Cruising into Connections

It's the end of a hectic summer season, and to say Thanks to all their partners, the Muskoka Tourism Marketing Association invited us all for a cruise on the S.S. Wenonah.

Now, this is a chance not be sneezed at.  Sister ship to the S.S. Segwun, the Wenonah sails out of Gravenhurst, with up to 200 people on board for special occasions (such as their Pirate Cruise, and Noah's Ark Adventure, weddings, and even casino cruises. Keep it in mind).

She is wharfed behind a great weather station, one of those that is never wrong.  If the anchor is hot, it's sunny. If it's wet, it's raining... you get the picture.

The cruise included a talk by Sofie Andreou on how to leverage the power of the Internet, through all those funky social sites -- Facebook (are you following Bondi Village Resort? If not, please do :) )  Twitter. (we're out there, as BondiVillage -- tweet along with us!) Linkedin, Youtube and all the rest. Including Blogs, whereupon one feels one is already preaching to the converted.  There are so many sites out there now, it makes one tired just considering keeping up...  The water shushing along the hull and the beautiful scenery outside the window kept us all going, however, while we learned the importance of connections.

(and if you have found this, Sofie, you can see I was paying attention, really I was...)

And speaking of connections, there was lots of time to re-connect with friends on this float down the lake, and to connect with new friends.  I even met some folks who are Friends on Facebook, but whom I have never met face to face.  That's a little spooky, actually...   I also gave Matt, from Muskoka Lakes Winery, a hard sell on one of Napster's designs. We feel it would be perfect (should that read Purrrr-fect?) for a wine label on their lovely cranberry wines, especially for those times when you are "Feline Groovy".   Perhaps a write-in campaign would help convince Matt?  He has plans to come up and meet the artist, so it's looking good.

We met some of the faces behind The Explorer's Edge (also known as RTO 12, a catchy name for the area you once knew and loved as Algonquin Park, Muskoka, Parry Sound and the Almaguin Highlands.)  Now clumped together under the Provincial Tourism restructuring, the catchy new name, The Explorer's Edge, is designed to bring everyone dashing up here.  Which you should do anyway, especially now, as the fall colours come towards their peak.

So, many thanks to the MTMA for the afternoon. It was great good fun.