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New Kind of Normal - TRAVELtech 2010

TRAVELtech 2010 has just concluded. It was a great day attended by more than 260 Australian online industry leaders. Photos will be posted soon. Meanwhile, you can check out the 2010 program below.

TRAVELtech 2010 Program

9.00am - 10.30am Session One 

9.00am - 9.10am New Kind of Normal: The collision between economic reality and technology over the past 18 months has changed travel, finally, forever. There can be no going back. Online travel brands have prospered while those wedded to outdated practices have suffered – the contrast in fortunes is black and white. This opening presentation takes a look at Travel 2010, changing consumer patterns, advancing technology and future strategies.

9.10am - 9.40am Think Local Act Global: Orbitz is one of the world’s leading online travel companies. Brands include Orbitz.com, ebookers.com, HotelClub.com and Ratestogo.com. Orbitz has had an interesting history and the latest chapter is being written by President and CEO Barney Harford, who has moved strongly to refresh the flagship Orbitz.com brand, eliminating a range of fees while introducing clear best price positioning. Strategic changes have also been made to its international operations. This keynote interview will take a corporate, regional and global perspective. 

9.40am – 9.50am: Ten Minutes of Fame – Brokepacker.com: This new travel website has been founded on a great pun (if there’s such a thing) that alludes to its core mission – providing cheap deals to those notorious (but potentially very lucrative) skinflints – backpackers. 

9.50am - 10.30am Online Travel Agents – The Future: OTAs have been around since the year dot. But the model remains basically the same, as do the sites. How will OTAs evolve over the few years – more of the same or radical change? And what are the challenges these sites face? The session kicks off with coverage of latest tech developments – some amazing interactive stuff here - before moving into panel discussion.

10.30am - 11.00am Morning Tea

11.00am - 12.40pm Session Two

11.00am - 11.20am Online Travel Update – What’s Hot (and what’s not):  This is the place to get the low down on which travel sites are performing most strongly and where the opportunities lie further down the track based on present trends.

  • Alan Long, Research Director, Experian Hitwise Asia Pacific

11.20am - 11.45am A Complex Relationship – Portals and Travel: Discusses direction in which portals are heading and their relationship with travel, which is becoming deeper and more complex. Formerly just content and advertising but over past couple of years there’s been a lot of publisher acquisitions; not only Yahoo7 and totaltravel.com but News with Wego and Fairfax with Stayz etc. This session will include overview of the totaltravel.com acquisition and integration plus questions.

11.45am - 12.05pm Maps Key To Search: Maps are taking over search engines, the key driver of consumer traffic to travel websites, with massive online implications for all kinds of tourism businesses – hotels, attractions, tours and even travel agents. Quite simply, the game has changed. Has your online marketing strategy been left behind? This session reveals the latest high-ranking techniques.

12.05pm - 12.40pm Distribution – It Just Got A Whole Lot More Complicated… The Internet was supposed to simplify the travel distribution chain but that hasn't happened. In fact, it has become even more complex. The Web is simply another sales channel, albeit a highly effective one. This session looks at the latest developments and the impact on different links in the chain.

12.40pm - 2.00pm Lunch Break

2.00pm - 3.30pm Session Three

2.00pm – 2.50pm … Communities and Social Media. Three succinct presentations addressing different aspects of creating communities and building them, both through social media and more traditional means, such as shared interests, followed by panel discussion and audience questions. Act 1: Social Media, how people are using it to interact with travel brands. Act 2: Hangover Cure: How to follow the travel world’s most successful social media campaign? Update from Tourism Queensland. Act 3: Building Travel Communities. Kevin Costner once said: “Build it and they will come.” If only it was that easy. How The Fanatics turned a passion into a community and then a business.

  • Mark Higginson, Director of Analytics, Nielsen Online
  • Chris Chambers, Director - Digital Marketing, Tourism Queensland
  • Warren Livingstone, Founder, The Fanatics

2.50pm – 3.00pm Ten Minutes of Fame - Travellr.com. It’s still early days for this locally-developed Q&A website “for travellers to get answers from locals who know”, but it’s attracted the attention from the World Nomads Group and is certainly worth checking out. 

3.00pm - 3.25pm Personalisation, Localisation and Portability: The world as seen through the Internet is moving faster than ever, driven by new technology, changing user habits and continual innovation. The introduction of new browser-friendly mobile devices such as the iPhone has also had a profound impact, while screens, images, maps and GPS are becoming ever more powerful. Find out where the Travel Internet is today and where it’s heading in this hands-on session.
 
3.35pm - 4.10pm TRAVELtech Web Awards
 

4.10pm - 5.30pm Drinks and Networking

New Kind of Normal - TRAVELtech 2010
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Location: Dockside, Sydney
Cost: Online Bookings Closed
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