IMM Power Hour Dec 11th

Learn how to make the most of the biggest travel event of the year

Dec 03, 2024

Hi friends,

Greetings from Milwaukee! My family is tiny (there’s just 6 of us) so we held a Friendsgiving on Friday and friends drove in from Madison, Waukesha, and elsewhere to make the celebration special. I brought my mom home from her nursing home for the first time since my brother’s funeral this spring, which is becoming increasingly difficult. I put up a 10-foot tree and decorated it with all my mom’s old Christmas ornaments and she enjoyed spending the day sitting by the tree. Aside from my brother not being there, I couldn’t have asked for a better Thanksgiving.

I fly back to New York tonight to enjoy a few days at home, where I’ll be prepping for my big research trip kicking off in Costa Rica this weekend for a new Lonely Planet guidebook. While in Costa Rica, I’ll be co-hosting a special event next week that I hope you can join.

Cassandra

RSVP Now: IMM Power Hour!

Are you heading to the International Media Marketplace (IMM) in New York in January? If so, you’ve got about 50 days before the travel industry’s biggest media event of the year. It’s such a big deal that I started receiving invitations to speak on panels, join dinners, attend after-party events, and schedule 1:1 in-person pitching and coaching consults back in September!

I’ve been attending IMM for five years and I want to help you get ready for the event, which can be fun and fruitful but also exhausting and time-consuming. If you’re making the trek out to the conference (and paying all that money to attend), why not ensure you’re getting the most out of it?

Join me and my friend and colleague, Joni Sweet for IMM Power Hour on Zoom at 1 P.M. (ET) on Wednesday, December 11, 2024.

We’ll be covering:

How to get appointments with top-tier journalists
Best ways to prepare for and structure your appointments
What to do if you don't get scheduled to meet with writers on your A-list
How to handle a canceled appointment
Ideas for creating an exhibition table that stands out from the crowd
Do's and don'ts of swag and handouts
Practical tips to making it through the big day
Tips for hosting a pre- or post-IMM media event
Streamlining your follow-ups

+ any other questions you have about IMM!

RSVP Now!

I am THRILLED to be co-hosting with my friend and colleague, Joni Sweet, who is one of the most talented and successful journalists I know, with bylines everywhere from TIME and Travel Weekly to Frommers and Forbes. She’s one of the key people I always reconnect with in person at IMM. If you don’t already know her, you soon will, and you’ll appreciate hearing her unique perspective on networking, building relationships, and putting on media events at the IMM Power Hour.

We met back in 2018 when our mutual friend, Debbie Arcangeles, invited us to be guests on her podcast, “The Offbeat Life.” I was just starting my freelance career, kicking it off in a very non-traditional way by writing a cycling guidebook to Cuba, Cuba by Bike, before I had even landed any bylines in digital or print pubs. Joni served as a mentor for me in my early days and I can’t think of a better person to host this event with.

The fine print:

This event is exclusively for paid subscribers to *both* of our Substacks. We only charge $9/month, so you could subscribe for a month for only $18 and get to join this event at no additional cost. Plus, you’d then get access to our full archives, upcoming subscriber-only content, and live Ask Me Anything calls.

Don’t want to go through Substack? Email me to purchase a single ticket for $25, which might be a good option if your company will expense an event ticket but not a Substack subscription (discounts available for groups).

Either way, please note that a subscription or single ticket entitles one person to attend the event, so if you’d like to attend with your clients or colleagues, please get in touch with us to discuss a group rate, even if it’s just you and one other coworker.

Once you’ve upgraded your Substack subscription or purchased a one-off ticket, please fill out this RSVP form to get on the list! See you there!

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