Bill Bryson, author of such bestsellers as Notes from a Small Island and The Lost Continent, ends the Wednesday conference sessions.
It’s a strange 45 minutes or so. An after dinner speech, before lunch – if that makes sense?
Bryson, an America from Iowa, loves the UK. He moved back to the UK four years ago after spending some time in the US.
In fact, Bryson should be working for VisitBritain, such is his enthusiasm for the British Isles.
He enthuses about the sense of humour of its people, history, churches and architecture.
He rails against a growing litter problem (with a plug for a new ambassadorial role he has at the Campaign for Protection of Rural England).
He shows some slides featuring, er, slides. [Funny joke about ITT chairman Stephen Freudmann’s request for “slides” during his presentation].
He loves headlines!
"Water board chief settles in well"
"Columbus native to run home"
"Florida reporter completes sentence"
"The Millenium happens once in a lifetime"
"Chesterton couple take on missionary position"
"Polo man charged with forking woman"
"World affairs concern Bush"
"Bush planning Mars trip"
Amusing end to a good morning...
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
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3 comments:
Interesting... I considered the Bill Bryson/VisitBritain thing a while back while doing some research on how to build traction with audiences in travel sector social networks.
Bill's basically a potential "opinion leader" who can filter the view of Britain through the lens of humour, culture etc. to those who may value his opinion on subject matter.
I'm sure his positive view of Britain is worthy and well put. (I've read his books and reckon so.) The key thing here for me is a need to get people with a profile with the right target audience on the right subject matter. Is his profile that strong even in the US, let alone Japan, or other key markets?
Bills probably better for Enjoy England, VB's sister, which markets England for the British (and also Irish, French, German, Dutch). For the British audience, I think EE could make better use than VB of Bill, or Loyd Grosman (writing about food), Clive James (writing about culture), Rolf Harris (about Art????), or countless footballers who've stayed on. And I'm sure there are plenty of other Anglophiles out there too who could connect with target audiences about England on other subject matter...
VB needs I think a slightly different type of treatment. As I said, interesting stuff...
I think that Bill hit a very valid point regarding the problems of litter that impacts on the British Countryside. It is now almost impossible to travel down any lane or byway withiout encountering this blight. A great opportunity for the UK domestic travel industry to be vocal in its support for him to make a real difference and start to reverse the terrible mess we are making in our countryside.
last comment was from John Harding (Hotels4u.com). we let him use our machine!!
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