The Business Travel & Meetings Show will include a session at this year’s conference dedicated to social media and its potential to reduce costs, enhance customer service and increase competitiveness in the business travel market.
The session – called ‘Socialising Travel Management’ – is the Closing Panel Debate at the show, which runs at Earls Court, London on 8-9 February 2011. The panellists will debate:
- How social networking can be used as a tool to source preferred vendors and traveller services
- Whether it can unlock more competitive rates and services
- The impact of the array of new traveller-friendly tools on the corporate traveller
- How the corporate travel industry can keep pace with the latest consumer technologies
- The real effect of social networking on procurement policies and practices
- Its potential impact on managed business travel
Event director David Chapple said: "The leisure travel market may have been the first to spot the potential of social media – with travellers using it for information sharing and suppliers as a new marketing tool – but the business travel sector is also increasingly embracing the opportunities social media offers.
“On the management side, it is a valuable procurement, marketing and customer service tool. With Facebook recently valued at $50 billion dollars, social media simply can’t be ignored by anyone – especially a global, customer service led industry like corporate travel."
To register for a BTMS visitor pass, BTMS Connect and any of the 26 conference sessions, please visit www.businesstravelshow.com.
By Linsey McNeill
