Because of my research on travel reviews, I’ve been invited to deliver a presentation at a major tourism conference that’s coming up this Fall in NYC: the Skift Global Forum.  I’ll be speaking there to travel industry executives (a totally new audience for me)…and it’s quite possible that I may be the only academic participating at this event.  Which means that I’m super excited – and more than a little bit nervous.  Fortunately, the event organizers will be providing me with lots of feedback along the way.

A couple weeks ago, I was interviewed by a reporter for the event.  I like how she incorporated my findings about stance adverbials definitely and literally into the photo caption. But I gotta say that if there’s anything more cringe-inducing than transcribing your own speech…. it’s reading another person’s transcript of your speech.  Yikes!  Clearly I need to work on sounding much more fluent, and much less stream-of-consciousness.  So I’ll be practicing my presentation A LOT in the next few weeks!

Among other topics (evaluative adjectives, and references to expectations and disappointment), I’ll be talking about  how linguists can help businesses determine the extent to which their branding strategies are being reflected in online reviews of consumer experiences.