As TBEX Europe grows close, some of us are wondering what to pack in our cases and others what information to pack into conference talks and presentations. But for those in charge of conference logistics the stakes, and the workload, are rather higher. Trips 100 Commissioning Editor Kirstie Pelling caught up with Girona’s Director of Marketing in the race to deliver TBEX Costa Brava…

Most tourist boards are adept at dealing with bloggers. In our social world it’s just part of the job for a Destination Marketing Manager or PR. But not many have to deal with 700 of them at once. Or follow up an exhaustive two day conference with simultaneous press trips across a region. But if ever there was a man for the job, it is Jaume Marin.

The human hurricane

On a normal day Costa Brava Girona’s Director of Marketing is a whirlwind. Give him something to be excited about and you’re looking at a hurricane. Yet within the eye of the storm everything is under control. I have been on summer and winter Costa Brava press trips and can vouch for the efficiency of his whole team, who manage to be seamlessly involved, yet not really there at all.

Jaume and I grab a five minute lunchtime Skype chat and I ask him what he’s been up to in the run up to this year’s TBEX Europe. “Running around.” he grins. “It’s the thing I do most. Like a chicken. And then extinguishing some fires. Finalising things. Trying to get people more involved. Trying to get things settled down.”

A seaside location

This year’s TBEX is being held in the Catalonian resort of Lloret de Mar. It isn’t the first time the conference has been to the Costa Brava; it was held in Girona in 2012. I had seen some criticism in the blogger forums about TBEX for returning to the same destination so soon; part of the expectation is that delegates can gather fresh content for their blogs and I put this to Jaume. But he says the coastal conference is a different proposition to the city based Girona, and this event is much bigger; 250 bloggers that attended the first have morphed into 7-800 bloggers for this month’s event.

After the conference there are 22 different blog trips going out, the majority to Costa Brava Pyrenees areas and the rest to the Barcelona area. All are fully booked. On top of this there are 17 excursions with 12 people each. Which adds up to more than 150 bloggers getting on buses and boats at the same time. Can his small team cope?

“We do a lot of similar things. But not as big as this; this is one of our biggest projects of the year,” he replies. “We are happy to host it but it’s going to be a lot of investment, mainly in human resources. All the team are working very hard to make this successful.” The leader on the project is Gemma Suner, who e-mails me later to say it’s all going according to plan her end. “We are extremely busy preparing TBEX, but we hope it gives great results…”

Party planning

The opening party logistics alone would give many people a headache but Jaume approaches it with the enthusiasm of Salvador Dali with a great big canvas. “On the opening night we have 10 different chefs coming. It will be a big party with different craft beers, wine and different shows. It will be going all night long and people will get to the beach by boat. I hope it’s going to be good!”

Some elements are the same as Girona; Costa Brava signature strokes are human towers and hospitality, but there are other challenges, including different ways of doing things in a different part of the region. The team’s job is to manage the smooth operation of spaces, transfers, flights and free room nights while TBEX takes care of the conference content.

Making new friends and meeting old ones

I ask him why he offered to host again; what will Costa Brava, and Lloret get out of it? “We’re going to get two things,” he replies. “The first is friends. This is very important as we are trying to get engagement with bloggers. The second objective is quality content from the main influential bloggers. And then after that some social media noise and spread.”

Hosting a second time means it’s a less steep learning curve. “It helps because some people know what happened and we have evolved it. But then every project is different. Always you need to improve yourself and there is always more detail to look at. But this is as far as we go and we’re going to do well.”

Our time is up. Jaume needs to go put out some more fires. I tell him I will see him in Lloret. Me and 7-800 other bloggers. “Yes but you are the special one,” he says, with a smile. I’ll bet he’ll be saying that a lot in the coming days. Because making bloggers feel special is what Costa Brava Tourism excels at.