Feedback on the Blogger’s Summit
March 6, 2008
Both sessions for the workshop went very well. We had over 150 participants in the audience who were, from what I could tell, very engaged with the subject matter.
One issue that came up during the feedback session was whether or not the topics was relevant. One blogger argued that the subject matter of the workshop was not really relevant to the consumer blogger or to the consumer in general. My counter to that argument however is that the subject was originally developed for the travel industry and so it does not necessarily apply to the consumer audience. That said, I think there is a huge opportunity to open up the discussion and conversation to the consumer blogging community, this however would probably be a different conference and a different subject.
An underlying theme that arose from the discussion is that the web is chaos, it cannot be controlled or contained. In order to survive and ultimately succeed, you must be able to sail the ocean of the web. In other words, blogging and user generated is not going to disappear and certain aspects of the blogosphere will become more important while some will disappear into obscurity. The question is how travel blogging and more specific travel industry blogging will affect the industry as a whole. Most agreed that we are at the beginning of the journey and it is better to be guiding the boat then to be left in the wake.
Overall, the feedback was very positive, although there seemed to be some argument about the real value of the morning interview sessions. This was a new addition to the summit (which by the way is also new) and the feedback was appreciate. Thanks to all the bloggers who participated and we are very excited about continuing the conversation into future conferences.
Second Day @ PhoCusWright ITB - OTAs Speak Out
March 6, 2008
An interesting session with the leaders of some of Europe’s leading OTAs including: Alan Josephs, MD ebookers.com, Ignacio Martos, CEO Opodo, Ian McCaig, CEO Lastminute.com, Jens-Uwe Parkitny, VP & MD Expedia.com Gmbh, Javier Perez-Tenessa, Founder eDreams Inc. During the session Philip Wolf conducted an informal survey to determine whether the audience felt that the OTAs were doing a good job of differentiating themselves from each other. The resounding response from the audience was that they were, infact, NOT doing a very good job of differentiating themselves. So what can the OTAs do to make themselves different from each other? Not surprisingly, none of the OTAs had an answer to this question. Why is this? In my opinion, the question of differentiation implies that the underlying business models are different, and since all the OTAs share the same underlying business model then there is very little they can do to truly differentiate themselves.
So the question was asked whether or not the tabs that are viewable across all the OTA sites will change over the next few years. Again, the answer to this question was “NO” because the model supports the products that currently exist. When presented with the change in interface that Starwood had created for their Fourpoints Hotel brand, Mr. Martos stated that if Opodo only sold one specific product then they might be able to remove the tabs, but the types of products sold through OTAs is too complex for a simple interface, like the one used on Fourpoints.
When presented with the growing trend of experience based searching and integrating the dreaming and planning process into the OTA booking process, Mr. McCaig and Mr. Parkitny both talked about how their brands are trying to do more to build out experiential search into their brands. Mr. Josephs however questioned whether there was true value to the customer of providing non-monetized destination content along with the bookable content that ebookers provides.
The question of monetization was a particularly contentious one and all the OTA leaders seemed to have varying opinions regarding the issue of monetizing the traffic that visit their sites. While some, like Expedia, are already starting to move towards a mixed monetization model of providing pay per click as well as commission based bookings, other OTAs like ebookers had no plans to move into the mixed model and seemed to be reluctant to drive traffic away from their sites to their suppliers.
So what new technologies can we see from OTAs moving forward. Given the undeniable move to more social media, the impact of blogging, and the demand for customer reviews, we can start to see that OTAs will have to start integrating more of these social components into their sites. Expedia’s purchase of TripAdvisor is one example of how OTAs are purchasing and using social components to increase their penetration. Can we expect to see more travel social networks to sell to the big OTAs? Quite likely, given the amount of money that OTAs have. Will consumers support social networks that are purchased by OTAs and will they maintain their bias free status once purchased by an OTA? That remains to be seen. I would hope that they would try to keep the social components as separate as possible to maintain their perceived independence, but only time will tell.
Live Blogging Event
March 3, 2008
Gestern fand auch in Vorbereitung des Blogger Summit at ITB von 17.00 bis 18.30 ein Live Blogging bei Darren Cronian auf www.travel-rants.com (http://www.travel-rants.com/2008/03/02/travel-rants-live-blogging-event-2/) statt. Ein Mitschnitt ist hier zu finden:
Ich (Detlef Meyer von eastservices consulting) war etwas spät dran, erst ab 18.00 Uhr (vorher hatte das reale social life seine Forderungen).
Die Teilnahme war verhalten. In der Spitze wohl 6 Teilnehmer aktiv, bis zu 20 passiv. Darren hat das Live Blogging über eine externe Software (habe ich gestern nicht erfragt welche) in einem i-frame abgewickelt. Szenario - ein Admin und unbegrenzt User, Beiträge müssen moderiert werden. Der Admin hat diverse Möglichkeiten Rich Media und Ads einzuspielen. Als Teilnehmer bleibt nur der aktive Link.
Ein Thema war nicht vorgegeben, ein Diskussionsstrang ergab sich auch nicht. Es war eher ein Testlauf. Aus dem E-Learning kenne ich das Szenario. Dort ist es für die verschiedensten Fälle angepasst und eingesetzt worden. Wir müssen also das Rad nicht unbedingt neu erfinden. Interessant die Einindung direkt in den Blog. Schön wäre es, wenn das Protokoll dort auch verfügbar wäre.
Die Vorgabe von Diskussionsthemen ist wahrscheinlich besser um Interessenten anzuziehen und die Diskussion zu befruchten. Ich empfand es als störend, das mehrere Diskussionsstränge parallel über den Screen liefen.
Live Blogging ist etwas, worüber man nachdenken kann. Lets talk about in Berlin.
Technorati tags: Blogs, Travel Rants, BloggerSummit ITB 2008, live blogging
PhoCusWright@ITB Conference, Get Your Blogging Fingers Ready
February 22, 2008
PhoCusWright@ITB Conference
Thursday March 6, Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London 3: 10:15 a.m. – 7:15 p.m.
Take advantage of PhoCusWright@ITB, one of the premier events of ITB’s convention. The ongoing potential and impact of technology on global travel distribution is so significant that this year’s PhoCusWright@ITB conference will be dedicated to a confluence of forces: technology and business. A collection of keynote addresses, talkback roundtables, case studies, exclusive interviews, “Five Minutes of Fame” and point/counterpoints will cover the important trends and necessary insights that surround the theme “Success in Travel E-Business.”
For more information goto PhoCusWright’s Site.
Bloggers Workshops
February 22, 2008
Workshops: Blogging With the Long Tail of Tourism
Presented by Tips From the T-List
Wednesday March 5, 2pm - 4pm. Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London 3
(Workshops are open to all ITB Berlin attendees)
Two workshops will show how an active, content-producing network of bloggers can have a growing influence on your customers’ online spending habits. The workshops will give valuable tools to travel suppliers, DMOs, OTAs, and other travel and tourism companies that are looking to engage the blogging community and help focus user-generated content for their benefit. New innovations in blogging will be covered as well as a number of user-generated content trends. There will be an expert panel of travel marketers and technologists from around the world providing two interactive sessions.
For detailed information goto PhoCusWrights’ Site.
Getting to Berlin
February 21, 2008
For those of you who are traveling into Berlin, you will want to take a look at the ITB site. They have aggregated some great information on how to travel to, stay in, and navigate around Berlin. Here are some links you may find useful:
Introductions and Idea Sharing
February 20, 2008
Travel Industry Bloggers Welcome and Idea Sharing
Wednesday March 5, Hall 6.3, Media Center: 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Time to meet face-to-face and have an open conversation about blogging in the travel industry. Includes Bloggers Briefing session with travel industry leaders. WiFi access available.
The Afterparty!
February 20, 2008
Come join the T-List gang at the Anhalter Bar, in the Mövenpick Hotel.
Bloggers Summit Final Gathering
Thursday March 6, Anhalter Bar Mövenpick Hotel, Berlin: 8:30 p.m. - late
Regroup after PhoCusWright@ITB and discuss highlights, lowlights and everything in between. Cocktails and chatter - this event will NOT be hosted, and it will be an informal gathering. A private area of the bar will be reserved, WiFi will be available, and there will be drink specials.
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