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The inaugural NY Trav Fest, April 20-21, is taking a young, edgy approach with sessions like, “Your Bucket List Sucks & I’m Gonna Tell You Why.”
Day 1’s program includes a series of speakers, events, films and food tasting:
- Mainstage with travel writers and media personalities.
- Local/Regional Breakout focusing on the greater NYC area
- Taste of the Hudson Valley sounds good
- Niche Breakout includes topics like Beer Travel.
Day 2 leaves the exhibition hall for a variety of NYC tours.
There are various ticket packages starting at $40 for Saturday only or $75 for both days, plus add-ons, and a $150 VIP Package that adds a Saturday cooking class and a Mexico-themed program on Sunday.
I am a fan of the work of a number of speakers like Robert Reid and Nomadic Matt, while others are new to me, so I will attend the Saturday program. I am most interested in “Contentious Topics in Travel”:
- Ancillary fees on air, hotels, car rentals
- Deals or Duds?
- What is Travel?
- Politics in Travel
- When Is It Okay to Complain About Travel?
- The Merits of Disaster Tourism
- One wild card topic via the audience
The Sunday tours are not for me, I get enough of New York on my weekdays. For those who want a fresh look at the city, there is even a Staten Island tour.
Disclaimer for miles and points addicts: there is a nary a frequent flyer program topic to be found. This is all travel. 😉
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I’m definitely attending this thing. I’m a little bit more interested in meeting Matt Gross, though, who used to run the NYT’s Frugal Traveler blog. It was great when he was writing it.
Hey, thanks for posting this! Not a bad event for those of us in the NYC area and I wouldn’t mind meeting Nomadic Matt. I may stop by depending on how the cherry blossoms are blooming… or I may be occupied with checking them out.
Kay: Unfortunate that you think that the idea is being marketed to for a day… It’s about travel inspiration and celebrating travel.
Note how much of the mainstage involves anyone that’s an actual sponsor.
Unfortunately, as a first-time, grassroots event, we have to cover costs and this is how it ended up working out.
It’s a very different event from NYT Travel Show, where you truly are paying X dollars to walk down a line of people marketing to you.
Some of the sessions look interesting, but I don’t like the fees. You’re basically paying a fee for privileged of being marketed at for a day. Am I missing something? The tour tickets make sense, but the $40 seems a bit steep. How much was the NYT Travel Show?
It’s a moot point for me anyway. I’ll be in Florida.