetSouthAfrica bloggers on the Durban Instawalk, the blogger cocktail party and the awesome TECHzone.
It was incredible working with such a fun, creative and hard-working group of Flowstars. I’m already looking forward to Indaba 2015.
Roy Barford
I thought Indaba 2014 was really well organised and that it was a very useful conference for the travel trade members that attended. It’s always great working with the team at South African Tourism, and having done three Indabas together now, I feel we’ve done a great job in communicating to both the travel trade and consumers.
My personal highlights at Indaba included launching the new Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism blog, the #MeetSouthAfrica Instagram walk through the CBD, and some of the destination marketing talks given at the TECHzone.
From a marketing perspective, my advice to exhibitors for next year is to define a unique selling point and convey this visually at your stands and in your pitches to people passing by.
Christine Marot
With the consumer element removed, Indaba 2014 was quieter than in previous years, but definitely more focused, according to general sentiment. I loved the TECHzone, a timeous inclusion that acknowledges the influential role social media is playing in tourism worldwide. I think a lot more could be made of this feature, with live screening of events and better acoustics for the presentations. Flow was once again all over Indaba, covering everything we possibly could and sharing the news via Facebook posts, tweets, hangouts and traditional face-to-face interaction.
Keith Nicholls
A great experience – hectic at times, but ultimately very rewarding. And, importantly, we produced very strong content for the client.
Lethabo-Thabo Royds
Wow! Wow! Wow! Indaba 2014 was awesome.
We had a fantastic team there ensuring that what we delivered to our clients was only the best. This year felt so much more jam-packed than last year. The opening ceremony was so slick and awesome – I love how the live event was so integrated with what was happening digitally, and it was super-cool seeing our tweets come up on the screen during the ceremony. I was seated at the front with a guy who kept taking a photo of his tweets when they came up.
I really liked the TECHzone and the talks there, and the iced-tea machine that charged #TECHzone tweets for iced tea was just genius. I loved the Instawalk and I enjoyed being able to stand on ostrich eggs – scary but cool.
Tara Turkington
Indaba 2014 was the best one I’ve ever attended. The organisation, diversity of products on show and the vibe were incredible. The opening ceremony was slick and inspirational, with Theo Kgosinkwe’s and Nhlanhla Nciza’s performance with their dancers really setting the tone.
Flow had a record team of a dozen Flowstars working at Indaba, mostly supporting our clients, South African Tourism and South African Airways. We ran all the social media for South African Tourism – in total we engaged with thousands of people beyond the exhibition through these channels, and even got #Indaba2014 trending nationally.
Indaba is always a highlight on the Flow calendar. Some memories I’ll carry with me are the #MeetSouthAfrica Instawalk through the Victoria Street Market and adjacent Warwick Junction, the pulsating atmosphere at the opening ceremony that made me extra proud to be South African, Stuart Buchanan doorstepping CNN’s Richard Quest, the Flow sandcastle made for us on North Beach, the SAA CEOs’ breakfast where Christine Marot won a trip on the Blue Train, and so many others. I can’t wait for next year!
