TBEX 2026 Review: What I Learned at My First Travel Creator Conference

When I registered for TBEX, I had a lot of questions.

Would it actually help me grow my travel blog? Would the networking feel awkward? Would I leave with brand partnerships, or just a stack of business cards? And most importantly, would the cost of attending be worth it?

As a travel creator balancing content creation with a full-time job, conferences aren't a small investment. Between registration, flights, hotels, meals, and time away from work, I wanted to make sure TBEX would provide real value.

Now that I've attended my first TBEX conference, I have plenty of thoughts.

In this post, I'll share what surprised me, what was worth the investment, what I wish I had done differently, and my biggest tips for making the most of the conference. Whether you're considering attending your first TBEX or wondering if travel blogging conferences are worth your time and money, I hope this guide helps you decide.

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Check out the vlogs

Want to see what TBEX actually looked like? I documented the whole experience on YouTube.

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Is TBEX Worth It?

I absolutely think TBEX is worth attending. So much of travel content creation is a solo job. You are most likely traveling solo, editing video clips or writing posts solo. Oftentimes your immediate circle does not include others who are content creators. While you may discuss your excitement or trials and tribulations with your friends and family, they don’t exactly know what it is like. Attending a conference and connecting with others in your industry creates a feeling of belonging and that you are not alone in the things that you go through. In addition to the connections you make with other content creators, you have the opportunity to learn how to improve your craft by attending sessions as well as networking with brands and tourism boards. The speed networking session of the conference is an invaluable part of the conference that allows you to make a personal connection with brands that beats a cold email pitch any day.

Conference Structure

This was my very first TBEX conference. I had initially heard about the conference in a webinar put on by Sidewalker Daily. They had mentioned that they would be in attendance at the conference and encouraged everyone on the webinar to attend. I quickly looked up more information and found that this year’s conference was going to be held in Richmond, Virginia. Since I had never been to Richmond, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn from my peers and visit a new city.

Unlike other conferences that I have attended, TBEX is complex. They offer tours and excursions (TBEXtras) a day or two before the conference. I highly recommend coming early and taking advantage of these extras. That is one of my biggest regrets. I did not come early and instead arrived a couple of hours before the opening ceremony of the conference. Because of this, I missed out on a lot of fun activities (and content creation opportunities) to do in Richmond, Virginia. I chose saving money on an additional night at my hotel instead of taking advantage of the tours and activities of the city.

The opening ceremony was a giant party at the Richmond Raceway. They provided buses from the Convention Center to the Raceway. Since it was about a 30 minute ride, you had a chance to get to know the person sitting next to you and make your very first connection. This was the best kickoff to a conference that I have ever experienced. There was so much food, drinks, music, and activities that I was blown away. Richmond Raceway showed out as they had a Jeb Bruton, a professional driver, there for pictures and as the grand marshall to announce the command for the drivers there to start their engines. After his command 4-5 race cars sped around the track in an amazing display of speed and sound. I have never been to a Nascar or any other racing event, so this was super cool to experience. 

The next two days were the main conference sessions at the Richmond Convention Center. There were a variety of topics for each session that you could choose from.

Each session consisted of presentations in one of 4 categories:

• Photography & Video

• Business Models

• Partnerships

• Digital Strategies

This allowed you to choose what you wanted to strengthen within your travel content. In the afternoon, they held a Speed Networking session. Ahead of the conference, you were given access to the Speed Networking app. This allowed you to view all of the travel brands and tourism boards that were going to be at the conference. You could request meetings during the speed networking sessions with any of them that you were interested in meeting with. They would have to accept the meeting request. This was such an amazing opportunity to get face to face time with brands and tourism boards that you may have only ever tried to cold pitch via email. These meetings do not necessarily mean that you will land a partnership but it at least gives you a chance to be introduced and form a relationship with whomever you met with.

Although there were a lot of tours and activities before the conference that I missed out on, there were still extras that you could take advantage of throughout the conference. I chose to skip one of the afternoon sessions to tour the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, which we were given a free admissions ticket to. I am a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan, so touring this museum was definitely a highlight for me.

The closing party was at the Hippodrome. Similar to the opening party, there was a live Jazz band, lots of food, and plenty of celebrating. The biggest difference between the two parties was that by the time you got to the closing party, you knew a ton more people. Therefore, it truly was like partying with your friends. 

After the conference, TBEX offers Post-Fam trips to select creators. You have to apply for these trips ahead of time and they only have room for a small number of people. I encourage you to apply for them but they typically only accept creators with a large following or engaged audience. Keep that in mind.

Preparing for TBEX

I think that you should really consider what you want to get out of the conference, such as do you want to meet other content creators, learn how to improve your content business, or network with brands. Having a clear understanding of what your priority is will allow you to tailor the activities that you participate in and how you should focus your time.

In reviewing the TBEXtras, jot down the top activities that you would like to do so that you do not feel overwhelmed when you get there. 

Look over the list of brands and tourism boards that will be in attendance. Consider which ones align most with your content. Create a message tailored to that brand on how your content aligns with them when you request a meeting. Brands and Tourism Boards have marketing goals of their own and may only be accepting meeting requests from creators that have a clear value proposition for them. Having said that, you may have a handful of tourism boards that decline your meeting request for the Speed Networking session. Do not take this personally. Again, they have marketing goals and targets that they need to meet so they have to be selective. The Speed Networking session isn’t the only time that you can speak with the tourism boards. Take advantage of time in between sessions to go to their table and introduce yourself to them.

If you do not have a media kit, then I recommend creating one. You can create one in Canva (for a print version or website version or both). If you have your own website, then you can create a webpage for your media kit. Some people brought printed copies of their media kit. However, I did not. Instead, I created business cards with my face and contact information on the front and a QR code on the back that linked to my media kit website. This was more cost effective and convenient to travel with. I was able to hand out my cards to fellow content creators as well as brands and tourism boards. 

Speed Networking

The Speed Networking session was a whirlwind experience. You only had 8 minutes with each brand and 2 minutes in between meetings. I recommend coming up with a 1-2 minute elevator pitch to introduce yourself to the brand that includes who you are, what kind of content you make, and what topics you cover. Some brands have their own spiel as well. Be ready to answer questions like who your audience is and how you align with that brand. I also recommend researching each brand or tourism board and coming up with some questions to ask them, such as what are their marketing goals for the year or what product or experience are they looking to highlight. This will give you an idea of what is most important to them so that you can come back with a couple of pitch ideas of how you can market their brand or destination.

What I Would Do Differently

I would definitely come a day or two earlier to take advantage of all of the extra activities that TBEX provides in partnership with the conference destination. As a travel content creator, a benefit of attending this conference is the ability to create content for your audience. So taking advantage of the free or discounted tours is a plus. I would also create a better pitch when messaging tourism boards for the Speed Networking session. Sending a generic message that you want to learn more about their destination isn’t necessarily going to secure you a meeting with that brand.

Overall, I had an amazing experience. The connections that I have made were well worth the price of the conference. I would encourage you to consider attending aTBEX conference in the future!

Ciao for now!

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