Once landed in Bilbao, travelling the 12 kilometres isn’t a real obstacle. For a fee of less than 2 euros, there are buses to Bilbao every twenty minutes and the trip takes around fifteen or twenty minutes, depending on the traffic. The bus stops at Plaza Moyua (centre) and Termibús, the bus terminal of Bilbao. At the Termibús there is a subway and tram station and there are taxis to take you to your hotel.

For those who don’t wish to wait twenty minutes, or just aren’t fans of public transport, a taxi service can also fulfil your need. The price of a taxi to downtown Bilbao is around 30 euros. Both buses and taxis are located in front of the airport.

For people flying with Ryanair, Santander is the nearest airport. Although often described as a Bilbao airport, it’s actually located in Cantabria at approximately 100 kilometres of Bilbao. Luckily, Alsa runs a good bus service from the airport to Bilbao; bus tickets cost 10 euros, or only 6 euros if you book in advance via their website. The airports of San Sebastian and Vitoria only cover domestic flights. You can also use the airport of Biarritz (150 kms. away from Bilbao).

Hotels
Once you have arrived in Bilbao, you will need a place to stay.
* Five stars: Hotel Carlton, Domine, López De Haro, Meliá
* Four stars: Zenit Bilbao, Hesperia Bilbao
* Three stars: Abba Parque Hotel, NH Hotel de Deusto
* Two stars: Sirimiri, Bilbi

EITB and Nonick conference

The conference will be held at EITB headquarters, Calle Capuchinos de Basurto 2. The metro, which covers most areas of Bilbao, has a stop at San Mamés (Termibús), from where it’s a three minute walk to EITB.

Sightseeing

Of course Bilbao, and the Basque Country in general, has more to offer than just the nonick conference. It would be an absolute waste not to spend some time outside the walls of EITB.

Anyone talking about Bilbao automatically associates it with the Guggenheim. Currently, the museum is hosting a major solo exhibition devoted to the art of Anish Kapoor, one of the most influential sculptors working today. However, aside from the Guggenheim, there are plenty of other attractions such as the Fine Arts Museum and the wonderful Casco Viejo with its small streets, authentic mansions, Plaza Nueva, small shops plus a surplus of bars and restaurants.

For quality shopping, the Gran Via is the place to be. The Plaza Moyua, Abando and the neighbouring streets play host some important names in fashion. For more information, visit the Bilbao Tourism website.

While a reporter in Room 9 at City Hall for six years, Jennifer published a book, Queen Bess, about Bess Myerson, the former Miss America and Koch administration official who was caught up in New York City’s municipal corruption scandal in the 1980’s. As a reporter, she has also won several investigative reporting awards, including the Golden Typewriter Award for Public Service by the New York Press Club for a series on the police use of deadly force by off-duty police officers.

In addition to her experience as a newsroom manager in News Administration at The Times, where she was involved in staffing, recruiting, labor relations, budgeting, and strategic planning, she has also worked as a circulation marketing manager at Newsday. Nowadays she is one of the professors at The H Journalism School of Columbia University. She has attended newsroom management and leadership programs at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business Administration. Jennifer is a graduate of Boston University.

This year’s Nonick will take place on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th May at the Bilbao headquarters of the Basque Country’s Public Broadcasting Company, EITB. The focus of Nonick 2010 will be on-line communities, bringing together experts in the field of on-line social network from all over Europe.

This year’s edition of Nonick will also hold presentations by professionals of reknowned success and international standing, will include workshops and dedicate an important part to networking sessions.
This year will mark the second Nonick conference, following last year’s first edition which focused on video, web and television. Nonick is the successor to Blogak, an event which during the last decade brought together bloggers from all to the Biscay capital.

nonick is an event jointly organised by eitb.com and SPRI with the collaboration of Alianzo. Participation is set to be the key characteristic of the event, as those attending will be expected to decide the course of events. In the event website www.nonickconference.com, for example, visitors are invited to collaborate in different areas of the conference, such as blogs, startups and workshops. Organisers have also decided to leave the choice of best event logo in the hands of those who use their website. The idea is that anyone can enter the competition and have the opportunity to turn their design into the event logo.

The event will also be held in the presence of some of the world´s leading specialists in Internet videos, who will debate such topics as how to measure audience figures for the Web and social networking websites and discussing cases of people who have become famous via videoblogs.