If you're looking at my title and thinking, "Chris, I'm fairly sure 'TBEX' is not a word," then you're right and you're wrong. No, it isn't a "word" per se, but it is a hashtag and abbreviation, so one could argue that in this modern age of blurred lines that it may indeed be a word after all. In truth, TBEX stands for the "Travel Blog Exchange," and I noted that in my previous post from my hostel in Tel Aviv. Just to keep it brief, I'll just copy the wording TBEX uses to describe itself via its website - "TBEX is the world's largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, new media content creators, and social media savvy travel industry professionals. Every year, TBEX partners with fantastic destinations in North America and Europe to bring the travel industry's most creative minds together to learn, network and do business."

So, what did we learn from that? Well, we learned that I'm one of the "industry's most creative minds," naturally. Joking aside, this post is for those who are wondering what TBEX is all about, and if you can fit into the fold. Or, conversely, for those who are simply curious what happens when a plethora of relatively energetic and charismatic travel professionals spend extended periods of time together.

When I was looking into booking, I had a hard time discerning what the actual day to day experience might be like, so I thought I'd put together a quick post on my experiences at TBEX International 2017 in Jerusalem, also known as #tbexjlm. This isn't the 4700 word post that's going to give you what every minute of what TBEX will contain along with a headache from staring at a screen. Rather, it's meant to give you the aura and feeling of my experience, as well as those I met.

Expect to Explore

While the objective is to come to a conference and learn how to hone your craft, an obvious sell of the conference is the exploration of the city and country hosting the conference. Each year, TBEX holds a conference in North America, Europe, and and "internationally," and the cities are constantly rotating. As I previously mentioned, we were in Jerusalem, and exploring the city was a great joy. In truth, I would have loved some extra time to explore more of East Jerusalem as well as neighbouring Palestine, but, unfortunately, my time was limited. Alas, I'll go back, despite the flak I got at the airport for some of the stamps I had in my passport, but that story is for another day.

TBEX, in conjunction with the host city, will organize "pre-bex tours" and "post-bex tours" both before and after the conference for you to get to know fellow travel professionals outside of a conference room. They also have "fam trips," which, as far I understand serve more or less as a press trip for selected travel media. Mainly, I was only able to participate in the tours before the conference, but I appreciated the opportunity to see Old Jerusalem (all four quarters to some extent), as well as the City of David, and parts of the modern city outside the wall. I also spent time in Tel Aviv beforehand, which I also noted above. Whatever city hosts TBEX, expect to be actively discovering the history of the city and country, and likely enjoying it quite a bit. You can choose what suits your fancy, so you'll have some say in your experience. You're also welcome to disregard the tours altogether and explore at will.