The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel in southwest Florida is getting a touch of Glass. Google Glass. The Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau (VCB) is the first U.S. tourism destination to plan a promotional effort involving the futuristic Glass. 

Five Google Glass explorers recently visited the Fort Myers/Sanibel Island area to participate in the “Find Your Island Challenge.” Selected by Google to be the first to have this new technology, explorers documented their local adventures through Glass for a chance to win a return visit.

“We pride ourselves in always being on the forefront of new offerings to enhance the future, and current, visitor experience,” said Tamara Pigott, VCB executive director. “We know technology is the key to the future and we are thrilled to be the first to arrange this innovative promotion using Google Glass. The beauty of our destination begs the use of a medium like this.”

Winner of the competition is Jeris JC Miller of Seattle, Washington. One of five explorers, competing for the title, Jeris is the founder of the #SeattleGlassExplorers and Lean In #GlassExplorers and is also a founding member of the #GlassMed Communities. A social entrepreneur, Jeris, was one of the first to be selected by Google to test the new technology. As a participant in the FindYourIsland Campaign, Jeris documented her local adventures and won based on the content rich material she posted to her social sites. Jeris's posts can be found at http://gplus.to/dakini

“The beauty of our destination compels visitors to share their experiences through social media,” said Pigott. “We developed this competition because we wanted to see how visitors who had never been here before would capture and share their experiences through Google Glass. And knowing that Google Glass was the next vehicle the digital traveler would be using, the event made a lot of sense. All of the explorers did an amazing job, but we felt Jeris really captured our area's essence.”

“The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is a beautiful destination – with so much natural beauty and history, it was easy to document our adventures,” Jeris said. “Google Glass is the perfect way to explore and share images and video immediately with friends and family while traveling – not searching for a camera allows you to live in the moment and share it. I'm thrilled to be here and thrilled to have won a return trip.”

The other explorers were:

•    Eva Smith - Founder and publisher of Tech Food Life Magazine. She has been featured in USA Today as a Top Blogger to Watch, Voxxi's Most Powerful Latinas in Social Media and Latina Magazine's 25 Latina In Tech. https://twitter.com/Eva_Smith

•    Hilary JM Topper - Author of one of the first books on Social Media: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask... blogger, speaker, CEO of a PR firm, runner, skier, golfer. https://twitter.com/hilary25

•    George “Loki” Williams IV - Pro blogger, social media consultant and native Creole cook https://twitter.com/socialgumbo

•    Keith Kaplan - Keith is a social brand strategist at IBM and has a passion for all forms of social media and emerging technology, as well as being a national collegiate whitewater kayaking champion. https://twitter.com/KrazyKaplan14

Everyone can link up with the explorers by connecting on social media using the hashtag, #FindYourIsland. The VCB has also launched the “Find Your Island #throughglass” Facebook

Editors note: Media can find the explorers b-roll at:
http://fileshare.mmgyglobal.com/_HpoT7h54QLZgQR

Additional information, destination b-roll and still images and details on participants at:

http://fileshare.mmgyglobal.com/_7YuERNkiTLPf-R

For more information on the promotion and participants' competition, go to http://www.fortmyers-sanibel.com/google_glass


To follow the competition, follow the #FindYourIsland hashtag and #FtMyersSanibel. On Twitter: @FtMyersSanibel, Facebook: FtMyersSanibel and Instagram: @FtMyersSanibel.

For more information on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, visit: www.FortMyersSanibel.com.

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