Blog

Last week, the CAK marketing team took a road trip to Pittsburgh to attend the Airports Council International – North America Conference. Kristie (@CAKristie), Kim (our new member of the team who does not have a Twitter account but if she did, it would be CAKim) and myself (@CAKairport) really wanted to make a BIG splash, so we custom-made shirts with our Twitter handles on them (photo is on the right). This isn't a new thing. I actually got the idea from our friend @Szczepanik, who is a member of the Cleveland Social Media Club and who was a wearing a shirt with his Twitter handle on it when I met him. But at the conference, where some airports are just starting out in social media, these shirts made us instant celebrities.

@CAKristie did an outstanding job talking about Social CAK during the conference's social media session. And I got to meet one of my favorite bloggers and USA Today reporter, Ben Mutzabaugh, who was on the panel with Kristie.

Just a few highlights from the event:

1. We rolled out our Facebook booking engine at this conference. That's right! CAK is the first US airport – maybe in the world – to book flights right from their Facebook page. We launched it at home a few days later. The news caught the eye of Fox 8. Click here to watch their news story on it.

2. Wondering if your airport or business should invest time and resources into social media? Watch what Ben Mutzabaugh had to say about CAK, and our friends at Harrisburg International Airport and Kansas City International Airport, and our social media use.

3. And finally, airports amenities are getting more and more creative. We got the opportunity to tour Minute Suites (which are already in ATL airport). These little mini hotel room pods are perfect if you get stuck overnight at the airport. My favorite airport amenity was the Food Network Restaurant. I love the Food Network so this would be my dream airport amenity. If I am ever at an airport that has one, I would run through several terminals to find it.

I've posted a few photos to the right of this page if you want to see more. Or you can check out these photos taken by ACI-NA.