ARC: Connections: ELMAR: Posting

areas: tourism: content

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It gives me great please to announce the call for papers for the October 2011 Conference on Social Media in Hospitality and Tourism. The conference is sponsored by Virginia Tech University in cooperation with MCI University in Innsbruck and the College of Charleston.

The Web2.0 medium is having an enormous influence not only in the way hospitality and tourism organizations market themselves, but for researchers themselves. The Conference will bring together the leading researchers in the field as well as its most innovative industry leaders to explore opportunities therein.

Keynote speakers will include:

Philip Vaughn is the CEO & Co-Founder of Raveable, an award winning travel site recognized for its innovative hotel ratings and reviews. Prior to co-founding Raveable, Philip led a team as a Microsoft Group Manager in the creation of Microsoft SQL Server currently the world’s most popular database. Before Microsoft, he first saw the potential of organizing customer opinions across product dimensions while working at The Gallup Organization. In his minuscule spare time, Philip enjoys the company of his amazing wife Sue and their son Nathan.

Greg Kihlstrom is an internationally-recognized Interactive Designer whose work has won international awards, been published in books and magazines and design websites. He is currently Chief Creative Officer at Carousel30 Interactive in Washington DC a digital agency with a strong social media and search engine marketing focus, in addition to interactive design and development capabilities. Greg has been at the forefront of emerging trends in marketing on the Web ever since his days being involved in some of the first online grassroots marketing initiatives in the nineties. He has continued to innovate in the area of online marketing and advertising through social media outreach, search engine marketing for a variety of industries including tourism and hospitality.

The Conference itself will be held in Verona, Italy with many rich opportunities to explore and experience both before and after the conference. It will be a beautiful time to be in the Alps.

There will be several Best Paper Awards as well as a special issue of the Journal of Vacation Marketing derived from the papers submitted/presented. All papers will be reviewed by a Scientific Committee who can be found at:

http://www.cpe.vt.edu/mpd.htmsocialmedia/

Vincent P. Magnini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Hospitality Marketing
Virginia Tech
355 Wallace Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Tel: (540)231-8425
Homepage: www.htm.pamplin.vt.edu/faculty/magnini.html

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