WalesCymru.com

Recently WalesCymru took to the road, literally. I drove the length of Wales, going up and then down some amazing and hardly used roads, to participate in VisitWales’ 2008 Roadshows. Now these events are over, and with the invoice about to arrive, I’m asking myself Why?

The theme this year was “Sustainability”, so maybe I should have followed the lead advocated by the keynote speakers and simply stayed at home, watching the presentations on download rather than adding a few extra tons of CO2 to my carbon footprint. This was certainly the cheaper option and in today’s credit squeezed economy may have been the most sensible. But sensibility has never been my strong point and in doing so I would have missed sampling some tasty locally sourced food and the chance to ‘network’ with the trade, not to mention the hospitality I enjoyed at the (coffee) bars and the chance to drive down those great roads.

Let’s recap on what I actually learnt and especially if this was money well spent. Which I suppose comes do to one simple question, namely: Why attend?

I convinced myself that if 1000 people attended the four events this would be 1000 new people who would see WalesCymru in operation. This was a mistake. Firstly 1000 people did not attend, and even if they had the reality is you only speak with a fraction of these at an event. While my goal to was meet 1000, in reality this turned out to be less than 100 and equated to a cost of around £15 per person.

I believed this event would give me some valuable feedback on the site. Again I was wrong. Feedback implies familiarity, and as only one person I spoke to had used the site, this objective was some way off target. Given that I’d produced 1000 ‘feedback’ forms which I’d hoped to distribute, only to find the policy this year was ‘no handouts’ as we’re being green, I really missed the mark on this one. Strike two.

But there’s always networking … Well, when you’re manning your stand during the 2 hours or so allocated to ‘food and exhibition’ breaks do you really get much networking in? I’m not sure about you, but I find splitting myself in two rather difficult, so missed most of the networking opportunities that were going. That said I did chat with some interesting people and also picked up some scary facts (commercial fishing ends in 2048) and a few new ides, which were:

1. Wales needs an integrated public transport system ASAP. This will not be economically viable for some years to come, if ever
2. Buses are greener than trains. Wales should invest in fleets of electric / hybrid buses, recharged by 21st Century Windmills
3. Sustainability is a fashionable policy with a high price tag. Ask your Councilor or AM about ’sustainability’ schemes and they’ll probably talk about land fill and recycling, but say nothing on dedicated city bike routes, zero emission buildings, or supporting a local farmers’ market. Clearly we have to do the thinking for them!
4. Community email services provide great cross promotion opportunities. OK this is more like it - back to emarketing and the Internet; but does it work? Perhaps the answer to this question is that Aberconwy Web Solutions have been named as one of the three finalist winners in this year’s Excellence in e-commerce category in the Western Mail Business Awards and the Info4-u e-CRM system has already delivered around £2m in business to North Wales operators.

So, back to the original question. Was the 2008 Tourism Roadshow worth it? On balance I have to say no. If I was judge the event by the return on investment, I’m certainly in the negative, and that’s not even including my extra Co2 contribution. But then what value do you put on exploring the scenic areas of rural Wales or in meeting new and interesting people?