Business Travel Hot Topics: The Fall 2011 Conference Agenda

By Gary Bowerman

"The future of business travel will be defined by technology: Discuss."

That may sound like a college examination question, but it is also the underpinning theme of several travel industry conferences this fall.

So far, 2011 has been an intriguing year, with corporate travel budgets and travel demand expanding despite pricing and distribution challenges and ongoing economic uncertainty. But riding high on the industry's agenda is a potent combination of evolving technology, user preference trending and new media marketing.

Judging by the programs for the upcoming season's business travel conferences, online, smartphone, tablet and app marketing and optmizing social media will be central issues in the months ahead – along with targeting business travel demand to and from emerging global markets.

"The web is splintering into grooves, some of it is disappearing into the cloud, most of it is ending up in the hand of the individual," says a release for the Web in Travel (WIT) conference at the ITB Asia show (Singapore, October 17-19, www.webintravel.com). "By 2014, there will be more smartphones than PCs in the world... and a radical shift in the way travellers plan, shop and buy travel and experience travel," WiT adds. Among the conference's forefront events will be the WiT Bootcamp: Entrepreneurship & Innovation, focused on travel industry web innovators, start-ups and new technologies.

Slightly earlier, the GBTA Convention (Denver, August 21-24, www.gbta.org/convention) will showcase a strong travel technology program, including sessions on Mobile Travel Apps: What Works Now, What's Coming Next; and Mobile Technology in a Managed Travel Program. Other high-priority agenda items include Ancillary Fees: Where Are We, and What Can We Do?; and Travel Risk Management: Preparedness Defeats the Unexpected. The emerging market theme looks at Managing Travel in India: Challenges and Opportunities.

The diversifying influences of technology on the travel industry make their mark at the Travel Distribution Summit North America (Las Vegas, September 19-20). Eye-catching session highlights include Social Buying and Flash Sales: The Pros and Cons; Utilize Social Media to Enhance Incremental Revenue & Pricing Decisions; and How To Make An Advertising Campaign Virally Viable.

ASTA’s Travel Retailing & Destination Expo (Las Vegas, September 11-13, www.thetradeshow.org/?navItemNumber=595) embraces the emerging market agenda, with India chosen as the destination seminar, and Thailand and Peru also featuring. How to Profit from Gen Y and Millennials – Meeting the Demands of the New Youth Market; and Maximizing Marketing Partnerships to Build Your Bottom Line are among the educational seminar topics.

The Consumerisation of Business Technology is the keynote speech title at this year's ACTE Global Education Conference (Paris, October 2-4). A varied seminar program ranges from Top 10 Travel Apps: Leveraging Existing Tools to Influence Traveler Behavior; and Defining the Business Impact of Travel & Meetings to Redefining Business Travel in Asia,   This year's World Travel Market (London, November 7-10, www.wtmlondon.com) will feature the show’s first-ever headline session on the travel and tourism potential of the BRIC nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China. A broad-based events program includes an intriguing Technology & Online Travel section, with discussion topics like Making the Most of Social Media; All Change in Travel Distribution; and Developments in Mobile/Smartphone Marketing. The Travel Agents program features forums on trends in Group Travel and the challenges ahead for independent agents and tour operators.

This blog has been commissioned by AmEx.

About Gary Bowerman: Oxford-born Gary Bowerman has travelled the world in search of a good story. After cutting his teeth in legal and tax publishing in London, Gary moved on to edit international business and travel titles before relocating to China in 2004. Resident in Shanghai, he has recently been a contributor to CNN Traveller, Business Traveler, CNBC Europe Business, New York Times, Travel & Leisure and South China Morning Post. Editor of the Singapore Highlights and Beijing Highlights guides, Gary is also one of the founders of Hong Kong and Shanghai-based media and marketing communications agency Scribes of the Orient.