BOOT to present at ad:tech March 17 in Sydney

UPDATE and reminder: The BOOT will be presenting today (March 17) at ad:tech Sydney (Convention centre in Darling Harbour). Details of the session are below. Will be tweeting via #ATSYD. It is the last session of the day but promises to be a good one. See you there.

ad:tech Sydney is on this year March 16 & 17. The BOOT will be presenting on March 17 at a session titled.

What Is The Impact Of Social Content On e-Commerce?

Bullets are:

• What role do social objects and search play in the online purchasing decision?
• How can you harness social content to benefit e-commerce outcomes?
• What impact does social media have in powering conversion rates and increasing sales?

Other panellists include

• Tim O'Neill, Joint Managing Director, Reactive
• Mike Hickinbotham, Social Media Senior Advisor, Telstra
• Michael Gorman, Vice President for Strategy, Acxiom Global Multichannel Marketing Services
• Dan Ferguson, Online Channel Manager, General Pants

Here is the rest of the schedule.

Let me know if you are attending and

BOOT eyefortravel interview: search, mobile, social networking, innovation, Asia and more part 2

Part 2 of pre-conference interview with with Ritesh Guptaof eyefortravel in the lead up to the TDS conference in Singapore April 28 & 29. Part 1 here.

Question - Can you provide an insight into how does search differ for mobile phones vis-a-vis PC? What according to you are the striking differences?

BOOT - The easy answer is location. A phone knows so much more about your current location than a PC. This gives mobile a huge advantage over PC search in servicing an immediate requirement. But there are challenges here too. A mobile can assume too much about a location. Just because I am travelling in Tokyo does not mean that I want the answer to the question to be in Japanese. The other challenge for mobile is that the platforms are still not uniform in display. Thankfully we are down to a much smaller list of mobile browsers/operating systems that previously but still there are differences between iphone, windows mobile, blackberry, palm and symbian which call challenges in display. This is where apps come in as content providers are trying to get around the browser and device compatibility by using apps to control display and information management to consumers.

Question - The progression of technology and innovation in the travel industry continues at a quickening pace and Asian countries are closing the gap on their western counterparts. What according to have been the major developments in this context in Asia?

BOOT - Innovation is always driven by local requirements and demand patterns. Therefore there are examples across Asia of markets driving product development well ahead of the US or Europe. India leads the world in online bus ticket sales and low cost carrier and traditional carrier display integration. Japan leads the world in online hotel bookings via mobile phones. China leads the world in call centre same day hotel bookings. The mistake many make in planning for innovation is to look to the technology first rather than the business need. As I discussed in this post the secret to innovation is as much about timing, social readiness and execution as it is about a great technology idea. Therefore the major development in Asia that is driving innovation is not a technology one it is a attitudinal shift and market maturity. A display of confidence within the Asian travel industry that dedicated market specific solutions can be put together to target customer needs rather than simply copying what the global OTAs are doing in Europe and America.

Question - What are you most looking forward to at TDS Asia? Who are you most looking forward to meeting at the event?

BOOT - Conferences are always about people watching and meeting. That is what I am looking forward to. The best person you meet at a good conference is the person you weren't expecting to meet. Someone you did not know that you needed to know - if you know what I mean :).

BOOT eyefortravel interview: search, mobile, social networking, innovation, Asia and more part 1

I have just completed an email interview with Ritesh Guptaof eyefortravel in the lead up to the TDS conference in Singapore April 28 & 29. Here is part 1 of our exchange (part 2 here).

Question - Do you think predicting user preferences is the biggest unsolved problem in online travel? How do you assess the integration of social search into online travel?

BOOT - I am a strong believer that all companies in online travel should be focusing on understanding users and working on predictive and recommendation engines. But it is a mistake to come at this from just a user preference angle. The trap that companies are falling into is thinking that consumers are still asking "closed" questions. Questions that can be answered with an easy or direct response. Questions like "how much for a flight to new york?, "which hotel should I stay in in Rome?". These are the questions consumers asked for the first 15 years of online travel. Now consumers are also asking open ended questions like "where should I go next?, "what is a good place to go this weekend?". Questions that require a more detailed answer and therefore a very detailed understanding of not only the preferences of the user but also the relationship between those preferences and the destinations available and the different versions of the individual that is searching (my concept of EveryYou). Social networking's role in this is the role that word of mouth has always played in marketing and travel purchases. A force that can be instrumental in a consumer's purchase decision which can be influenced, prodded, supported but never controlled. The difference between Social Networking marketing and word of mouth marketing is just speed. Social network is word of mouth at the speed of light.

Question - Today Google's algorithms are still quite a bit of a black box for professional search marketers. The semantic web should make it more efficient to create and manage online campaigns, because there will be less left to algorithmic interpretation. How do you assess this viewpoint?

BOOT - Google has won search - game over. There are countries were they are weaker (Japan, Korea, China for example) and products where they are weaker (local search and business listings for example) but let's not kid ourselves about who has won search. That said, "old search" is about providing a single destination as an answer to a question. Regardless of the search term, Google only presents a list of single answer destinations. If an answer to the search request is found through information from a combination of different websites then Google (or any search site for that matter) do not have the answer. The other constraint on Google and old search is the limited scope for incorporating and merging the latest up to date with results with older more trusted results. Google has been experimenting with incorporating real time search in their results (example here) but they have not yet figured out how to establish authority in real time search or change the display to be more than an never ending stream of updated information. The Semantic web should be part of the solution here but I still feel we are a while away from implementation because we have not figured out new rules for authority and new methods for display. Maybe Google have but there are just not saying yet!

Question - Google, which last year had introduced a new experiment on Google Labs called Google Social Search, has added a social element to Google Images. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. What is going to be the next big thing or trend in social search engine marketing?

BOOT - If you agree with my comments about that marketing of social networking is just like marketing through word of mouth but at the speed of light then the next big things in social network marketing are finding ways to adjust word of mouth marketing to a faster/instantaneous medium. The basics of word of mouth market are trust, interest and relevance. For a consumer to be prepared to share a product, idea, story, service etc with a friend they have to trust the source, be interested in the item/thing and think that it is relevant to others in their circle. Social network marketers need to have these three human elements at the centre of each campaign. The mistake that I see so often is jumping to a technological solution to marketing on social networking rather than the human elements. We can see this in the constant screw ups at Facebook with privacy as they launch new privacy crushing rules and products to give marketers access to customer data. My advice is to turn to the technology second and the human elements first. Establish trust then make something relevant and interesting. If you do, consumers will follow. The final thing to remember as a marketer in social networks - and the 21st century for that matter - is to accept that you have limited control over what your customers will say about your brand. The response to that lack of control is communication and discussion (ie engagement) not defamation, litigation and IP laws (ie stupidity).

Question - This year, we have already seen a couple of significant moves from Apple and Google towards mobile advertising. How do you foresee the impact on search and social media via mobile phones on the travel industry?

BOOT- Up until recently I have been a mobile denier. Mainly because every year since 2000 has been THE year that mobile would take over PC as the place for online action. Google's purchase of AdMob is the turning point. Not because when Google does something it means we have to take a trend seriously but because it means we know have non-transactional revenue streams for mobile activity. The problem for mobile has been that people stop at the credit card entry point. For a variety of reasons people that are completely comfortable putting their cc number into a PC or giving it to a bartender covered in tats and piercing in the off-line world have hesitated when asked to give it to a mobile phone. With Google betting on mobile advertising we have a biz model outline. A means for content and transactional companies to make money in mobile. That is the step that has been needed - more that the continued roll out of smart phone technology and more than the expansion of social networks.

more in part 2

ad:tech: BOOT pre-conference interview video on social networks, mobile, ecommerce and more

BOOT will be live at ad:tech in Sydney on March 17. As part of the lead up I did an interview with ad:tech chair Jenny Williams. Here is a link to a blog post by Jenny on the session I am speaking on and a three minute video interview of me.

Session and registration details are here.

BOOT presenting at Eyefortavel Asia April 29

I will be at Eyefortravel Travel Distribution Summit Asia on April 29 in Singapore (conference runs through April 28 as well). Conference details here.

The sessions will be the day 2 Keynote called

"Future Trends and Technology in Travel – Planting the Seeds for Profit."

I will be on a panel with

• Rob Torres - Vertical Director Travel Worldwide Google
• Mark Inkster, General Manager, Microsoft Online Services Asia
• Morris Sim, Co Founder, Circos Brand Karma

The panel blurb is

The progression of technology and innovation in the travel industry continues at a frenetic speed and Asian countries are rapidly closing the gap on their western counterparts. This dizzying pace of change has the power to either undermine existing revenue models or create exciting and highly lucrative new opportunities for those in the know.

• Prepare your travel business for the future. Cut through the hype and identify the technologies that will add real value and reap the largest rewards.
• What will be “the next big thing”? Know where (and where not!) to invest to ensure ROI is real, abundant and measurable
• The way your customer interacts with the web is changing. How can you continue to reach and influence travelers in a dynamic, user led online environment?
• Travel 3.0?...How will developments in the semantic web enable more complex and sophisticated trip planning for online travelers?

WebInTravel 2009: sessions announced including two for the BOOT

The final speaker list and programme is now out for WebInTravel in Singapore October 20-23. Great list of speakers including CEOs or regional leasd for Sabre, AirAsia, Travelport, wego, Expedia, Wotif, Accor, Abacus, PhoCusWright, Jetstar, Webjet, Agoda, Rakuten, Jalan/Recruit, Zuji/Travelocity, AsiaRooms and Pegasus.

Your BOOT correspondent will be part of three sessions.

Day 1 - The Web Dissected

A summary of all of the new areas we have been covering this year at BOOT central. The official spiel is "Timothy Hughes will dissect the online travel landscape and shares his ideas on what works, what doesn't and what could work in future." Will see me on stage again with Ram Badrinathan of PhoCusWright. If you would like to see last year's session with Ram (as well as PCW CEO Philip Wolf) then go here.

Day 1 - Taming The Social Media Beast: Is It All About Twitter, and What About Search?

Moderating a fantastic panel with the following industry CEOs

• Martin Symes, CEO, Wego.com
• Robbie Hills, CEO, GroupM Search Asia Pacific
• Shashank Nigam, CEO, Simpliflying
• Sam Flemming, CEO, CIC
• Morris Sim, CEO, Circos.com

Day 2 - The Great Debate: Finding The Right Mix For The Future

Moderating along with conference organiser Yeoh Siew Hoon. Other fantastic panel

• Mark Inster, General Manager, Southeast Asia, Windows Live, Microsoft
• Martin Symes, CEO, Wego
• Morris Sim, CEO, Circos.com
• Ram Badrinathan, General Manager-Asia, PhoCusWright Inc
• Brett Henry, Vice President Marketing, Abacus International
• Timothy O'Neil Dunne, Managing Partner, T2 Impact

Full programme here.

TRAVELTech 2009: BOOT presenting on Mobile and Social Media in travel Sept 8 in Sydney

TRAVELTech 2009 is set for September 8 2009 in Sydney's Darling Harbour. Great list of speaker this year including

• Bruce Buchanan, CEO, Jetstar
• Rod Cuthbert, Founder and Chairman, Viator
• Diarmuid Russell, Commercial Director, Lonely Planet
• Steve Sherlock, Director, Oodles.com (and regular BOOT comment writer)
• ...and many more

I will be presenting with Basil Hyman of STA on " What’s Hot – Mobile and Social Media". Official spiel for the session is

"Mobile Internet is now a reality thanks to the iPhone, while social media continues to be the web’s most dynamic force. Both are having a profound impact on travel, though many remain doggedly utilitarian. Blogger Tim Hughes takes us through the latest developments, followed by discussion."

Full programme and registration details here.

WebInTravel 2009: The BOOT will be there and so will a startup or two

I had a great time last year at WebInTravel (for reminder coverage look here). This year's WebInTravel is on October 20-23 alongside ITB Asia at Suntec in Singapore. The BOOT is planning to be there. Hope to see you there also.

One great session from the 2008 WebInTravel was the Start-Up Pitch competition between entrip, Conference Bay and TripFilms (the eventual winner). Siew Hoon is running this session again at the 2009 WebInTravel and is calling for submissions from companies looking to join the Start-Up Pitch competition for 2009. More details here. If you are a travel start up looking for exposure then I recommend getting involved.

I will be participating in a couple of sessions at WIT but the full programme for 2009 has not yet been released. Will let you know when it is. You can early register here (will open a word doc). Siew Hoon is also runing a series of lead up events called WIT*E - the first one on April 30 with presentations and discussions with Nigel Roberts of Marina Bay Sands, Robin Yap and Sashank Nigam of Insight Vacations and Jeaneete Ho of Raffles.

PhoCusWright: Blogger drinks

Day "-1" at PhoCusWright started with a pre-Blogger summit at the hotel Bar. Thanks to Jaime at the Canadian Tourism blog who first posted on the meeting and the photo to the right.

Who's the in photo? From left to right: back row: Tim Hughes, Kevin May (Travolution), Phil Caines and Stephen Joyce (Rezgo). Front: Jaime Horwitz, Claude Benard (Hotelitour), Sean Keener (Bootsnall).

WebInTravel & PhoCusWright: See me, Philip Wolf and Ram Badrinathan in action

If you are looking for a prelude to PhoCusWright here is a link to a thirty minute video of me (Tim Hughes), PhoCusWright CEO Philip Wolfe and AP Head of Research Ram Badrinathan talking shop at the recent WebInTravel conference.

We cover a number of topics including:

• Google - is there a conflict between designing a site for Google and designing one for customers?;
• Asia - is there such a thing as an Asian strategy?;
• UGC and Zero percenters - how to manage UGC and the zero percenters?;
• Economic swings (and crash) - will it kill you, what should you do?; and
  
• India - just how big a market is it?

Great session (but I'm biased). Watch it here.

Does building for cusomers = building for search: Google responds

I did a post yesterday at WebInTravel on my belief that online travel companies end up designing their products around search result and that this is not necessary compatible with designing the produce with the consumer in mind. Claire Hatton - Google's Head of Travel in the Asia Region posted a response. Thank you Claire for joining in the conversation. Here is her comment in full

Hi Tim,

I usually don't comment on posts but I feel the need to give you the Google perspective on this one. Of course there are technical requirements such as clear structures and hierarchies that websites should include, so that any search engine can find and index your content.

To rank well in Google, site owners and businesses need to make their pages for users. We use hundreds of different signals to rank webpages. The reference to links and structures really just scratches the surface. Google has changed a lot and improved its ranking tools since PageRank was invented in the 1990s. Focusing only on links and other traditional SEO techniques is not the way to improve your site's rankings - in fact, building pages for search engines and not users is, in my experience, a surefire way to deliver a website that consumers don't like and that will not rank well.

What will drive good search rankings - and I have seen this from my experience working with travel companies - is making pages that consumers come back to, talk about, link to or reference, send to friends and generally enjoy using. In this sense the comment about url's is important - a consumer needs to be sure they are going to a relevant, trustworthy site.

We make all of this clear in our Webmaster Guidelines within Google Webmaster Tools, which are valuable resources for people building websites. Anyone who is interested can find them here: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

WebInTravel conference: I hate that we have to choose between the customer and Google (organic search)

Today at WebInTravel Phillip Wolf and Ram Badrinathan of PhoCusWright had a round table discussion on a number of industry issues.

The first statement Phillip posed to us was

“What is best for a consumer in a website’s design and functionality is not the same as what is best for generating the best search engine results”

My answer is that this is true. When a product/marketing team for an online travel company sit a room talking about future plans (as a purist) you would want the number one thought to be “what will be best for our customer”. Unfortunately the pressure of search drives us instead to ask “what does Google need for the best organic results".

A consumer focused proposition is around choice, service, trust, price, interaction and answers. A search based proposition is around links, content , indexing, technical format and my favourite word “uniqueness”. These are no in absolute conflict but there are not the same and require a different mindset. I worry that the second mindset (search focus) is overwhelming the first (consumer focus). This pushes us to grey and (near) black hat activities harming and distracting us from the consumer experience.

I am being naïve to think that marketing and product teams will read this post and refocus away from search to the consumer. Search is just too important for that to happen. Throughout time companies have had to adjust their products away from consumer need to the marketing and distribution environment. Witness continued DVD distribution of movies over fears of download encryption and piracy. Going further back look to the victory of VHS over Beta-max despite the acknowledged technical superiority of Beta-max. It is only natural therefore that search would dominate our thinking. But it worries me. I am a consumer purist and am concerned about the unstoppable trend to design products around search compliance and maximisation rather than consumer maximisation.

What do you think? Are targeting for search and targeting for consumers incompatible?

Ever wanted to ask questions of PhoCusWright, Abacus, Wotif, Wego, T2 Impact, Expedia and Yahoo!?

Well now you can! I am co-moderating a panel on day one at the Web In Travel conference in Singapore (Oct 21-22) along with conference boss and industry commentator Siew Hoon Yeoh. The session is called "the WIT Challenge" (full programme here). Siew Hoon and I will be firing questions at a fantastic panel including the following:

• Ram Badrinathan, Senior Director, Research, PhoCusWright Inc;
• Brett Henry, Vice President, Agency Marketing, Abacus International;
• Robbie Cooke, CEO, Wotif;
• Martin Symes, CEO, Wego;
• Timothy O'Neil-Dunne, Managing Partner, T2 Impact; and
  
• Ken Mandel, Vice President & Managing Director, Yahoo! SEA.

Also expecting a representative from Expedia to be confirmed very soon.

Do you have any questions you would like to ask this great collection of industry insiders. Feel free to put your questions in the comment section of this post. I will take the best of the best with me to the conference. Include your name/company and I will mention you (if)when I read out the qustion.

WebInTravel conference - pre conference interview with the BOOT

Siew Hoon Yeoh's WebInTravel conference is now less than three weeks away. October 21-23 in Singapore alongside the Asian ITB event.

I am presenting at the event as well as moderating a couple of sessions. Full agenda is here. Siew Hoon has recently published a pre-conference interview with me in the conference newsroom. It builds on the themes from my post "Financial Collapse. George Bush in charge. We're all doomed!". Here is the begining of the interview

At times like these, when the news is all bad on the financial front, there are the pessimists who see doom and gloom and there are the optimists who see silver linings behind every dark cloud.

You could probably put Timothy Hughes, who will be speaking at WIT this month, more towards the optimistic camp, albeit he is a pragmatist as well.

Asked what he thought the financial meltdown in the US would mean for travel and tourism, the vice president-commercial, Hotelclub,com and the blogger behind BOOT - The Business Of Online Travel, said, “The news will be bad. Money will dry up for investment in start-ups and people in affected industries will think twice (three times and more) before pulling out he credit card.”

But, being the optimist, he added, “We (the industry) have survived worse and the consumers have rebounded from worse and continued to travel. I blogged about this just recently pointing out that the US travel market bounced back from 9/11 within a quarter. Same for Hong Kong and Macau post SARs. Humans love to travel and will come back with a vengeance. However the industry can’t just wait for them (the consumers), we need to keep re-inventing.”

more at the conference site here....

BOOT Presentation at Eyefortravel Asia Pacific (with audio)

Back in July I was the Chair at the Eyefortravel Asia Pacific Sales and Marketing in Travel conference. I also gave a presentation.

Here is the audio file if you would like to listen

Here are the slides if you want to see them

If you not bored of hearing me speak there is also yesterday's 10 minute podcast interview with Addison Schonland.

Start Up competition at WIT Web In Travel 2008

The preparation for Siew Hoon Yeoh's Web In Travel conference 2008 is in full swing (October 21 & 22 in Singapore). She has put an interesting little twist on the preparations for the event this year. In addition to the usual road of speaker and panel session, Siew Hoon is organising a "Start-up Pitch" competition. Along the lines of a mini, travel industry focused Demo or Techcrunch50, she is inviting online travel start ups to submit their ideas to the competition. Top 3 will then have a chance to present at the conference. Winner gets a "a Professional Development Program (PDP) voucher from the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management (CNI) worth US$2,500 (valid for 2009) as well as the opportunity to take their winning idea to the next level with the investor judges." If you are an online travel start-up and interested then more, then here are the details.

General information on the Web In Travel conference is here. I am speaking at it - see you there.

e-Travel Blackboard covering Tim Hughes (i.e. me) at eyefortravel

Just back from chairing Eyefortravel Asia Pacific Sales and Marketing conference. eTravel Blackboard have a report on my presentation (ie the non-chairing part) here called "Online consumers need help to understand too much information". More on the conference and other posts as soon as I can get through work and inbox backlog.

Preparing some questions for Lonely Planet

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago on an announcement by Lonely Planet of plans for an offline store at Sydney Airport. I was critical of the focus, time and energy being spent on something other than online. Since that post I have had a number of emails sent to me with some recent Lonely Planet online activity. I have also been doing some reading of my in preparation for next week's eyefortravel Asia Pacific. One of the speakers for the event is Andy Conroy, Global Online Director, Lonely Planet. Here are the series of announcements that I have discovered:

• Launching a channel on Youtube;
• Launching a mobile site in Australia;
• Joining up with Expedia and Hostelworld for joint accommodation sales; and
  
• Launching an API to provide direct connectivity to reviews and content.
  

Am looking forward to talking to Andy Conroy on how these things all come together.

UPDATE - unfortunately looks like Andy is no longer able to attend eyefortravel. Will have to save my questions for another occasion.

Winner of ticket to Eyefortravel Asia Pacific

I have been running a competition for one free two day (bronze) delegate pass (normally A$1,395) for a lucky BOOT reader to the eyefortravel Sales & Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific conference at the Shangri La Sydney on 29 and 30 July.

The competition was for the best question in the comments for a conference speaker.

Prize Winner

Jonathan's question for Martin Symes of Wego (see below)

First Reserve

Gath's question for Andy Conroy of Lonely Planet (see below)

Second Reserve

Adam Vance's question for Richard Noon of Webjet (see below)

What Next??

Can Jonathan and Gath please send me their contact details to timsboot [at] gmail [dot] com? If I hear from Jonathan by noon Sydney time Wednesday then he wins the prize. If not it goes to Gath. If I have not heard from Gath, then it goes to Adam (Adam I have your details).

I need your Name, Job Title, Company, Email and Phone numbers.

Here are the questions.

For Martin Symes of Wego With price parity increasing in popularity, do they perceive the decreased volatility in accommodation pricing as a threat to their business model, and if so then how do they plan to react/adapt

For Andy Conroy of Lonely Planet As free downloadable city guides take off (eg for iPods, iPhone, Amazon kindle etc) how is LP planning to keep up production on their guides as revenue from book sales diminish.

For Richard Noon of Webjet Due to the current economic climate in the US, we are seeing a number of major online travel agents rolling back the plethora of fees they charge in a bid to attract travellers away from the main airline websites. Given that comments in the past have indicated that up to 60% of your revenue comes from these types of fees/charges - what impact would this have on your business model and how could you mitigate this potential risk moving forward as the economic climate cools in Australia and consumers become more aware of how to "beat the system"? Would you agree that it's not a matter of "if" but "when"?

UPDATE - Last Chance: BOOT has one free pass for Eyefortravel Sales and Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific July 29-30 (Sydney)

UPDATE - last chance to submit questions to win a free ticket to eyefortravel asia. Will extend deadline to Monday 21.

On 29 and 30 July your BOOT correspondent will be chairing the eyefortravel Sales & Marketing in Travel Asia Pacific conference at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney. This conference will be a great opportunity to hear the latest on the travel industry and network will colleagues. Eyefortravel have passed on to me one free two day (bronze) delegate pass (normally A$1,395) for a lucky BOOT reader. I have an idea for a competition, with the winner getting their hands on this delegate pass. This is a great opportunity to have the BOOT audience contribute questions for speakers at the conference. So here it is. The pass will go to the best question sent to me to be asked of a speaker at the conference. Steps to enter are:

1. Look at the agenda (here) and the speaker list (here);
2. Draft a question in the comments of this blog clearly identifying which speaker the question is for. Clearly you will have to put your name or identifier in the post;
3. Make your entry on or before July 18 July 21;
4. I will announce the best question and contact the submitter on 21 23 July; and
5. If I can't track you down to tell you then I will pick another winner and keep picking until I can find someone.

The winning question and other questions will be put to the speakers at the conference.

If you want to listen to my introductory podcast for this event then click here.

If you want to register for the conference then click here.

Goes without saying that the pass cannot be redeemed for cash or transferred. Transport and accom and all other costs of attending are a matter for the winner. Judges decision is final and please don't be a pain in the arse and bug me or Eyefortravel over any aspect of this post.