Our seminars at World Travel Market 2015

Travel Perspective introduced the first social media seminars at World Travel Market back in 2011. And we are delighted to return for our fifth year, with as strong a line-up as ever. We hope to see you throughout the three days of our sessions.

We’ve 34 speakers, including travel heads from Google, Twitter and Facebook. There will be several strong and diverse panel discussions. And there will judging of the best social media campaigns of 2015 - and another of travel’s Next Big Thing.

Do pop along, say hello and join in the debates, using the hashtag #WTM15. Thank you!

Tuesday 3rd November
South Gallery rooms 23-26

1.30-2.00pm Keynote
Lighting up the dark: how dark social can be harnessed as a force for commercial good
Dark social (the sharing of content links on email, forums, texts and IM applications) is an opportunity for any organisation wanting to better harness website traffic and social media activity. How important is it and how can you harness dark social for better business outcomes?

Craig Tuck, Sales director, RadiumOne

2.15-3.15pm Panel
Destination 2020
Faced with reduced tourism budgets, Spain has focused more on digital marketing in recent years and Costa Brava has been at the forefront of embracing this. Meanwhile, the Italian region of Emilia Romagna has innovated with bloggers to get its message out. Here in the UK, Cornwall has led the digital charge to attract visitors. How are these destinations that have innovated in social media and digital planning to move on to the next level.

Jaume Marin, marketing director, Costa Brava Girona Tourism
Nicolas Montemaggi, Digital PR, Emilia Romagna Tourism
Malcolm Bell, CEO, Visit Cornwall

Moderating
Steve Keenan, Travel Perspective

3.30-4.30pm Panel
Working with brands in a digital world
How can destinations work with partners in other sectors, such as fashion, celebrity and film and leverage those partnerships on social media and in digital to attract more tourists. We also find out how brands, both travel and non-travel, are increasingly using bloggers in their advertising campaigns.

Kim Leuenberger, Instagrammer (kim.ou)
Becky Wiggins, blogger, English Mum
Sarah Rathbone, managing director, Siren Communications

Moderating
Mark Frary, Travel Perspective

4.45-5.45pm Panel
The best social media campaigns of 2015
Who is doing digital and social media well in travel and tourism? Come to this session to find out. Six travel companies and DMOs are invited to pitch their social campaigns to our expert panel to see who has been the most innovative. Compare and learn how to do social and digital like the real innovators.

Pitching
Holly Clarke, Airbnb (Night At campaign)
Toni Ambler, Contiki Holidays (Roadtrip campaign)
Inga Hlin Palsdottir, Director, Tourism & Creative Industries, Promote Iceland (Ask Gudmundur campaign)
Elif Bora, Turkish Airlines (first Periscope flight)
Katrina Sokk, Visit Estonia (Epic Estonia campaign)

Judging
Jeremy Head, iCrossing
Vincent Sider, Truevoic.es and ex-VP of social, BBC
Kirstie Pelling, blogger, Family Adventure Project

Moderating
Steve Keenan, Travel Perspective

Wednesday 4th November
Global Stage

1.30-1.55pm Keynote
Facebook future: mobile, messaging and virtual reality
Lee is back for his third keynote at our WTM social media seminars: today he talks about where Facebook is going, and how travel brands can take advantage of the opportunities that its 1.5 billion users offer

Lee McCabe, Global Head of Travel, Education & Consumer Services Strategy, Facebook

2.05-3.05pm Panel
Travel’s next big thing
Our panel of start-up mentors and entrepreneurs choose their favourite new travel start-up and explain what is so exciting about it. Each start-up presents to the panel and the audience to be crowned Travel’s Next Big Thing.

Pitching
Javier Suarez, Travelperk
Matt Fox, Snaptrip
Nikos Anagnostou, Discoveroom
Matthew Maguire, OneJet

Judging
Yannick Roux, Principal, EC1 Capital
Carl Pihl, Founder, Ticketinghub
Sally Davey, Product director, TripAdvisor
Timothy O’Neil Dunne, Managing partner global, VaultPAD Ventures

Moderating
Mark Frary, Travel Perspective

3.15-3.40pm Keynote
How the world’s best brands use social and digital
The creative head at the digital arm of the world’s biggest advertising agency shares how they plan social media and digital spend, the rush towards programmatic buying, the rise of mobile, what works and what does not and how travel companies can compete with the best brands on the planet

Ian Haworth, executive creative director UK/EMEA, Wunderman WPP

Thursday 5th November
Global Stage

12.00-12.30pm Keynote
Why online video cannot be ignored
Mobile video consumption is continuing to rise and travel companies need to be doing it. YouTube has just celebrated the big 1-0 and is the world’s dominant video platform and is launching premium services and targeting more brands for advertising while live streaming is the one of the most exciting new developments in social

Dr Bernd Fauser, industry head, travel, Google

12.50-13.35pm Face-to-face
Twitter, travel & realtime marketing
Twitter now has 316 million users who generate 1 billion tweets every 2 days. Travel is a key vertical for the social network. The company shares its thoughts for the future and ideas on how travel companies can work more closely with it to sell more holidays and better service their customers.

Samir Bhana, Sales Manager, UK/Ireland, Travel, Twitter in discussion with Mark Frary

13.55-14.40pm Panel
Why travel and tourism organisations need to become publishers
It used to be so simple: use PR to get on television and in the newspapers. Now the system is broken but travel companies have realised they can market themselves directly to consumers using their own content. A panel of bloggers, content marketers and travel companies speak about their experiences and share best practice

Toni Ambler, Director of brand strategy, Contiki Holidays
Matthew Barker, Co-founder and head of strategy, I&I Travel Media
Lee Gibson, Head of sales, UK/Ireland, Outbrain
Kash Bhattacharya, blogger, BudgetTraveller
Dan Hart, Managing director, Melt Content

Moderating
Steve Keenan, Travel Perspective

15.00-15.30pm Panel
Getting to Series A funding
One of the startups in London’s Traveltech Lab has secured Series A funding earlier this year. How do you go from being a person with a brilliant idea to getting your first major investment and how important is the environment you work in?

Andy Owen Jones, Co-founder and CEO, BD4Travel
Alasdair Snow, Co-founder, Triptease

Moderating
Mark Frary, Travel Perspective