As I mentioned in that earlier post, Adesso is offering a special pre-TUTS dinner menu throughout August.

I used random.org to pick a winner: congratulations Linda DeRuiter–I hope you enjoy your night out with someone special!

On the theatrical scale, TUTS productions fall smack in the middle between low-budget, high-energy high school musicals and big-talent, big-ticket touring shows. Every show features a handful of pros and a whole bunch of keen (read unpaid) up-and-comers.

Vancouverites love ‘em as much for the open-air Stanley Park setting as for the hummable tunes and family-friendly themes. (The alternating show this season is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.)

I didn’t know if I could push the iconic Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds film version of the show to the edges of my brain long enough to let this production have its own time in the spotlight.

Director Shel Piercy didn’t make it easy. There were so many nods to the more-famous film cousin, some of which were surprisingly successful: Cosmo Brown’s (Neil Minor) backwards wall flip, for example, and Lina Lamont’s (Cailin Stadnyk) on-set bitchy ditziness.

But my toes were definitely tapping–especially during the second act when the razzle-dazzle song-and-dance numbers that are the TUTS hallmark came fast and furiously and the cast was just too busy to be nervous.

Give it a week to work the kinks out (the pacing was a little ragged last night and there were too many tech glitches, but the promise is there) and this would be a top pick for a bit of frothy family summer fun.

Show times and ticket info

Win a TUTS pre-theatre dinner for two at Adesso Bistro!

The charming Adesso Bistro on Haro Street, just a short stroll from Malkin Bowl, is offering a special pre-TUTS three-course menu for just $29.95 every day from 5 to 6:30 pm through August 21.

Just tell me your favourite Theatre Under the Stars memory–or why you want to make a new TUTS memory below.

I’ll do a random draw on July 22, 2010 at 8 pm for a pre-show dinner for two at Adesso. (You can use it any time until August 21.)

(Feel free to tweet this contest for a second entry–just use the ShareThis tool up there on the right…)

If you’re 21-year-old Vancouver hockey blogger Richard Loat, you get Five Hole for Food, a 10-day traveling road hockey game that’s helping to replenish the shelves of Canada’s food banks.

The first ball dropped on June 29 in Montreal and after stops in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, and Victoria, the final game will be played in Vancouver on July 9.

Loat aimed to raise one tonne of food (2,000 lbs) for Canadian food banks. Today, with three games left to go–it’s Edmonton’s turn tonight–his total haul is 1,899 lbs.

“I’m really excited to be heading back to my hometown to end the trip,” says the SFU Communications student in an e-mail from the road. “We’re playing in the heart of downtown Vancouver and couldn’t ask for a better location.

“We’re going to surpass the goal we set for ourselves and I can’t wait for Vancouver to step up and beat the totals raised in the other cities we’ve been to. It will really set the bar for next year when we embark on this all over again!”

The fun’s all free–just bring your favourite jersey, a stick and something tasty for your local food bank. You’re welcome at the post-game meet-ups too.

Ball-drop for the Edmonton game tonight is 5:30 pm at Deer Ridge Park (in St. Albert).

The Victoria game gets underway  July 8 at 5:30 pm at Topaz Park. In Vancouver the next day, game-time is 5:30 pm in the 800-block of Granville Street.

So go for it all you Sid-the-Kid wannabes out there: here’s your chance to relive that gold medal goal!

If you are a travel blogger, or a travel writer whose traditional media markets are rapidly drying up, or a travel industry PR person looking to keep your career currency high, then you were there too.

Or you should have been.

Depending on how active you are on Twitter, you couldn’t really miss the buzz about TBEX10. (Search #tbex to see what I mean.) You put 300-plus travel enthusiasts in a Manhattan theatre for a weekend and there’s going to be some chatter.

The dynamic sometimes reminded me of a high school dance: you had the the popular kids, the wallflowers, the class clowns and the stoners. (Do they still call them stoners?) Everyone quickly found a gang to hang with. Or drink with.

Whatever.

TBEX is still in its teething stages. Conceived by Chicago-based powerhouse Kim Mance and raised thus far by a savvy grassroots team, it promises to become a formidable player on the professional development circuit in the next couple of years.

It was sort of charming that this social media conference didn’t offer wifi, let alone coffee. Fortunately the next conference will be held in Vancouver, BC with some organizational assistance from the Canadian Tourism Commission and Tourism BC–two groups that have years of experience hosting large events for travel media.

My feeling about these sorts of conferences is that if you walk away with even one nugget that you can immediately apply to your work, it’s been a good investment of time and money. I’m pretty sure everyone walked away with a whole bag of nuggets.

Here are my 10 top favourites:

1. Your blog is your storefront.

• Sheila Scarborough made the point that “your blog is your storefront for whatever it is you really do to earn money.” It reflects your personality and your professionalism. Cast a critical eye on your wares and how they are displayed to make sure they are attractive to potential customers.

2. Don’t go all emo.

• In a discussion regarding how to use analytics to help increase traffic, Andy Hayes urged bloggers to “take the emotion out of the formula and keep trying.” As you begin the arduous task of building volume, don’t give in to the feeling that no one loves you, everybody hates you and you should go sit in the garden and eat worms. Make like the tortoise and keep steadily tweaking what you’re doing based on the evidence gleaned from your analytics.

3. “Co-opertition” works.

• Bootsnall’s Sean Keener was credited with this phrase during one of the panel sessions. The idea is that the web is a big place and there’s room for people who could be seen as competitors to actually cooperate to build traffic to both of their sites. You need high-value–that is, authoritative and relevant–incoming links to build your Google rank. And sometimes you just need to ask respected peers for them.

4. Ethics equals credibility.

• Spud Hilton said it. I always knew it. But it was good to hear it again–especially considering how fussy the FTC is getting about disclosure. (For the record, here’s my disclosure statement.)

5. Find your focus.

• Various PR reps claimed to be more interested in a blogger’s “sphere of influence” than their traffic volume. So you want to dig an online niche for yourself and you want to dig it deep across the social media spectrum: Twitter; Facebook; YouTube et al.

6. Stop, absorb & observe.

• Don George, the eminence grise of travel writing in North America, reminded everyone that people want to read stories–not itineraries. And the “telling detail” is the key to any good story–but you have to slow down long enough to really observe what’s going on around you. (On the way home I stopped at Union Square and sat on a park bench for a while. At dusk, I saw little children chasing fireflies. I have always wondered about what it would be like to raise a child in Manhattan and in that moment I found something of an answer.)

7. Live in a thank-you economy.

• Annemarie Dooling used this phrase to reinforce the message that the currency of the blogging world is collaboration and cooperation and (especially) giving credit where it is due. (I still see a lot of resistance to this notion amongst my old-school media colleagues who still value “the scoop.”)

8. Practice the slow sell.

• Annemarie Dooling made this point as did  Tourism BC’s Janice Greenwood-Fraser during a panel discussion about working with PR people.  If you’re just starting out, don’t expect to be hosted by a destination just because you’re keen and earnest. As ever, it all comes down to relationships. It takes time–and demonstrated results–to build trust. Once you’ve earned it, you’ll be able to close future deals more quickly.

9. Be an accessible expert.

• Jessica Spiegel observed that travel blogs are the modern-day Baedeker offering accessible expertise to would-be travelers. It reminded me that almost half the traffic to my Canada travel blog comes from Google searches–people looking for information about travel to Canada. I am in service to a real reader, with real needs–and that realization will help shape my future content.

10. Play the long game.

• Way back before some of the people attending TBEX10 were even born, Canada’s Evelyn Hanon created Journeywoman to help women travel more confidently. Evelyn is a 70-year-old granny now, and her popular web site is, by her own admission, completely outdated (and some might even say ugly). But still the clicks come. She got a laugh with her explanation of why she won’t bother to do any cosmetic enhancements to her site: “It’s like visiting grandma’s house. At your grandmother’s house you know exactly where everything is!” But the truth is, Journeywoman ably proves the old adage that “content is king”–and just about every other point on this Top 10 list too. Evelyn is a pro who knows when to self-promote and when to advocate for others; how to ask for the support she needs and then return the favour; and when simply to trust that things will work out. In a room crowded with hipsters, it was nice to take a lesson from the grey-hair.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts about TBEX10 below and hope to see you at TBEX 11 in Vancouver–my beautiful hometown!

It was the perfect kick-off to summer: Shakespeare and Vancouver both at their sunny, sparkling best.

Vancouver’s little-Shakespeare-festival-that-could welcomed 90,000 people under the tents at Kits Point last year–up sharply from the 6,000 who came during the first season in 1990. This year there are two stages cycling four plays: the roster includes Much Ado, Antony and Cleopatra, Falstaff and Henry V in rep until the end of September.

There’s much to love about the Bard experience: the Chanel-and-tattoos audience mix; the waterfront setting; the enthusiasm of the many long-serving volunteers. And of course, the reliable quality of the productions themselves.

This festival sells out; get your tickets now.

Win a tickets-and-picnic package:

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy about would-be lovers who need a little help from their friends to find romance.

Leave a comment below explaining how winning two tickets to the Saturday, June 26th (8 pm) performance along with an Emelle’s picnic dinner would help you–or a needy friend–to create a little romance in your/their life.

I’ll do a random draw on Thursday, June 24th at 6 pm and notify the winner in a post here and also by email. Good luck!

Update: Congratulations to Amber whose entry read: “My Belly/Baby Buddy and her husband would love a night out away from the cute babe! Money is tight but their love is strong.” Watch your email for details of prize pick-up and thanks to all who entered!

It’s free, fun and ridiculously simple: just plug in a starting address at citytours.googlelabs.com, select your dates and bingo–you’ve got the first draft of your tour complete with highlighted destinations, recommended length of stay at each site, and time to complete the walk.

A few more clicks and you can amend the tour to include–or remove–particular sites.

Prefer food to fashion? Music to museums? No problem. Just enter your preferred choices–or click on the options provided–and your tour is instantly updated. Import the map to your handheld and off you go!

I test-drove the service by entering starting addresses in cities I know well and was impressed with many of Google’s suggested itineraries.

Still, it’s not perfect yet: I concur with some of the criticisms in this Jetpacker post, especially the point that some of the walks seem unreasonably long.

It’ll never take the place of personal tours like the ones offered by TourGuys, of course. But with a bit more tweaking (imagine if Google included the transit information it already has with the tour itineraries?) it could do a real number on printed guidebooks…

Have you ever used Google to plan a walking tour? Do you plan to? Can you recommend it? Any tips or tricks?

With a little technical help from my friends (thanks Brad, Josh and Rebecca), I’m back into my boots again.

Someone messaged me to say that being hacked was a form of flattery. Whatever: next time just send chocolate…

Thanks to all who entered.

I’d be interested to hear more of your Dine Out Vancouver experiences here–any surprises? disappointments? don’t-misses? Please share!

So much that Tourism Vancouver knew better than to make the city choose between the 2010 Winter Olympics and that other world-class winter sporting event known as Dine Out Vancouver.

When the Games got in the way of Dine Out 2010–the latter usually rolls out in January–participating restaurateurs agreed to push the annual taste-o-rama ahead to the spring: Monday, April 26 to Thursday, May 6, in fact.

So get your dialling (or typing) finger ready and make your reservations early: this year a record-breaking 208 restaurants are offering special prix-fixe menus from $18 to $38.

And if you like to prepare good food as much as you like to eat it, take advantage of the new kind of foodie fun on offer this year. There are cooking classes, food demos–even walking tours for those who might be inclined to walk off a few extra pounds.

Win a $75 gift certificate

I’ve got a $75 gift certificate to Abigail’s Party, a tiny, perfect Kitsilano eatery offering a delicious $28 Dine Out menu. (Go for the steak-frites, stay for a “coffee and a smoke”–espresso panna cotta filled with brandied mascarpone creme and accompanied by a chocolate tuile ‘cigar’.)

To win, tell me which participating Dine Out restaurant you’re dying to try in 2010. (Good luck choosing just one!)

I’ll do a random draw from your comments on Thursday, April 29 at 8 pm. This contest is now closed.

In support of Metro Vancouver’s recent campaign to promote the city’s excellent tap water (and significantly reduce plastic waste) the hotel is stocking rooms with reusable bottles in addition to the one-off disposables. The co-branded metal bottles cost $12.95–but the refills are free!

It’s an industry first apparently, but it’s an idea that’s so simple it’s, well, sustainable.

Kudos to Fairmont for getting with the program and let’s hope it’s not too long before other hotels start picking this low-hanging greenfruit…