EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010 is scheduled to take place Oct 13-14, 2010 in Chicago. The theme for this year’s TDS is “Essential Growth Strategies for a Changing Travel Market.”

EyeforTravel TDS North America

The two day event includes four distinct travel conferences, with 70+ expert speakers and over 750 travel professionals on hand to fill up The Westin on Michigan Avenue.

The four distinct travel conferences are as listed below:-

1. Online Sales & Distribution
2. Revenue Management
3. Mobile Technology & Travel
4. Social Media Strategies

Event Director Marco Saio says “We know that maintaining a ‘business as usual’ approach to markets and consumers that have transformed almost beyond recognition is not an option.”

The keynote session on Day 1 emphasizes this point – the lasting impact of the recession, how the distribution game has changed, how to stay ahead of the game and plan for the ‘next big thing’ in online travel.

Part I of this series on TDS North America 2010 takes a look at some of the highlights of the Online Sales & Distribution conference.

Profit Enhancing Distribution Strategies for a Changed Market: Topics covered in this session include the changing power dynamic between OTAs, suppliers, metasearch and the GDS companies, and the change in distribution models amongst OTA’s, metasearch and search engines.

Also discussed in this session will be an important question that everyone is grappling with under the new normal – How can you leverage traffic away from intermediaries and grow your direct channel for highest returns?

Speakers for this session include:- Keith Watson, VP, Rate Tiger
Eric Hofer, Senior Director of Commercial Sales, Travelport
Robert McDowell, Managing Director Distribution & E Commerce, United Airlines
Sunil Bhatt, VP & GM, Expedia Affiliate Network Americas
Rick Seaney, CEO, FareCast.com (Panelist)

Anticipate The Evolution of Search: Online search has undergone a sea change in the last year, with the inclusion of twitter feeds and micro blogging. This session starts off with the importance of adapting to the semantic web, an in-depth look at the current state of the search landscape, and charting how the travel consumer’s interaction with the web has changed.

Attendees will find more about the future of social search, how personalized search result mechanisms affect SEO ratings, and how developments in web 3.0 will help you reach, engage and influence the next generation of online travelers.

Speakers for this session include:- Jane Butler, Industry Director for Travel, Google Inc
Krista Pappas, Global Director & Head of Business Development, Bing Travel at Microsoft
Yen Lee, Co-Founder and President, UpTake
Elisabeth Osmeloski, Managing Editor, Search Engine Land

Innovative Post-Recession Distribution Models: Disruptive change results in established business models struggling to stay relevant, while space opens up for entrepreneurs who can see the opportunities and come up with innovative models.

This session puts together four such companies who will share their secrets and predictions regarding the next phase in the evolution of online travel.

Speakers for this session include:- Drew Patterson, CEO & Founder, Jetsetter
Adam Healey, Co-Founder & CEO, hotelicopter
Gregg Brockway, CEO, TripIt
Carl Shepherd, Co Founder and Chief Strategy and Development Officer, HomeAway Inc

See the full Distribution agenda of EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010.

EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel USA 2010 conference takes place March 24-25, 2010 at the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

EyeforTravel

This annual conference usually provides a clear picture of where the travel industry stands, in terms of use and integration of social media for travel, and more importantly – where it’s going to be in the near future.

In 2008, it was all about the buzz factor, and how to use social media to create brand awareness. Last year, the focus of the conference was on the monetization of social media channels and tracking the ROI.

This year, the panels are front-loaded with presentations about the strategic importance of social media and it’s integration into various aspects of your business. Fascinating evolution, and seems to indicate that travel companies have accepted that social media is here to stay, and it has serious company-wide implications.

A few highlights from the agenda for the conference:-

Strategic Importance - Josh Steinitz, CEO, NileGuide, will be asking and answering questions about how you can get top management to buy into your social media initiatives, and make it work as a part of the company’s overall corporate objectives. You’ll find out how to foster a corporate culture where social media plays a vital role across all departments and communcations.

Brand Reputation -  One very important subject being discussed by this panel is whether individuals within the organization should express their own personalities when responding or follow the ‘brand personality’?

Speakers for this panel include:-
John T. Peters, President & CEO, Tripology;
April Robb, Communications Specialist, TripAdvisor; and
James Zito, Director of Interactive Marketing, Morgans Hotel Group.

Travel Search & the Social Web - “The Future of Search and the Social Web – Adding the Emotional Sentiment into Travel Search” – UpTake CEO Yen Lee will be presenting on the convergence of social web and search, and what the integration of social networks into Bing and Google mean for the future of search. 

Questions that will be answered include  – How can the emotional sentiment of searching for travel be incorporated into the search stage of the travel cycle? What technological developments support this development and how can you adapt your search strategy?

Facebook - “Best Practices to get the Highest ROI on Your Social Media Initiatives” – Many travel companies have a token presence on Facebook, but if you want a meaningful presence with a significant ROI and understand how customers prefer to use Faceboook and engage with them, then don’t miss this one.

Speakers for this panel include:-
A Representative from Facebook;
Fiona Ashley, Director of Marketing, Travelmuse;
Shashank Nigam, Founder & CEO, Simpliflying; and
Brandie Feuer, Director of Interactive Marketing, Planet Hollywood.

Twitter - “Twitter and the Rise of Micro-blogging – What Are the Implications for your Travel Business?” - Twitter success stories and how travel companies are using Twitter. Use micro-blogging to reach out to customers on an individual basis and put the human back into your brand, and learn how to deal with twitter booking services. Predictions for the future – how travelers will be using twitter and how you can prepare your business for it.

Speakers for this panel include:-
Tom Romary, CEO, Yapta.com; and
Michael Perhaes, Assistant VP Marketing, MGM Grand.

For more details and registration info, visit http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media.

EyeforTravel has lined up some heavy-hitters for the Travel Distribution Summit to be held Sept 16-17, 2009 in Chicago, at the Westin.

EyeforTravel Travel Distribution Summit

It’s a great opportunity to meet and network with over 700 top executives from online travel suppliers and distributors including Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, STA Travel, Google, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corp., Continental, Jetblue, American Airlines and many more.

But the thing that sets apart this event is that EyeforTravel has managed to fill in 2 days of panels and presentations with some genuinely hot topics being discussed and debated by the aforementioned heavyweights and trend-setters.

Day One starts with a panel on the balance of power between OTA’s and suppliers, with Jeff Davidoff, CMO, Orbitz; Matthew Crummack, SVP Lodging, Expedia; and Julie Atkinson, Sr. Director Global Online Sales and Distribution, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

This discussion is a big deal and a hot subject right now, given the OTA price wars and the steep recession-influenced discounts that suppliers are offering on their own websites.

Day Two’s highlight is the panel on ‘Innovations in Search.’  Speakers for this panel include Ted Souder, Head of Travel – Central Region, Google; Anne Payne, CEO, BeDynamic; and Yen Lee, President, Uptake.

Semantic Web

You’ll learn about preparing for the Semantic web, and the website changes needed to ensure optimized results in semantic search. 

You’ll learn how to build a keyword list that’s based on consumer behaviour and purchasing habits. Find out how Google actually sees your site, how to engage customers on your websites for the best conversion rates, how to accurately measure ROI, and get the lowdown on mobile search and geosearch.

In addition, the Travel Distribution Summit offers a host of speakers sharing their expertise and forecasts for crucial distribution trends, finding value in the new economy, deploying social media to improve distribution, the links between online trip-planning tools and offline distribution, benefits of meta-search for suppliers, ancilliary revenue strategies and the increasing importance and changing landscape in the vacation rental market.

To make it even more attractive, EyeforTravel has scheduled two more conferences on ‘Revenue Management and Pricing’ and ‘Mobile Strategies for Travel.’ One pass gives you unlimited access to all three conferences.

Plus, if you’re planning on staying at the Westin, you can get a special EyeforTravel discount. For flight discounts, go to www.jetblue.com/promo and enter promotional code ‘EyeforTravel’.  This discount is valid for outbound flights Sept 13-15, 2009 and return flights Sept 17-19, 2009.

Eye For Travel delivers a great social media conference

I attended the Eye For Travel, Social Media for Travel conference at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Approximately 150 to 200 people attended the well-organized and captivating event.  Eye For Travel lined up a host of compelling speakers who use social media to drive their businesses.  I was looking for insights into how to use social media to increase traffic and revenue on travel sites.

I found some travel companies (Marriott, Southwest, Disney) embraced social media and others are still not unwilling to even test its power (WestJet). 

Key learnings were:

1. Jump in. Your customers are already there. Even if you are not involved in social media, your customers are and they are talking about you.  For example, Marriott’s recently launched corporate facebook account has a few thousand fans.  But one of their customers created a facebook account about Marriott–completely independently and his account has 10,600 fans. Due to the popularity of this fan’s account, Marriott works cooperatively with them, now.  The Marriott properties each have their own twitter account to talk to customers.

2.  Create compelling content. Content brings the brand to life and engages the customer. Massive amounts of content may help search results, but if it is not well written or presented it will hurt your brand in the short and long term.

Southwest uses social media to make their brand real

3. Social media can make the brand real. Southwest, a brand that excels in connecting with customers on and offline uses SM to “make their brand real.”They believe it adds breadth and depth to their brand and helps bring it to life.  They utilize each facet of social media to build and support one another. Here is what they do:

• Twitter is a perfect way to keep followers informed about what is happening right now (weather delays, ariport changes)
• YouTube is used to differentiate Southwest from its competitors. Their “No  Fee” campaign received 70K views thus far on youtube.
• LinkedIn–is their most cost effective tool they have for recruiting and is relied upon by their “People” department
• Blog–spreads the word to a vast audience of about boarding changes and expansion plans. The Southwest blog reader is interested in the business model of Southwest

4. Use social media to build the brand. Consumers still trust the brand and brands still matter more to the individual consumer than a host of reviews about a hotel said Glenn Fogel of Priceline. But the brand is becoming less relevant as consumers look to one another for ideas and support, Duncan Wardle of Disney Parks and Resorts.

5.  Get involved. Jeff Hanson of the Marriott advised companies thinking of entering the realm of social media to “Think big, start small and move fast.” In other words, set big goals, realize it is a big commitment, but you try to be everywhere, focus on one or two areas initially. learn and then launch the big iniatives.

6. Begin dabbling. There were quite a few speakers who recommended developing a strategy before starting a foray into media. I agree, but don’t get stuck, instead get started on a personal level first. The easiest point of entry is via twitter. You can follow me (patjenkins) and a few others following me from the travel industry on twitter.  Watch the conversations, you don’t have to participate. Ask your local teenager or savvy friend to give you a tour of facebook and then set up a personal account and watch your connections grow and renew.  Start a blog. It is free and easy to create a personal blog to see how it works, a friend of mine trained me on the basics in fifteen minutes.  Once you have dabbled on a personal level, then do the same for your company.  You will soon realize the power of social media on your life and your business. After a few weeks, you will understand which social media tools are  best for your company, your products and your brand. Still have questions? Askfor help from me or someone you met at the conference. The thing about social media users is we like to connect and help and share.

Social media is an effective marketing tool to build your brand. It is cost effective, measurable and can have enormous positive impact.  Get started today.

Finally, I highly recommend this conference. The expertise of the speakers was phenomenal, the content compelling and it was small enough to meet many of the key presenters. Plus it delivered information to help the novice social media marketer and those who have been involved at much more in depth level.

Go next year.

Related blogs:

Travelmuse Company Blog

UpTake.com