We read a lot of stuff about how important it is to switch off when you go on holiday. Well this year I decided balls to that, and though my location in Southern Spain only offered 3G iPhone access which curtailed my blogging activity, I stayed online. And I had a blast – and judging by the feedback and interaction from friends on facebook, instagram and twitter – there was some useful fun being had.
I confess I did answer two or three emails – brief responses were being respectfully requested from a company who have this week become a new client. I can live with that. And the vast majority of our time away was spent sight seeing, splashing, sunning and swigging. It was very much a dip in dip out approach to the online world.
Now I’m back home I am posting the results of my 2012 holiday postcards here over the next few days and I’d also like to share a couple of fun tools I’ve been introduced to as well.
A few weeks back Laurie Ruettimann shared Flipagram with us. It’s a simple slideshow app which packages up your instagram holiday, or indeed any other kind of pics nicely. Here’s my first attempt at playing with it with some holiday pics, and I can see how you could use this tool for sharing stuff at conferences, from work projects etc.
Something else I found which I like the look of is Printstagram. This little beauty creates prints and sticker books and other cool stuff from your instagram photos. A pack of 250 stickers costs ten bucks plus twelve bucks shipping from US to UK. I’ve ordered a sticker book based on our Spanish adventures, can’t wait to see the results – I’m already thinking of lots of possible ways to develop this idea for promotions, thank yous and other stuff besides.
So can you go on holiday, remain digitally connected and have a proper break? Well for sure we had a great time and came back feeling refreshed, and we had a lot of fun with the online world in a way that perhaps you only can when you’re on holiday. Thanks to everyone who *liked* our beer of the day and other offerings :), see you for more in 2013.
Doug, welcome back! The Union Flag made from headlines is seriously, jaw droppingly cool. Love it!
Thanks – that is very kind of you to say so, I enjoyed making both of the Union Flag pictures very much.