TRAVEL TRENDS - INCORPORATING TRAVELTECH AND NOVACANCY
7 July, 2008, 7:26:45 AM
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Events
Bookings are now open for TRAVELtech 2008 - Australia's leading online travel marketing, distribution and tech event. This year's theme is the open-ended Year of Living Dangerously? It can be taken a couple of ways ... the obvious: oil, inflation, interest rates and marketing costs up - challenges ahead. But it's also a question, and the good news is there's increasing evidence the online channel may be the place consumers turn at times like these. Find out more at TRAVELtech 2008. Confirmed speakers are listed below, while the latest program has just been posted - it's packed with industry leaders and topical content.
TRAVELtech, founded in 1999, focusses on the latest online travel marketing and web-based innovations. It has a well-established reputation for delivering relevant, high-quality content and excellent networking - more than 300 delegates attended in 2007. If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to sponsor, please call Martin Kelly on (612) 9882-1575. Please visit the TRAVELtech photo gallery to see some photographs from the 2007 event. Sponsors include:
INFORMATIVE, educational, provocative and sometimes controversial, Search Engine Room is the leading event for Australasia's rapidly-growing search industry. Founded in 2004, Search Engine Room is locally owned and operated. It's held annually in Australia and New Zealand, attracting widespread industry support, and has a reputation for quality content, excellent event management and staging. The program focus is on respected, well-connected speakers delivering topical, relevant information. Search engine optimisation and marketing is well-covered, while broader industry issues are also addressed through interviews with leading search industry figures. There are case studies and debates, plus panels led by informed journos. Audience interaction is encouraged and Search Engine Room always makes an effort to be forward-looking, tracking the latest search and digital trends. Consumers are also given the once-over, enabling delegates to gain a better understanding of their customers. This format has great appeal and delegates come from around the country. Apart from search marketers, marketing managers, e-commerce managers, online business owners, senior management, digital media executives and agency types predominate. Companies large and small from diverse industries are represented, including travel. Some have been in the game for years, others are just starting out. If all this sounds interesting, and may like to attend a Search Engine Room conference, please subscribe to Search Engine Room News, which is packed with original content and comes out every five or so weeks. If you have any questions, please call Martin Kelly on 612-9882-1575.
A RECORD crowd attended the second No Vacancy acommodation industry conference in Sydney recently. It was a great day featuring industry leaders, panels, case studies, presentations and debate. There was a touch of controversy with hard questions asked - and answered. Program topics included online distribution, consumer trends, channel and yield management, carbon offsetting, star ratings, modern marketing tactics, pricing, social media strategies and plenty more. No Vacancy will return in 2009 - please sign up for the TravelTrends.biz newsletter if you'd like further details. |
Roamfree Sacks 50 Staff But Wants To Buy More
ROAMFREE says it is still considering further acquisitions despite sacking 50 staff. The sackings, concentrated in IT, reduce staff numbers from 230 to around 180. COO Gary Knowles said there had been a “resizing to take (Roamfree) forward in a more effective manner” but indicated a couple of deals may be in the pipeline. Knowles claimed Roamfree still had plenty of cash following a $40m capital note raising last August but acknowledged in a recent interview that the company had a significant cash burn rate. While the news, still to be acknowledged on the Roamfree website, was all over the industry last Wednesday, it came as no surprise to many who claim they saw it coming. Roamfree, led by big-talking founder Tony Smith, spent more than $30m acquiring more than 300 websites and several travel IT businesses in less than two years. They approached dozens, perhaps hundreds of others, offering their standard deal of half in cash and the rest in shares, which would supposedly be worth plenty more when the company listed. Smith, who has been lying low since work on his $70m Gold Coast mansion was put on hold, once infamously said he wanted the company to become the Google of accommodation. Right now it’s looking more like a symbol of modern corporate excess with echoes of the late 1990s. Still, Roamfree owns several good business, including well-respected Tourism Technology, which operates Calypso, Australia’s leading wholesale system. Other Roamfree companies and products include Book Easy, Last Minute Manager and Travel Online. The challenge now is to get them working effectively together as the company enters a period of consolidation. Latest News
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