All eyes on Olympia
The spring conference season kicks off to a busy start next week with the Business Travel Show and Travel Technology Show, which share the same London venue.
Both shows start on Tuesday 1 February at Kensington Olympia in west London.
The Business Travel Show, now in its 11th year in London showcases 200 exhibitors including airlines, hotels, travel management companies and car rental companies. Companies attending the three-day show include names like Budget, Accor, Eurostar, Radius, American Express, Carlson Wagonlit and Emirates.
The programme of 17 seminars runs over three days and tackles various issues such as booking no-frills airlines, using self booking tools and the effect of GDS deregulation. The seminars marked “masterclass” are designed to cater for more experienced travel purchasers and managers. Sessions cost £30 each and £20 for subsequent sessions.
One session that is set to be interesting pits Jean-Pierre Remy, chief executive officer of Expedia Corporate Travel Europe against John Melchior, executive vice-president of Radius in a discussion about “traditional” versus online business travel agents.
For the full list of exhibitors and seminar programme go to www.businesstravelshow.com.
The two-day Travel Technology Show is set to exceed the targets set by its inaugural event last year, with over 100 technology suppliers exhibiting.
Last year the event attracted over 2,000 senior commercial and IT management representatives from travel suppliers and intermediaries – 45% more than the 1500 attendees expected.
The event is also running a seminar programme covering issues such as online travel marketing, pay-per-click strategies and CRM. The GDS seminar, which was a highlight of last year’s programme, is set to be a scintillating debate with representatives from all four GDSs coming under fire from moderator, Paul Richer.
For details of exhibitors and the seminar programme go to www. traveltechnologyshow.com. Sessions cost £40 in advance or £50 on the day.
TravelMole.com is the official media partner of the Travel Technology Show and will be reporting from both events with updates throughout the week with the latest news and highlights from the seminars.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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