No Vacancy Southeast Asia - June 26, 2012

Bookings are now open for No Vacancy Southeast Asia at the Banyan Tree Bangkok. There's a focus on web, distribution, innovation, revenue management, sales, digital marketing and technology - no fluff, just the facts.

Program 

9.00am - 9.25am The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Performance snapshot of the key Southeast Asia hotel markets, which are as individual as the countries which make up the region. 

• Sun Sen-Moon, Director, Horwath HTL

9.25am - 9.50am Beyond The Beach: The new era of urban resorts in places like Bali, Phuket, Pattaya and Sentosa is changing the face of SE Asian tourism. Our next speaker argues it’s no longer about bespoke beach experiences; mass tourism catering to the rise of the Asian middle class is where it’s at. What do these new travellers want and is mass tourism a sustainable business model?

• Bill Barnett, Managing Director, C9 Hotelworks

9.50am - 10.30am Road Ahead - Trends, Issues, Opportunities: Wrap of the big issues and opportunities Southeast Asia's always dynamic accommodation industry. Presentations followed by discussion.

• Bill Black, President, SilverNeedle Hospitality
• Mark Flower, Director Commercial - Southeast Asia, IHG
• Bill Barnett, Managing Director, C9 Hotelworks  

10.30am - 11.00am Morning Tea 

11.00am - 11.25am SEA Digital Landscape: The Asian online landscape is moving faster than you can say ‘internet’, presenting big opportunities for nimble travel marketers able to take advantage of shifting consumer habits, something many have admittedly ignored to this point, with the region still lagging . This session will address consumer digital and social media trends in all major Southeast Asian markets.

• Sonia Kapoor, Director, Nielsen

11.25am - 11.50am Hotel Website Design, Marketing and Conversion: This session looks at the latest hotel web design trends gleaned from building more than 1300 sites for some of the world’s leading accommodation brands. Covered will be consumer engagement, conversion, booking engines, search engine visibility and social media integration. Build a better website.

• Jerome Wise, Vice President - Global Internet Marketing Services, TravelClick

11.50am - 12.05pm Case Study – AirAsia Expedia JV: What a huge undertaking; to combine the resources of the region’s hottest Low Cost Carrier (AirAsia) and the world’s biggest Online Travel Agent (Expedia). This ambitious alliance, in which the two parties share content, has been under way for more than a year. Discover how it’s working out.

• Dan Lynn, CEO, AirAsia Expedia

12.05pm - 12.30pm Agents of Change – OTA Panel: Latest from Asia’s biggest accommodation websites. Update on market trends, supply demand, rates, rate parity, issues, opportunities and marketing strategies.

• Robert Rosenstein, President, Agoda
• Dan Lynn, CEO, AirAsia Expedia

12.30pm - 2.00pm Lunch

2.00pm - 2.25pm Online Reviews - Use Them, Don’t Fight Them: Hotel reviews have transformed the accommodation marketing landscape – they can make or break a property. Reviews also provide analytical gold, insight into what turns consumers on or off. This session present findings gleaned from analyzing millions of reviews across the leading review sites and OTAs and share best practices for responding to reviews, generating reviews and learning from your own reviews.

• Michelle Wohl, Vice President Marketing, Reinvate

2.25pm - 2.50pm Case Study – Red Planet Hotels: Small rooms, big ideas. Red Planet already owns and operates five of AirAsia’s Tune Hotels, has another 15 under construction in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, with yet more planned. Clearly Red Planet believes in both the budget sector and the Tune Hotels concept. Why? Find out more here.

• Timothy Hansing, CEO, Red Planet Hotels

2.50pm - 3.30pm Hot Market - Indonesia:  If you believe the hype – and there is plenty of it – markets don’t come any hotter than Indonesia right now. This session take a look at the rapid growth of the Indonesian market, reflects on rapidly evolving booking patterns and projects into the future.  

• Scott Blume, Group CEO, PT Raja Kumar International
• David Perry, General Manager, Gran Melia Jakarta
• Craig Hewett, Co-Founder, Wego.com

3.30pm - 4.00pm Afternoon Tea

4.00pm - 4.40pm Marketing and Distribution: Topics include the impact of daily deal sites on brands and marketing, evolving booking patterns, rate parity, the direct/indirect sales split for hoteliers, channel management, digital marketing, branding and how best to connect with today’s time poor consumers.

• Ben Emery, Director of Revenue Strategy, Southeast Asia, Marriott International
• Markus Keller, Regional Director of Sales & Distribution - Asia Pacific, Accor
• Jagdish Sandhu, Director, Revenue Management & Distribution, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts
• Jessica Tham, Corporate Director - Yield Management, Berjaya Hotels & Resorts

5.00pm - 6.00pm Drinks Sponsored by Sabre Hospitality Solutions