TTI conference to tackle distribution issues ‘head-on’

Tuesday, 24 Sep, 2002 0

The travel industry will have a chance to bash the issues of distribution technology at the TTI’s autumn conference.

The keynote speaker is Jim Mann, chief information officer of TUI Northern Europe. He is expected to argue that the travel industry is lagging behind other industries when it comes to the use of business-to-business technology for trading. A hot topic will nno doubt be Genie, the TUI-launched agency selling system that threatens to replace the long-standing system, viewdata.

Conference organiser and moderator, and senior partner of Genesys, Paul Richer (pictured) told TravelMole: “TTI’s remit is to make the industry more aware of the possibilities of technology. It is almost educational, letting the industry know about advances in travel distribution”. He said he expected the audience to be made up of agents, operators and IT managers.

TTI general manager Mick Mott said: “The travel industry is going through challenging times and technology is playing a vital role in its development. Companies are debating to what extent they should work with each other or whether they should take the direct-sell approach, and these are the issues we’re tackling head-on”.

Another speaker is Sabre’s EMEA technology managing director, Brian Shankman, who will discuss the ways that GDSs can be adapted to distribute non-air travel products. The president of Dolphin Dynamics, Roberto de Ra will also be speaking. He will discuss how agents can use technology to get the most from the internet.

Other speakers include Kohn McQuillan, chief executive of OpenJaw Technologies, Heath Kane, chief executive of Mirror Image Communications, Karen Charles, travel channel manager at Freeserve, and Darryl Bowman and Stephanie Gay from TravelSelect and lastminute.com.

The conference, which is being held at the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London, is on Tuesday 15 October. The closest underground station is Embankment/Charing Cross. You need to register beforehand at the TTI website.

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