Arival 360 came to Spokane this October, and Digital Guidebooks was there with a table, an iPad slideshow, and more cleaning wipes than any one table needs. This is the trip, more or less in order.
Welcome to the Arival Strip Mall
Our table was one of a row of small exhibitor tables along the back of the hall. Every time someone asked where to find me, "the third table in the row of small tables along the back" was a mouthful, so I started telling people to find us at the Arival Strip Mall. Easier to remember, and it got a laugh every time.
It was awesome to meet everybody. Operators, destination folks, the booking platforms, the people building the next thing. A table is a strange little place to have a conversation, and somehow it works every time.
A big thank you to our own Steve Krull, who made the journey out to Spokane to work the table with me and talk guidebooks with anybody who would listen.
Spokane is absolutely gorgeous
I did not know what to expect from Spokane in October. The answer is a clock tower, a river that reflects everything, and trees doing their very best red and gold. If the scenery alone was Arival's reason for choosing Spokane, I get it.
At one point I sat on the back steps by the river and just took it all in. I have a thing when I travel where I try to capture one-minute videos: one minute, no cuts, just whatever is in front of me. Here is Spokane's.
A song across the river
The first day, I went for a walk and came across an Indigenous Peoples' festival in the park across the river. I sat down and listened for a while. The song that was playing was an original, about being a proud people and being proud to be there.
It resparked some of my love for original music. I have been focused on cover songs for a while, and hearing someone sing something that was entirely theirs, about where they are from, hit differently. Afterwards I walked through the crafts and talked with a few of the people there. I felt very fortunate to meet some of the community outside of the convention, which is not something a conference schedule usually leaves room for.
A room with a view
I trusted Arival with the hotel on this one, the Davenport Grand right next to the convention center, and I was not disappointed. The view from the room was great, so one morning I set up a timelapse of a cloudy sunrise. The cars, the smoke, the light coming up over the hills, it all came out so cool.
Setting up the booth
The morning of the conference I set up the table, complete with a slideshow on the iPad that ran through what a guidebook does for a tour: tips, reviews, maps, guest photos, and the Arival guidebook itself. It is right below, so you can click through it too.
The germaphobe in me also brought a whole bunch of wipes, so I could keep wiping things down between people using them. I like a clean workspace. :)
The evenings
Arival had a bunch of fun events planned for the evenings, and Steve treated every one of them as a chance to talk guidebooks. Nobody was off limits. Here he is at the afterparty, explaining guidebooks to a woman working the event, who I am fairly sure was not expecting a product demo that night.
The piano bar was closed
On the way over to the afterparty, a few colleagues and I walked past a piano bar that looked like it would be real fun afterwards. The problem: by the time we got back, the piano bar was closed.
Enter the Arival Digital Guidebook. I had the opportunity to work with Arival and Visit Spokane to build a digital guidebook for the conference, with featured Spokane experiences and local recommendations from people who live there. So I opened it.
The Arival 360 Digital Guidebook
Built with Arival and Visit Spokane for everyone at the conference.
Featured Spokane experiences, local places to eat, drink and listen, and the details attendees needed for three days in town. Click around, it is the real thing.
Open the Arival Digital Guidebook →Inside was the recommendation we needed: a small music venue called Zola. Not to be confused with Xola, the booking platform, who were also at Arival. I know, I know. Confusing, right?
The place was awesome. We got a private room for our group, and in the main room a great local act, Jerry Lee Raines, was playing. The venue is also where a local swing dancing group practices, so the whole place had its own vibe going on. A closed piano bar, a guidebook, and the best night of the trip.
Where a guidebook becomes brand building
That night is the part of a guidebook that is easy to miss. The plan ran out, and the guidebook took over. Nobody opened it to learn about the conference. They opened it because they were in a city they did not know, late at night, looking for somewhere good. Whoever made that guidebook got to be their answer.
That is where a guidebook stops being a handout and starts building your brand. Your guests are going to look for dinner, a drink, a show or a walk after your tour. When your guidebook is the thing in their pocket, your experience becomes their solution to the city, and you are the one they thank for the night.
And this is still just part of what we are learning. Guidebooks are a new enough idea that the people using them keep showing us new ways to use them. Arival built this one as a supplementary resource for the conference, with real value of its own, separate from what a traditional conference app offers and in a very different style. The Spokane guidebook is not just a resource. It is a feeling. That is what tour operators get to give their guests with a digital guidebook.
Two of our founding members
I had the chance to sit down with a couple of our Digital Guidebooks founding members while I was there. Roie runs day and multi-day tours out of New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. I asked him where travelers are getting lost or confused today.
Mike runs haunted history tours in 25 cities, and showed me how he uses old photographs in his guidebooks to show guests what a building looked like when the ghost story happened. He told me he had wanted to build something like this ever since a crappy Miami ghost tour in 2016. "Joe just did it first, and he did it better. So I wanted to join right away." Then he ended on this.
Songs by the river
In real fun fashion, Janelle from Arival brought her guitar, and I have been traveling with my ukulele. So we sat down by the riverside and played some songs together for a small audience.
Playing music together at a conference? Of course I'm going to love that!
The music did not stay by the river. Back in the exhibit hall, Mike Huberty from American Ghost Walks picked up a ukulele and played us his one-chord song. One chord is all you need.
Old friends and new ones
It was awesome to see some old friends and connect with new ones, like Michelle from Dig This. Conferences are mostly hallways, and the hallways are where the good stuff happens.
To everyone who swung by the Strip Mall to ask, "What's a digital guidebook?", we hope that question got answered. And if it didn't, here is the quick version: a digital guidebook is everything your guests want from the tour, on their phone. The stops and the stories, the guide who led them, where to go next, and the tip and review links, right when they are happiest. They keep it after the tour, so the tour keeps working after it ends. The longer version is in what a digital guidebook is for tour operators.
Thank you, Arival
A big thank you to Janelle, Bruce and Ramon at Arival for all their help getting everything set up for the conference. Thank you to Visit Spokane for sharing your city, and to everyone who stopped by the Strip Mall.
I can't wait to see you all at Arival 360 in Atlanta next year.