Today's the second and FINAL day for MITBCA 2012! 

As I had retired to bed pretty late the night before, I arrived Best Western Seri Pacific Hotel a tad later in the mornign.

First session was conducted by Sheila Scarborough 

She gave an intriguing insight of people and organizations and how they use/ought to use social media to increase vibrancy and visibility of their tourism destinations, products and services 🙂

The fourth panel session highlighting the importance of measuring performances and return of investments.

The panelists included Dr. Mridula Dwivedi from India, James Craven from the UK, Nisha Jha from India and Jojo Struys from Malaysia

BREAKTIME!

T'was lovely to meet a few more of my readers at the event.

We had a nice chat & of course, pictures! 

Thank you for saying hi!  Major loves.

It was nice chatting with you guys! 

Hope all of you learn heaps from the conference & had fun!

Next, was the open forum session where it touches on the effects of online social media on tourism websites globally.

This is where questions are posted to Twitter ending with the #mitbca2012 hashtag and it will be shown LIVE on widescreen right in front of the conference & answered by the panelists 🙂

We had bigshots in the house! Great to know that everyone's questions are in good hands!

Abdul Khani Daud (Director from Tourism Malaysia), Shahul Dawood (President of the Malaysia Social Media Chambers) & a senior official from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

When everything was over, it was time for a parallel session – workshop one!

How to make social media work for tourism by James Craven, an expert in the industry from the UK

"Backlinks are a huge part of our strategies.

The role of backlinks cannot be overstated."

James Craven

Answers from the floor answered by a fellow delegate from the floor!

David Hogan involving in a discussion from the floor

Sheila Scarborough then answered a delegate's question, in a way which I fully agree with.

When asked about what the measure of success is or the distinction of traffic, she gave her two cents:

"I don't care about the numbers. The most important is the wonderful & compelling content.

If you have those, the numbers will come automatically.

A blogger's influence is also measured by not mere numbers but by other platforms,

influence & reach apart from JUST the blog.

It's the connection, interaction & how they engage with their readers that matter"

– Sheila Scarborough, award-winning veteran social media specialist from USA

More questions and answers were handled very well by panel members and also by other delegates!

It was clear to see a very dynamic and informational sharing session happening right then and there.

With Shane Dallas!

The Travel Camel & one of the speakers from the Day One of MITBCA 2012

Wit

With James Craven

I left the hotel very enlightened by the various input and imparting of information by many notable (local & foreign) people in the blogging & tourism industry, all flown down from all over the world!

Amazing two-day session, indeed. Great job MITBCA 2012 peeps!

Glow & I right outside the hotel just before I left

New friends made too 

It was the first day and the first session ever of the Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Award (MITBCA) 2012 organized by our very own Ministry of Tourism and the Social Media Chambers.

For more, check out both my previous blogposts where I shared what MITBCA 2012 is all about and announced who the award winners are.

Rise & shine! On the morning of Day One, I was all set and ready to go.

Semi-formal/smart casual outfit of the day. TheJessicat wears : 

Black pin striped blazer by S.U.B

Pink tank-top by Tommy Hilfiger

Black high-waisted skirt by Cotton On

Grey peep-toe suede wedges by Nose

Brown leather satchel by Forever 21

When I arrived Seri Pacific Hotel, the ballroom was already buzzing with delegates!

Wow, talk about being enthusiastic. Great turn out, guys 

9.30AM | Our very own Minister of Tourism, YB Dato Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen set the ball rolling with her keynote speech & welcomed us all.

This photo only shows half of the ballroom

Sheila Scarborough (prominent specialist of Social Media application on Tourism Businesses)

gave her talk on the ‘outreach beyond travel bloggers’

This catered more to business owners of the travel & tourism related industry.

She shared how to identify one’s niche markets, where to find them, how to connect to them and recommended ways on how to interest them in one’s destinations and places of interest.

11.30AM | After her Tourism Social Media Specialist Talk, it was time for the first panel session to begin.

This session shares the ways of creating an engaged social media community

A friend of mine, David Jr. Hogan of Malaysia Asia, was one of the speakers for this session

Good on you, pal!

He talked about the community expansion through travel and sharing the Malaysian experience 🙂

Other speakers of this panel include other notable people in this similar field of expertise, Ali Watters from Scotland, Kiruba Shankar from India and Shane Dallas from Australia.

I found each of their sessions very enlightening and by the end of this panel session, I can bet your bottom dollar that everyone had learnt a thing or two about building active communities through blogging and how to promote destinations & services through new media platforms such as blogs and twitter.

1PM | LUNCH HOUR! 

Time to stretch, mingle about and take a break over scrumptious buffet lunch

Buddy Joe and I – good luck in your speech later! 

Muzaffar and I

David and I – great speech earlier! 

Made a new friend and fellow blogger  – Lash from the US of A 😀

Hanie and I – good luck on your speech later dearie! 

Bumped into a one of my blog readers, this lovely lady beside me, Glow!

So nice to meet you after a few years of interacting with you only on my blog and on Twitter.

She replied my  tweet the night before the conference & mentioned she was attending the conference too. Another new friend made today 

It was very nice of her to approach me to say hi! We talked and clicked well 

2PM | The second panel session, which began right after lunch hour, focuses on entrepreneurship in tourism using social media.

Now, we’re talking about the money money money here! $$$$$$

A good friend of mine, Joseph Lee began the session by

sharing ways to create good leads and generating immediate income

I found his talk informational and very ingenious! 

Good titles, how you say things online to first capture your readers/viewers attention is just as important as being dedicated in selling yourself well to gain monetary returns.

The next speaker was Anuradha Goyal from India who crafted many good ways

on how to create a tourism blog that generates interest

Dr. James Craven from the UK speaks about the importance of feedbacks & market interaction

Improving customer services through social media – something EVERY business must bear in mind.

Iman Brotoseno from Indonesia then shared how to drive engagement effectively

and adding value to social media via travel blogs

After almost two hours, it was time for the third panel session to begin after a short break.

To my surprise, I spotted my friend Khairul Anuar whom I’ve not caught up with in a while.

It slipped my mind that he was the moderator of the final panel session!

Great bumping into you today, pal! 🙂

The session that he moderates will emphasize on effective campaigns through the new media – enjoying one’s holiday and sharing it to the world.

Hanie and I again.

See her rolled up paper? 😀 She came well-prepared on what to say

And it begins!

3.30PM | The session began with Windy Ariestanty from Indonesia who spoke about lifestyle & travel – going places and blogging about it.

She shared her experience and fun with the delegates.

Michael Aguino from the Philippines presented crafty ways to write

& blog about shoppers paradise in different countries

Good to know! I found his talk very entertaining and I learnt heaps from it as well 😀

Next up was Anis Nabilah, host of ‘Icip-icip’ a television program on the Asian Food Channel (AFC)

She shared about the food junction : eating > drinking > blogging! 

Hanie was the final person to speak!

She spoke about how she started travelling with her family at a very young age and finally decided to document her travels online. Hanie also spoke on how to closing the gap and connecting closely to one’s people.

5PM | Day One of MITBCA 2012 ends!

It was great to have reunited with so many friends from the industry that I have not seen in a while as well as meeting a whole new bunch of people from various fields of expertise.

Apart from that, the conference went very smoothly in a perfectly organized manner and it was enlightening to hear different perspectives of the panelists regarding tourism blogging, travelling and social media.

Two thumbs up to the team!  

Today was a fantastic day of information sharing and a good flow of questions and answers from the delegates and endless discussions.

Alright, I shall freshen up and put my best foot forward for tonight’s MITBCA Gala Award Dinner.

Looking forward to more in store for us on Day Two! 😀

So just the other day I received a pretty pink invitation to attend a Bloggers’ Tea Party courtesy of SaSa.

I’ve always thought of SaSa as the motherload of awesome make up, facial products, perfume, hair stuff and anything that makes a girl look her best! It houses all kinds of big (and small) brands too… oh and a few of my eyeliners are from there 🙂

The dress code was, well, put very aptly, ‘A Dash of Pink’

The moment I entered Delicious in Marc Residence KL, I look an immediate liking for the place. It looked pretty posh yet cosy at the same time – with a dash of pink decorations all over! 😀 Sweeet.

We were served a glass of pink mocktail drink as well, my guess is that there was either pink guava, watermelon or lychee inside hehe 😉

Wanting to look the part, I obviously came decked in pink too
 

Accessories by Soak Republic

After a short while, we mingled around and checked out the awesome new stuff they had on display.
New products methinks 😀

I absolutely love their packaging! So eye catching!

More stuff! 😀

One of their sub-brands Cyber colors, recently launched a really cool product

Maggie speaking on behalf of SaSa Malaysia

Once that insightful sharing session was over, it was Teeeeeea Taimmmmme!! 😀 😀
 

This is no Mad Hatter’s tea session but it’s yummy all the same

A three-tiered snackplate of nomnoms perfect for all sweet tooths!

Here are some of the pretty bites I’ve taken to my table :)
 

The Aglio Olio spaghetti, the Tiramisu, the tangy prawn, cupcakes and tiny puffs!

Would you care to share? 😀

We were busy chit chatting and stuffing our mouths. Oh and I must say, this is my favorite of them all –

the Tiramisu! Mira and I loved it 🙂
 

We had 2-3 each if I’m not wrong!

Everyone enjoyed themselves at the tea table too 🙂

Look at the delicious tidbits on the table amidst the pink peeps 😀 😀

It was so yummy that we couldn’t help but to have some more 🙂

Once tea time was over, a make up demonstration was in motion!
 

Lots of us went to watch how it’s done!
 

Hey, we could learn a trick or two ey? 😀

ta-daaaaa! 😀

Many pink peeps were hustling and bustling around Delicious taking pictures and chatting with familiar faces as well 🙂

Random pink picture I took 😉

Soon, I went back to sit down for a lil while at the tea table with the SaSa representatives

Victoria and I

After signing the guestboard, it was time to go home.

Dagggnammit! I searched through my entire hard drive and I couldn’t seem to locate the photo! 🙁 oh bummer.

But anyways, here’s a piccie of Erin and I 😀 😀

All of us had fun! 😀 Thankew SaSa for a lovely afternoon
 

Now, to open their goodie bag (It weighs a ton btw!)