"In our opinion, Rotterdam is the right city to cross the border for the first time."

If you were near the Wilhelminakade in Rotterdam during the weekend of Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May, you must’ve noticed: Traverse 2018 was in the city! Over 400 social influencers, ranging from beginning bloggers to influential instagrammer, vloggers and YouTubers were in Rotterdam for two congress days full of with workshops, presentations, meetings and of course, selfies!

Things were quite lively and hectic in the vicinity of The Student Hotel and LP2 during the final weekend of May, with a coming and going of all types of social influencers. They were in Rotterdam for the very first edition of Traverse outside of the United Kingdom. Workshops, presentations, inspiration sessions, meeting other influencers and at the same time producing and posting photos, videos and stories on social media. It kept the 400 participants quite busy.

Watch the video-impression of Traverse:

International congress for social influencers

Traverse started in 2012 as an event for English travel bloggers, but has since become an international conference for influencers in various fields. The conference offers a programme of lectures, presentations, panel sessions and workshops, aimed at online influencers. From practical tools for photography and video to inspiration and tips by professional influencers.

Rotterdam first ‘foreign’ city for Traverse

Traverse chose Rotterdam to be the first host city for their congress outside of the UK. Michael Ball, founder of Traverse, had been looking forward to his event taking place in Rotterdam: “We are beyond excited to come to Rotterdam in 2018. We have never taken the conference out of the UK before but after a visit to this fantastic city the decision to make this even the first one held abroad was an easy one. As a team, we fell in love with the people, architecture, food and culture of Rotterdam and can’t wait to introduce it to hundreds more in person next May, who will in turn promote it to millions over social media, blog posts, videos and more.”

"As a team, we fell in love with the people, architecture, food and culture of Rotterdam."

Michael Ball, Traverse

Side programming

Traverse took place over the weekend, but the week prior to the event was also packed with events and things to discover. Together with Rotterdam Partners, the municipality, Port of Rotterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, Traverse had organised an elaborate side programming. This included various tours through the city (street-art, architecture and a tour to up and coming neighbourhood Katendrecht), masterclasses and workshops and other fun events and gatherings at selected venues, like an escape room at ss Rotterdam, climbing the tower of the Laurenskerk and a fresh fish market by Schmidt Zeevis at Rotterdam Marriott Hotel.

Big ending

Judged by the positive feedback from participants and the many enthusiastic social media posts during the congress (over 1,100 tweets, app. 600 Instagram photos and 150 Facebook posts), Traverse 2018 in Rotterdam was very successful. The closing party at Club Vibes was a testament to the overall atmosphere and good time the participants had in Rotterdam.