8.00amCoffee and Registration

9.00amDay 1

Opening Keynote Plenary Session - Overview and Analysis

Evaluate which Web 2.0 initiatives will dramatically impact your business

• Web 2.0 initiatives including user-generated content and social media are transforming the online travel space. From a macro and micro perspective, what impact will they have on your business? What opportunities do they present for your company?
• How is consumer behaviour evolving in the diverse European marketplace? What critical marketing trends do you need to embrace?
• With an ever increasing crowded online European travel space - how can you ensure you are spending your marketing budget effectively? Do Web 2.0 and social media initiatives boost your brand and drive sales?
• Facebook has recorded a year-on-year growth of over 1600% and has a worldwide client existing client base of over 46 million. How can you leverage the huge volumes of traffic that these mega social networking sites, like Facebook, YouTube or MySpace, attract?
• What role does social media play in the marketing mix? Can social networking sites really be monetized?
• What are the limitations of social networking and user-generated content sites for the travel industry? Is your time and money better spent elsewhere?
• Understand how to avoid common Web 2.0 pitfalls and misguided investments

• Blaise Fiedler, Head of e-Business Consulting, Amadeus
• Sarah Newman, Regional VP, Commercial Director, Royal Caribbean Cruises International
• Sandra Leonhard, Director Web Strategy & Business Development, TUI Travel plc
• Steven Taylor, Senior Director International SPG, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

10.30amExtended 45 min Coffee Break

11.15amSession 1: Online Marketing - Presentations and Panel

Overcoming the challenges of selling online to a pan-European audience

An increasing number of online travel brands are entering the European market space. Translating your website is not enough - the old adage of "think global, act local" rings true - an in-depth understanding the underlying cultural differences in this highly diverse fundamental and fragmented region will save you €€€.

• Building pan-European 2.0 brands will take longer - which travel brands have been truly successful in Europe?
• What can we learn from their successes and failures? Hear examples of European marketing campaigns that have failed due to poor knowledge of the target market
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a de-centralized, localised marketing strategy?
• Consumer behaviour - understand the various European Cultural attitudes to the web and how to tailor your online strategy accordingly. Learn how to build trust & loyalty online
• Language - analyse how many languages you need your website to be in to drive sales. What offline local customer support truly adds value to your online strategy?

• Patrick Feil, MD, lastminute.com Germany
• Neville Isaac, Director Distribution Channels, NH Hotels
• Jurgen Seiler, GM, Marketing, Expedia

12.45pm - 2.15pmNetworking Lunch break

2.15pmSession 2: Online Marketing - Case study - 20 mins

An insight into Web Analytics

Analysing your online performance is key to increasing conversions and provides a vital feedback mechanism. Understand where your traffic comes from, which pages drive conversions and which you could do without.

• Neil Mason, Board of Directors, Web Analytics Association

2.35pmSession 3: Online marketing - Presentations and Panel

Converting lookers to bookers - how user-friendly is your Web site?

Once customers reach your site, how do avoid losing them and convince them to purchase?

• As the travel industry continues to underperform in terms of online user satisfaction, what can we learn from other industries?
• Does your website match up to the expectations of your increasingly demanding web user?
• What are the main reasons for potential customers to leave your website? What simple steps can you take to prevent customers leaving your site?
• How can you enhance usability, site-performance and loading times to reduce abandon rates?
• Constantly updating and improving web content and rich-media without negatively impacting usability is a key challenge for travel marketers. Understand what content matters.
• Are you adequately presenting the key aspects of your product? Are you addressing the various customer segments not only in terms of age but also in terms of their location and interests?
• Learn how to enhance the user journey with larger imagery, easier navigation and additional search options

• Gareth Gaston, MD, Octopus Travel
• Mo Bulbrook, Head of International, Cheapflights
• Hedwig Wassing, CEO, Belvilla
• Inge van den Akker, Direct Marketing Manager, Belvilla

3.45pm - 4.15pmNetworking Coffee Break

Session 4: Online marketing - Presentations and Panel

Maximise customer spend on your website

Maximising profits whilst making customers happy - isn´t that the dream? Most visitors coming to your site are looking to purchase more than just your core product. As margins continue to diminish, learn about the best way to introduce new products and services to compliment your core product

• Analyse the booking habits of your customer and what touch points offer the best conversion rates. Add real offerings to your site that add real value to their trip
• Hear from travel suppliers who are leading the way by up-selling and cross-selling their way to maximum profit
• Understand your customer profile Personalisation to profits - Understand your customer profile and engage your customer with the freedom to build their perfect trip by combining the right high margin ancillary products and services
• Perfect the balance between offering flexibility and overwhelming your customer with too many options that will distract from your core product and damage your brand
• Don´t cannibalise your core product - learn about the best way to introduce new products and services to compliment main sales, not negatively affect them
• Double your ancillary revenue with loyalty programmes - learn how it can be your biggest potential earner and increase customer stickiness

• Niki Van Wijk, Head of e-Commerce, Transavia
• Caroline Durowse, Ancillary Revenues Manager, Flybe
• Gareth Gaston, MD, Octopus Travel
• Steven Greenway, CCO, SkyEurope

5.30pmEvening Drinks Reception

Day 2

9.30amSession 1: Online marketing - Presentations and Panel

Online marketing futures - Innovative ways to engage your customer

As consumer behaviour continues to evolve - Understand which traditional and new techniques truly engage the consumer, analyse how effective your marketing campaigns are and gain key insight as to what the future holds

• SEO, Banners, email, branded urls - are they becoming a thing of the past? How are marketing techniques evolving in the online travel space?
• Email - Is email marketing dead? How can you use email to gain vital information about what your customer really wants?
• Widgets, gadgets, desktop alerts, RSS - do they add value or are they just short term fads?
• Video - With consumers now demanding when and how they view content, is it worth moving some of your online budget into video content on your site and 3rd party video sites?
• Geo Mapping - what marketing opportunities exist in offering location based services?
• Mobile marketing - is 2008 the year of mobile? When is this channel likely to take off?
• Offline - travel companies still spend large amounts of cash on traditional advertising campaigns. Which of these marketing techniques engage your customer and drive traffic to your site?

• Prof. Gilbert Reveillon, Lecturer in Tourism, University of Sorbonne
• Daniel Kerzner, Regional Director of Marketing, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
• Matthias Papet, Industry Head of Travel France, Google

10.45am - 11.30am Networking Coffee Break

11.30 am Plenary Session 2: Presentations and Panel

Social Media & Online Content

According to Datamonitor, in just three years time 70% of online content will be user-generated. The choice of content for your website dramatically impacts the consumer purchasing decision process. Learn what role social media and user-generated content adds value to your site.

• Consumers are increasingly demanding content-rich information. How can you employ social media to cater to their needs? How do you ensure the content on your site is relevant to your consumer target group?
• Is a wide variety of content really necessary? What content do customers find necessary and what can you do without?
• How can you link the various social media mediums together, such as videos, podcasts and blogs?
• See how social media sites, like YouTube, can provide your travel company with unique, rich-media content.
• Is video media the key trend for the future? What impact could video content have on your brand?
• Should you spend money sourcing your own content or let your customers create your content instead?
• How do you maintain the quality of user-generated content?
• How do you ensure the consumer finds the most relevant content to suit their needs?
• How are technological developments enhancing the ease of content sharing?
• Build credibility through aligning "unofficial" user-generated content with the official web content on your site

• Thomas Reiter, Country Manager, Opodo Germany
• Helge Moser, Director of Marketing, Traveltainment AG
• Marc Ruff, CEO, TVTrip
• Adam Healey, CEO, VibeAgent

1.00pm - 2.00pmNetworking Lunch Break

Plenary session - Presentations and Panel

Driving Quality traffic to your website - Are you wasting value marketing €?

• Search engine algorithms have evolved and have become more sophisticated - evaluate how you need to adapt your search strategy accordingly
• Learn how to ensure your site´s Web 2.0 features drive customers to exactly what they are looking for
• With the increased costs of search engine marketing, how can you use social media sites to reach new customers?
• According to Search guru Mani Karthik, "The power of social media is incredible. It can help travel your content at alarming speeds to the length and breadth of the Internet not possible by any other technique today."
• Learn how a strong social media search strategy can drive traffic to your site
• Get advice on aligning your search strategy with user-generated reviews
• Develop a search engine marketing strategy that not only balances paid and unpaid search, but also considers social search engine marketing as a distinct area
• Should you do social search marketing in-house? Are tools, like Google Adwords or Technorati, up to the job?
• The Long tail - How can independent hoteliers use social media to drive traffic and create brand awareness? How can you use UGC to build a library of truly niche content?
• As travel search marketers become more effective in paid search, social media, and related online marketing, how does this affect concepts such as seasonality and the long tail?

• Yen Lee, Co-Founder & President, Uptake
• Andy Atins-Kruger, MD, WebCertain

3.15pm - 3.45pmNetworking Coffee Break

Plenary session - Panel Debate

The Future of Search CEO Panel Debate

• How are so-called meta-search sites evolving and what search features and what role do they play in the purchasing cycle? Will they keep the PPC model? Will meta-search based on price alone diminish? Will they provide better qualified traffic? Will user reviews and social media also be incorporated?

• Beatrice Tarka, CEO, Mobissimo
• Ole Stouby, CEO, Travelmarket
• Yen Lee, CEO, UpTake
• Claus Weber, Senior Partner, Kinkaa.de

4.15pmKeynote Plenary Session

Understand how to make your brand sticky in an ever increasingly competitive online environment

Brand identity has never been so important. Analyse which European travel brands are successful and why. Hear innovative techniques to improve brand awareness without blowing your budget.

• How can you develop a successful brand in a multi lingual Pan European environment?
• What techniques can you use to create customer loyalty, stickiness and brand affiliation?
• Do you need to develop a brand defensive strategy to protect and monitor your brand in the online space?
• What impact does user-generated content have on travel brands? Who has lost brand value due to UGC? What can you learn from their mistakes?
• With over 30 Ryanair hate groups on Facebook, how damaging are social networking sites to your brand?
• How can social media help you de-commoditize and personalize you brand?
• What strategies enable you to maintain and build your brand image on social media sites?
• In the US, Travelocity have used the roaming Gnome on MySpace to engage fans, share deals and create brand loyalty. How can you use a brand advocate on a social networking site to generate brand awareness, drive traffic and sell products?
• Understand how to use Widgets, desktop applications and other tools to build brand awareness

• Calum Russell, Commercial Director - EasyHotel Ltd.

5.15pmEnd of Conference

Please note this conference will be run simultaneously with the Social Media Strategies in Travel conference. The keynotes however will be presented to the full summit audience. All conference delegates are free to move between the 2 conference tracks and tailor their own agenda.