SPEAKER INTERVIEW: Kim Orlando

This is a series of interviews with the speakers of Digital Family Summit, June 29-July 1.
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Kim Orlando is the founder of TravelingMom.com, and the TravelingMom Blogger Network, the nation’s top web site and blog network for moms who travel with (and without) their kids. TravelingMom.com was named one of the top 4 family travel websites by Sherman’s Travel in 2010. In addition to the magazine-style destination reviews, travel stories, product reviews, and other content, TravelingMom.com has a network of expert bloggers, each of whom writes from a specific perspective–Traveling GrandMom, Special Needs TravelingMom, Traveling with Babies Mom, TravelingMom with Teens, Traveling with Pets Mom and about 50 others. Orlando is a sought-after speaker and broadcast source on travel issues relating to moms and provides travel commentary for BlueSuitMom.com, Wyndham’s Women on Their Way, CityBuzz, DailyBuzz, Ripley’s Radio and MomTalkRadio.

twitter: @travelingmoms, @kimorlando
website: Travelingmom.com 
session: Let’s Go! Travel Blogging Workshop, Sat 6/30, 9:30 am-12:30 pm

How did you come up with the idea for your workshop?
In February of 2012, I co-hosted the first ever Family Travel Conference (next one is November 9-10, 2012 in Dallas, TX) and a couple of the workshops were open to the travel writer and their child.  The kids (teens, tweens, young adult) were encouraged to make a video during one of the hotel tours and it was a huge success. Moms who plan family travel want to know the real deal from moms AND kids who have been there.

What’s your favorite technology to help you do your work?

I love my Sony HD video camera – it takes incredible pictures and video and is easy to download to my Mac for editing.  I also love the portable Zipshotz tripod – it’s so light and folds up easily so I can take it everywhere.

If you could travel back in time and send yourself a message, what would it be?
I would tell my teenage self to record more – life worth living is worth recording.  

Any advice for young bloggers and digital media creators?
Videos are fun and a great way to get attention but for young bloggers and digital media creators who want to use videos to build a career and credibility in travel, it’s important to have guidelines for your videos – that will build trust among your audience.  Brand your videos so that when people see them they know you produced them and they know how to find you.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?  
I love making videos and I love the creativity and perspective young people bring to production.  Traveling WITH Mom is as important a topic as being a TravelingMom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Adam Gertsacov is the co-founder and co-organizer of Digital Family Summit.  He wears many hats, including those of a professional clown, an author and publisher, an artist/educator, a non-profit administrator, a P.T. Barnum impersonator, a flea circus impresario, and the esteemed hat of the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland.