What Clients Say

Read what our clients have to say about their experience at an HPR Buzz Seminar.

Montana Governor’s Conference on Tourism April 2012

John, Thanks so much for providing the Social Media Training Track at the 2012 Montana Tourism Conference. All three of your sessions were rated Excellent or Very Good. The Intermediate and Advanced Sessions were the top draws among the concurrent session offerings attendees could choose from – and there were five others each time. During the breaks and lunches we heard a lot of good discussion about the concepts, ideas and strategies you shared with attendees. You made us look good!

Victor Bjornberg,
Tourism Development & Education Program Manager,
Montana Office of Tourism,

Montana Governor’s Conference on Tourism (March 2011)
buzz seminar in Montana The evaluations for the 2011 MT Tourism Conference are in and lots of attendees are calling it the “best ever.” Your two Social Media sessions were rated “excellent” by your audience. “Speaker Fantastic” was one of the descriptions provided. The only criticism was directed at our office for not giving you a larger room to present in! Next time, we promise.
Victor Bjornberg
Tourism Development & Education Coordinator
Montana Office of Tourism

Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association (March 2011)
Dear John, here are some of the comments from the evaluation forms we distributed to our members on your March 5, Social Media Presentation:

“Great information for me, as I am not really up on new technologies.”
“Very good seminar”
“Excellent”
“Great information, engaging speaker”
“Bring John back for more in depth training, please!!.”
“John had a lot of valuable information. I was also surprised how up to date the information was – excellent.”
“John did a great job – I got a lot out of this.”Plus, in thumbing through the forms, all folks rated you 5’s with 5 being excellent!

Kimera
Kimera Coady
Oregon Refuse & Recycling Association

Corvallis Benton County Chamber Coalition (Jan 2011)

“The Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition retained HPR Social Media to present a workshop on using social media to promote organizations and businesses. The full-day session sold out quickly and exceeded our expectations. This is a great program that delivers as promised, provides added value to our members, and was a risk-free revenue source for the Chamber. HPR offers a turn key promotional package of email copy and press releases for us to use. We were very pleased with the results!”
Marcy Eastham
President/CEO

John’s full day social media boot camp received a 93% ranking of “excellent” is all categories. Comments included: “You are an amazing speaker!” “John was strategic about his use of time and his materials supported his verbal presentation AND he was entertaining though it all.” “A joy to listen to.” “An excellent presentation.” “Very entertaining, interesting, relevant.” “An engaging instructor who provided a great mix of humor with great content.”

Oregon Society of Association Management (Dec 2010)
John’s presentation rated a 4.4 out of a possible 5 with 5 being excellent. Comments included: I liked John Hope-Johnstone’s presentation, very good discussions, best OSAM conference I have attended, John is knowledgeable, funny and full of great ideas. John H-J was very good.

Baker County Tourism (Nov 2010)
“We recently hosted a full day workshop with HPR Social media for our small business and tourism partners in Baker County. John’s presentation was exceptional and the day was packed full of in depth and meaningful content. Many of our attendees have already started implementing the strategies presented during the workshop and the feedback from those who attended has been phenomenal.”
Timothy Bishop CMSM
Baker County Tourism – Base Camp Baker

Northeast Oregon Economic Development Seminar in Joseph OR (Nov 2010)
Buzz Seminar for NE Oregon Economic Development ”John’s presentation gave a great overview of today’s social media options, what they can and can’t do for businesses, and how to take advantage of their strengths. He not only explained the “big picture” of what is going on with social media (including some newer and growing services), but also gave some specific helpful tips for businesses working on a social media strategy.”
Jeff Moss
Fiscal Officer and Outreach Specialist
Northeast Oregon Economic Development District

Timberhill Athletic Club (Sept-Oct 2010)
“John, just wanted to thank you for the great social networking workshop you provided for me and the Timberhill Athletic Club staff on July 13th. 2010. We all learned a great deal more about the social networking process and how we can take advantage of it to build and retain membership. The workshop also kept our interest for the entire time and enjoyed the material presented.”
Randy Huber
Owner, Timberhill Athletic Club

City of Corvallis, Half Day Social Media Boot Camp for City Departments (June 2010)
“John recently conducted a Social Media seminar for the City of Corvallis. The seminar was well received, focused and beneficial to the participants. Governments should be using Social Media to connect with citizens in numerous ways and John can help make those connections.”
Charlie Tomlinson
Mayor, City of Corvallis

City of Roseburg, Umpqua Community College (May 2010)
Buzz Seminar for City of Roseburg ”We had the pleasure of hiring John Hope-Johnstone to teach a seminar entitled “Grow Your Business or Organization Through Social Media”. John did a great job of keeping the audience’s attention with his humor and solid presentation skills while delivering some cutting edge information about a new and important marketing tool. John did a great job for us at Umpqua Community College and I would highly recommend him to others looking for a dynamic marketing presenter!”
Pete Bober
Director, SBDC and Workforce Training at Umpqua Community College

Participant’s comments:

“Should have been a full day not half”
“Excellent presenter!”
“Excellent in delivery and knowledge”
“Great fun, wonderful speaker”
“Bring back John, please please please!!!”
Wonderful material, a bit overwhelming! for the time”
“Thank you ,GREAT!”

Travel & Tourism Research Association’s Greater Western Chapter Symposium (April 2010)
John’s social media seminar is outstanding. He’s an energetic, entertaining speaker with a great sense of humor. The information and insight he provides is excellent, and I found myself learning something new, despite having attended a number of seminars on social media previously. John has excellent experience as a travel and tourism marketer, and he draws on that experience to give real-life examples. I enthusiastically recommend his seminar to those who want to excel with social media as part of their marketing efforts.

David M. Williams
Deputy Director
Utah Office of Tourism
President GWTTRA Board

Northwest Festivals & Events Conference (March 2010)
On behalf of the Northwest Festivals & Events Conference joint committee, Washington Festivals & Events Association and Oregon Festivals & Events Association, thank you for presenting the Social Media Boot Camp as the Pre Conference workshop featured at the Northwest Festivals & Events Conference. We are delighted with the overall results and comments from our attendees. Our attendees felt they received great value and workable tools to take away from this workshop.

Some of the comments included:

“John presented the mysterious social media topic in down-to-earth fashion so even I could understand”
“This social-media boot camp was the best presentation I’ve been to – not only did I learn about the mediums, but how to plan and use the appropriate tools”
“John Hope-Johnstone is an amazing presenter, with just enough storytelling to keep us interested, and plenty of how-to so we can actually use the information”
“I didn’t think I could actually ever grasp this stuff – I get it! Thanks John!”

The committee appreciates your service from the simple and straightforward negotiations process to the preparation of our attendees and delivery of superior product! Because of the popularity and demand this portion of our conference, it actually was a profit center for the conference. Thank you!
We hope to enlist your services again in the near future. Thank for your bringing your stellar talents to our industry conference.
Jill Ingalls
Executive Director
Northwest Festivals & Events Conference Producer
Oregon Festivals & Events Association

Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association(September 2009)
We were taken with John’s ability to impart a great deal of valuable information about tourism marketing in the 21st Century, and the use of social media for small businesses, in a very engaging fashion. John is knowledgeable, witty and creative. Our delegates increased their knowledge on both topics substantially and had fun at the same time. We thoroughly enjoyed having him take part in our Sunset Country Tourism Marketing Forum.

Our delegates evaluated John’s “Marketing in the 21st Century” session as extremely useful with a mean score of 4.5 out of 5.

One of our delegates commented, “I really enjoyed my one-on-one session with John. He answered my questions and gave me some great ideas to help my specific situation. He was very easy to talk to.”
Harald Lohn and Jerry Fisher, Forum Co-chairs Northwestern Ontario Tourism Association and the Kenora District CampOwners Association; Mike Loewen Executive Director Patricia Regional Tourist Council; Gerry Cariou Executive Director Sunset Country Travel Association.

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