Our very own Steven Dunston took a solo flight into the deep South for the Mississippi/Louisiana Bed and Breakfast Association Conference last week. After a quick visit to New Orleans over the weekend, he headed upriver to Natchez Mississippi where the function was being held at the Natchez Conference Center. The conference included a tour of the area’s extraordinary historical sites and antebellum mansions, many of which are bed and breakfasts.

Facebook is an international site, functioning in 60 different languages. It is designed to be a place for friends, coworkers and associates to keep in touch with each other. With this in mind, using Facebook to connect with your prior guests is like a form digital word of mouth. Many of the innkeepers that attended Steven’s presentation already had personal Facebook accounts, but were interested in learning about adding a business page.

He was also pleased to meet again with industry colleagues including Peter Scherman and Rick Wolf of The B&B team and Jay Karen, CEO of Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII). Jay presented some fascinating statistics from PAII’s latest innkeeper survey, showing that despite the economic tumult, the bed and breakfast industry remains strong.

The next conference we attend will be in Granbury, Texas for the Texas Bed and Breakfast Association (TBBA) next month. We will also be presenting about Facebook there.