In this newsletter you will find:
- Round up from the Annual Gala Awards Dinner 2023
- AGM and Convention in the Isle of Man Application
- Christmas Party
- Link to General Meeting Minutes
- Guilded News Updates
- Information about the forthcoming Board Elections
- London Transport Museum event – 27 November 2023
- State of Travel Writing Report
- Update on Member Benefits
- BGTW on Social Media
Round up from the Annual Gala Awards Dinner 2023
The BGTW Annual Gala Awards Dinner is one of the highlights of the travel industry calendar. The 2023 British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) Annual Gala Awards Dinner (AGAD) took place on Sunday, 5 November at the Middle Temple Hall in London. A spectacular event, it proved that the quality of travel writing, broadcasting, blogging and photography within the Guild is at an all-time high. For a fuller report, list of award winners and photos of the event please visit the BGTW website
AGM and Convention in the Isle of Man Application
You should have received the email to register to attend the AGM and Convention in the Isle of Man but if you need another copy please contact Charlotte who can resend it to you.
Alternatively, please click here for more information on the AGM and Convention (including itineraries etc) or click here to complete the registration form.
Christmas Party
Unfortunately, we lost the original venue and host for the annual Christmas party and have been unable to find an alternative as all venues are already booked for seasonal celebrations.
We are therefore moving this event to January 2024 and will let you know when arrangements have been confirmed via our Facebook page and our newsletter.
Link to General Meeting Minutes
The draft minutes of the General Meeting, held on Thursday 19 October 2023, have been published on the Guild’s website. You can access them here, or at https://dev.bgtw.org/library/. Please note that to use the latter link you have to be logged in as a member.
We are encouraged that many members attended – 65 at the highest point – and engaged in open discussions on a number of important topics.
The minutes will remain as the ‘draft’ version until the next General Meeting (the AGM in the Isle of Man on Tuesday 6 February 2024).
Guilded News Updates
Following the publication of the first issue of Guilded News in June, we’re now working on the next issue. The purpose of the newsletter is to act as a key point of contact and essential networking tool for the travel industry and the BGTW and its members. It is a forum for BGTW members to update the travel industry on their activities and to act as a conduit for the travel industry to contact our members with commissions and other pieces of work. Please send your updates and news that you would like to share for inclusion in the next issue of Guilded News by 30 November via the form in the email you should have already received. If you did not receive this email, please contact charlotte.copeman@bgtw.org.
Information about the forthcoming Board Elections
The British Guild of Travel Writers, as you will very likely know, is managed by a Board of Directors. That Board comprises a Chair/Joint Chair, Vice Chair, four Directors and up to three co-opted directors.
The positions of Chair/Joint Chair, Vice Chair and the four Directors are elected each year by members. We are now at the start of the nomination period to elect the Board that will take the Guild through 2024. That new Board will take office on 1 February; the official handover taking place during the AGM on 6 February. Nominations need to be submitted by 5 January 2024.
Further information on the Nominations process can be found here
London Transport Museum event – 27 November 2023
Monday 27 November
‘Night Train to Covent Garden’
A railway-themed event kindly hosted by the London Transport Museum
Speakers include:
Anthony Lambert, BGTW member and railway expert
Geoff Marshall, video content maker specialising in travel and transport content
Siddy Holloway, television presenter and member of the LTM Hidden London team
Chris Nix, representing the Museum’s team of curators
An opportunity find out about the resurgence in continental European night trains (good for those members wanting to reduce their flying hours), we’ll also be taking quirky look at train travel in the UK. We’ll also be hearing more about what goes on behind the scenes at disused London Underground stations with the museum’s ‘Hidden London’ project team. Members attending this event will also be offered a complimentary ticket to visit the museum in the late afternoon with the opportunity to see the new Global Poster Gallery featuring selected examples from the museum’s collection of around 30,000 artworks.
Timings:
4.30pm Tour of London Transport Museum
6pm Reception at LTM
6.30pm Start of event
9pm End of evening
Anthony Lambert: Less than ten years ago, sleeping-car trains were being written off as a casualty of high-speed trains and low-cost airlines. Remarkably there has been a revival of overnight train services with high levels of investment in new rolling stock and routes, in part driven by anxiety over climate change and the impact of the associated flygskam or ‘flight shame’ movement. Anthony will talk about these and related developments on rail.
Geoff Marshall: Geoff is a video producer and content creator who makes travel and transport videos for his YouTube channel @geofftech2. In 2017 he travelled through all 2,563 station in Great Britain, covering every station on the island of Ireland in 2019, as well as the Isle of Man! He will bring a light-hearted look at some of his travel experiences.
Siddy Holloway: Icelandic-born Siddy Holloway is a member of the London Transport Museum team. A lover of London history and forgotten stories, she co-developed all the Hidden London tours, co-authored the book Hidden London: Discovering the Forgotten Underground, published in 2019 and was a key team member behind the award-winning Hidden London exhibition. She also manages the Hidden London guide team and is always hunting for new exciting sites to turn into public tours. With broadcaster Tim Dunn she co-presents the television documentary series, ‘The Secrets of the London Underground’. She will be talking about her experiences.
Chris Nix: Chris is one of the team of the team of curators at the London Transport Museum and will be giving an update on latest developments.
Numbers are limited to 40 so if you’d like to attend please email stuart.render@bgtw.org with subject line: ‘LTM event’.
Further details will be supplied to successful applicants.
State of Travel Writing Report
Talking Travel Writing has revealed how travel journalists are faring financially in 2023, and the outlook is bleak. In a first-of-its-kind survey, Substack publication Talking Travel Writing surveyed 266 mostly freelance writers about their rates of pay, their annual profits and concerns for the future.
It painted an interesting picture of what it’s like to be self-employed in the travel media today, revealing how the majority of travel journalists (60%) earn less than £19,999 per year through travel writing and that 52% are worried about the impact of AI on travel writing. Read the full report for free here.
Update on Member Benefits
DELL are offering BGTW members their biggest savings event of the year for Black Friday, where members can utilize their Association membership to claim bigger discounts.
Members will have the opportunity to stack their member discounts on top of many sale items on the Dell website.
Sale Dates: 1st November – 27th November 2023.
Please click the button below for more details on this offer.
BGTW on Social Media
We’re always up for sharing your work, events, news, projects etc.
Social media is managed by a small team. If you’re not being followed by the BGTW, email us.
Twitter: Tag @travwriters in your tweet/photo if you want us to see/share. You can also follow fellow members on this BGTW members list.
Instagram posts: Select ‘Tag people’ then tag @travwriters.
You can use the #bgtw hashtag or tag@ us in post copy/comments, but they’re harder to track. Tagging IN the pic guarantees we see it.
Stories/Reels: Use the ‘@mention’ function to tag us.
Facebook: We can promote your work/news on our public Facebook page. Send links via FB Messenger to that account.
LinkedIn: You can ‘@’ British Guild of Travel Writers in posts and we’ll like/share/comment when possible/appropriate.
