Congrats to our winners!
As you will have seen (at least if you’re on this site) we have chosen our winners for the 2010 World Traveller Intern programme.
Congratulations to Matt and Becky 
The selection process was extremely tough, with all of the top 10 worthy winners. The judging panel, which consisted of senior STA Travel management and Paul “Twitchhiker” Smith (as our external social media expert), came to the decision that Matt and Becky most closely matched the STA Travel values and would compliment each other as a team.
Matt was chosen because he came across as very likeable, very natural at presenting and his videos showed a lot of thought and structure.
Becky was chosen because her videos were full of colour and very creative which will be a real asset to help showcase the locations they will be visiting.
Despite both having some travelling experience the internship will give Matt his first chance to visit South East Asia, Brazil and Agentina, and for Becky it will be her first visit to South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the US, giving us a real insight into those countries from first time visitors.
So well done again to Matt and Becky, and to everyone who took part. The amount of effort put in has blown us away.
Just so you know, they aren’t first time visitors and that is quite clear if you had of researched them. Look at the videos for start.
I wonder who is going to video it all then?
Are you honestly paying thousands of pounds for two interns to travel the world when neither of them have decent recording equipment or editting skills? That’s obviously rhetorical.
What an oversight. What a joke. You’ve made a mockery of yourselves. You had the audacity to tell candidates voting was of importance and you lacked the decency to personally contact each of the 8 unsuccesfull candidates. 3 months of time out during for many a crucial period of their education, the least of you could have done was taken a few minutes to offer your thanks to each candidate. Disgusting.
Hi Alex,
I totally understand your frustration.
There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when organising a competition such as this, and it’s been a real learning experience. All of the finalists will receive feedback, and it was my every intention to get the emails sent out before now but I just haven’t been able to.
We’re looking for real-world footage, developed and inspired by our community as we believe it’s what adds most to what we do. We were pleasantly surprised by the entries that used everyday tools in a creative way and this is one of the reasons why Matt and Becky won in the end.
Again, really sorry that you’re left feeling so disappointed.
The aim of this competition was to inspire exploration and discovery, and hopefully, learn a few new skills for capturing and sharing content along the way.
Alex
“The aim of this competition was to inspire exploration and discovery, and hopefully, learn a few new skills for capturing and sharing content along the way.”
You saying that almost defies belief.
You are saying you are sending interns away to go and learn a few new skills for capturing and sharing content. As opposed to sending interns away who already know how. What a mockery you have just made of the whole application process and what you listed as requirements.
“it was my every intention to get the emails sent out before now but I just haven’t been able to.”
That is inexcusable. Sending emails out after the announcements is simply not good enough. It’s not even me that didn’t get one, obviously you didn’t put me through to the final 10. I feel sorry for the 8 candidates you have let down and the word going around in the discussions between us all is that they feel disgusted with their treatment too. They spent 3 months helping to promote your company, during which was for many a crucial time in their education. That was their choice and their decision but the thanks and the way they have been treated is disgusting.
As a professional creative me speaking out like this is unprofessional, but you should be ashamed of the way you have handled this whole process. Learning curve or not.
totally agree with you alex CORNES
from someone who chose not to apply, but watched things closely and is really glad she didn’t…..
Ah, I see you changed a few sentences in the blog to make my first comment look very stoopid. I thank you……..
I think its out of order people have been slagging STA and Alex off, sure things could have been done slightly differently, but at the end of the day STA didn’t ask us to spend all that extra time towards our applications. Personally I think the whole process has been amazing and sure it sucks not to have won based on STA value’s but what can you do except accept it and get on with it. Alex C, your comments are very heartfelt and I respect you for your passion but I think your comments should be more private, STA are a nice bunch.
Paddy, they didn’t ask but because this was an application process for three months and not say a one off video competition, people were always going to go the extra mile and for a sustained period too. They knew that would be the case. This is also not about being a nice bunch or not, I have no doubt that before all this, we could all have been chucked together and had a great time. I don’t for a moment think Alex P or any of the STA team are nasty or unpleasant people; in fact I would hazzard a guess that because they are working at a travel company whose demographic tends to be young people, they are indeed a pretty cool bunch, Alex included. The way the process has been handled though has been unprofessional. Business is business. No matter how nice you are. At the very least I hope if they run another intern programme next year they treat the process and the applicants with the seriousness and respect they deserve. That did not happen here. That is why even though I was out of the running a month ago, I am myself being unprofessional and making the points that need to be made for their ‘learning curve’.
The only problems you seem to have are to do with events following you being out of the competition. I dont imagine you would be so bitter had it been you who had won. Matt and Becky worked extremely hard, and their personalities won the hearts of the people who voted for them, making them very deserving of their prize. You didn’t win – get over it!
Ramm in it
http://skepho.tk
Tcohudwon! That’s a really cool way of putting it!
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