What’s on at the Travel Technology Show

Improving your online presence, optimising your search budget, updating your social networking knowledge and getting to grips with the latest GDS news are just some of the topics under debate at the Travel Technology Show this week.

The event at Earls Court Two tomorrow and Wednesday will feature a seminar programme offering five sessions per day with topics including cautionary tales about IT projects gone wrong, inspirational ideas for your website, future trends in technology and how to build a web-based business.

Last year 3,924 qualified buyers came to the show, with more than half declaring afterwards that they planned to buy something as a direct result of who they had met.

The sessions, which are held in the seminar theatre at the top right corner of the show, cost £35 each, if booked before February 6, or £45 at the show.

Visitors can also make appointments to go to the show’s Advice Centre which is a free service run by travel technology firms Equinus and SourceIT-Travel.com and offers impartial advice on which exhibitors would be the most appropriate to drop in on.

To make an appointment, [email protected]. Advance booking also qualifies show visitors to a free one day consultancy from Equinus.

New for 2009 is the expert panel discussion on Tuesday from 14.00 to 16.00 when panelists will discuss how best technology can be used in an economic turndown.

The event takes place in the Presentation Theatre, the session is free and questions can be submitted ahead of the day by [email protected].

Different speakers will take the stand on both days at the Exhibitor Question Time between 11.00 and noon in the Presentation Theatre when moderators will present a series of topics to be debated from mobile technology to the future of the web. No booking for these sessions is necessary.

And for those wanting to see who are the movers and shakers of the future in travel technology, the Travel Technology Innovation Award, won last year by CarTrawler, will pay tribute to the technology company that has shown real enlightened thinking in its product solutions.

Five finalists will showcase their product and the winner will be announced at the show.

Running parallel to the show and starting a day early today will be the Business Travel Show in Earls Court One, which has a packed itinerary of seminars, sessions and workshops.

Sessions will be streamed into subject areas so that visitors can timetable their visit according to the issues they want to learn about. The subjects are core business travel issues; technology; CSR; online booking; and meetings.

By Dinah Hatch