Ultimate Thailand Explorers

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Wow. I can’t believe it. In June when I started this blog my intention was to write down all my travel stories for posterity and share them with the world. Bonus points if I was able to make a few dollars from it and get a sponsorship or two. Now three months into the process and I’ve just submitted an application to the Ultimate Thailand Explorers Contest. It seems very unreal. I’m feeling really good that Brian and I have a chance at making it to the final 25 – and maybe the final 5.

If you haven’t been following my tweets lately, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is holding a contest. From now until October 15th applicants from around the world can submit a 1-minute video to Youtube explaining which of the 5 selected cities in Thailand they would like to visit, and how they would use social media to share their experience in that city. From the submissions, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will select 25 finalists, 5 teams per city, to be voted upon by readers like you. On November 13th the wining team for each city will be announced.

The winning teams will fly to Thailand in December for 6 days. During their trip, they will blog, tweet, etc. their adventures in the city. Readers will vote on the team that does the best job. The winning team will receive $10,000. My heart is racing as I type this.

I found out about this opportunity from USA Today. I always read their travel section on my lunch break. From the moment I read it, I knew that this was a competition that I was suited for. I called up Brian, who was in Milwaukee at the time, to tell him the news. The supportive partner that he is, he agreed to do it with me with little convincing. I come to him with a lot of crazy ideas and thoughts, so I wasn’t sure how he’d respond.

I’ve been working all week getting ready for our filming on Monday. I wrote the script, created all the social media sites necessary to be a strong competitor and found a camera crew. I’m writing this on Sunday, having just submitted the application. Here’s our 1-minute video.

I’m proud of it. I’m proud of Brian for stepping outside of his comfort zone and doing something like this. I’m grateful for our friends Erin and Eddie for taking 45 minutes of their day to film it for us. I think it’s great. What do you think?

In addition to the Youtube video, Ultimate Thailand Explorers wants to see how savvy applicants are with the internet. I gave them my adventureswithben.com sites, but have also created a series of Thailand specific sites for Brian and I. They are:

• facebook.com/benandbrianthailand
• flickr.com/photos/benandbrianthai
• youtube.com/user/benandbrianthai
• wayn.com/profiles/benandbrianthai
• twitter.com/benandbrianthai

Brian and I have done everything we can up to this point to be the strongest applicants as possible. We’ve got some strategies planned to continue the conversations about Thailand while we wait for the finalists to be announced. Our hope is to show the organizers that we mean serious business. This is about promoting Thailand and less about the cash reward (seriously).

Voting won’t happen until the finalists are announced in October. So for now, there’s nothing that you can do on their website to push us ahead of the pack. In the meantime, you can help us out in three ways:

• follow our new twitter account and become our facebook friends
• comment on our Youtube videos and Flickr Photos
• tell your friends and family about our challenge

You can be sure I’ll keep you posted on our progress here at adventureswithben.com!

I sought out to inspire you to seek out adventures in your life. So what’s stopping you from applying? Do it! Have an adventure and I hope to see you out there in Thailand!

Thank you for your loyal readership and support.

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