It’s now September and to reflect on August is important – because it was a HUGE MONTH! I started the month in Vancouver and finished it in Denver. August was about discovering the west coast of America and ending in central. I had no set plans, expectations or any kind of “this is what I want to accomplish”.
The story wrote itself and it ended up a very spectacular story. Discovering tourism management from tourism agencies, volunteering at the world’s largest offshore fireworks competition, seeing Hamilton in San Francisco, catching up with friends in Vancouver and meeting new friends in Sacramento. It went from a few meetings being planned to me travelling to a new city and new hostel at times to discover new grounds I never knew I would be discovering. Each city had a takeaway message.
Vancouver – has so much potential it’s unbelievable. They can really grow there events program will if they strategically position themselves in some ways better.
San Francisco – city and state need to manage the cities problem. It’s not the homeless persons fault but something needs to be changed. The city is beautiful but there needs to be action put in place.
Sacramento – loves it. Absolutely loved the city for all 20 hours I was there! Amazing place.
Los Angeles – A destination for tourists seeking the Hollywood dream. They are seeking something so spectacular when they get there…yeah it’s Hollywood. Tours galore!
Denver – beautiful and in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been experiencing that for 5 days and now got 7 days to go.
The events all vary but America do things very similar to the UK market. The service styles, content programming and so on. In USA so far I’ve only had one event that I have been like (WOW THAT WAS AMAZING). Sometimes western countries aren’t challenging the boundaries and the understanding of the impact events has is being missed. And then on the opposite there is some events like Leather Week or Apple Festivals – both I am not going to – but they have a huge following and also the impact on communities can be quite special.
Some of the events I captured include the World’s Largest Offshore Firework Competition in Vancouver, Pole Dancing in San Fran, Hamilton the Musical, One Republic in Red Rocks (blog still to be written for that) and more. The people and range of organisations I met included event agencies, tourism boards, city councils and so on…
Overall, the amount of learning and shared experiences will certainly be remembered. I really did enjoy August – it was eye opening, challenging and set me a course of action for the rest of the adventure.
#comeonthejourney