WTM Social Travel Market 2012

Brought to you by our partners

By Steve Keenan and Mark Frary

It’s back, bigger than ever. There are 36 acts (er, speakers) in 13 shows (ok, seminars) over two days and held on three stages. It’s bigger than Billy Smart’s Circus.

But if for some extraordinary reason you can’t spare two full days (AND WHY NOT?), here we’ve dissected this year’s event to match your needs with the offerings on show.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7 SESSIONS

See the line-up for Thursday

The conference opens at 10.30am. Registration not required for the seminars, so do turn up early to bag a seat - the room has expanded to cater for 350 this year. Sessions will then move onto the floor on Thursday, with ample room for attendees. You will need to register to attend World Travel Market to get in.

The hashtag is #STM2012 for the sessions, #WTM2012 for the show
Free wifi will be available in all sessions on all stages - Username: STM2012, Password: Market

If you could only attend one session, this is best suited to…

THE INTRIGUED MARKETEER

10.45-11.15 Is foursquare the biggest thing in travel?

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speaker: Omid Ashtari - Business Development director, foursquare
Moderator: Steve Keenan
Launched three years ago, foursquare quickly got a reputation for gaming - collecting badges and mayorships. That has stuck - but things are changing. The company believes there is big potential in travel and is busy on mapping, fuzzy search of your check-ins to provide better tips and food/bar/insert other suggestions. Ratings and Likes are in the pipeline. And it’s launched a clever Seat Mayor loyalty scheme with Lufthansa and another with Starwood Hotels. Foursquare has 25m users and, says Omid, “when we get to 150m, then it gets fun.’ Find out how the company could be THE geo-based travel app of the future - SK

THE DIGITAL DOUBTER

11.25-12.00 The psychology of social media

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speaker: Allister Frost - Wild Orange Media
Moderator: Steve Keenan
I heard Allister speak when we shared a stage at The Association of Independent Tour Operators’ overseas conference in Madeira this year - and he blew me away. As Allister puts it, he helps “large companies transition from the old ways of broadcasting ad messages (i.e. shouting) to engaging in two-way conversations with their customers and prospects through emerging digital channels (i.e. conversing).” And he does it beautifully. The former Head of Digital Marketing Strategy at Microsoft, Allister coaxes and persuades and leaves you pleading for help when it comes to creating magnificent touchy-feely social and digital campaigns. A must-hear - SK

THE VIDEO ASPIRANT

12.15-1.00 Video and blogging: more than one way

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speakers: Matt Carroll - Founding partner, Media Ark; Nicola Frame - UK & Ireland PR Manager, Intrepid Travel; James Mundy - PR Manager, InsideJapan Tours
Moderator: Steve Keenan
Everyone wants video content, right? But not many can afford it. Too right. So we’ll be taking a look at how three different travel companies created compelling video on different budgets - but budgets way below sending a traditional crew away to film. Matt’s firm was hired to video six bloggers on an MSC Cruises trip, while Nicola paid for bloggers The Perennial Plate to film one of the company’s food tours of Vietnam. James, meanwhile, devised a bloggers’ competition to find a winner, and send them to Japan to produce multimedia every day. Three ways to cut the video cake - and all were successful. Find out how they did it - SK

THE MOBILE MARKETEER

1.10-1.45 Getting content into traveller’s hand: mobile trends

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speakers: Kelly Lees - Director of Marketing and Business Development, Gogobot; Justin Cooke, CEO UK, Possible; Kevin May - Co-founder, Tnooz
Moderator: Mark Frary
45% of the world’s population now has a mobile phone and an increasing proportion of those devices are smartphones. The rise of the connected traveller means that traditional printed guide books are being ditched for social travel applications and interactive mobile content. What does this mean for travel companies? - MF

THE WANNABE SOCIAL GURU

1.55-2.20 What jobs will there be in social media in 2013?

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speakers: Joanna Matloka - New Media Strategist, 77Agency; Jason Geall - Managing Director, The Student Room
Moderator: Mark Frary
The rise of social media means that more and more travel companies are looking to employ people in specialist social media roles. What roles are companies looking to fill and what skills do today’s students need to have to succeed - MF

THE AMATEUR BLOGGER

2.30-3.30 How to sort the bloggers from the blaggers

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speakers: Rick Calvert - CEO, Blogworld/Tbex; Ayngelina Brogan - BaconisMagic.ca
Moderator: Steve Keenan
By now, every PR and travel company has its own list of favoured bloggers. But there is no centralised list, no directory of the good - and the poor - bloggers. There was a stab at Tbex in Girona recently to quantify the value of a blogger - and semantic algorithms are on their way. Meanwhile, it’s the Wild West out there, so enter two speakers to help clarify things. Ayngelina is part of a team who have created the Professional Travel Bloggers Association, while Rick runs Blogworld out of North America and, a year ago, bought The Travel Bloggers’ Exchange (Tbex). They’ll tell you what it takes, and what 2013 holds in terms of sorting the blaggers from the bloggers - SK

THE PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER

3.45-4.45 The best blogging innovations of 2012

South Gallery, Rooms 23-26

Speakers: Janice Waugh - SoloTravelerBlog; Kash Bhattacharya - BudgetTraveller.org; Sarah Lee - LiveShareTravel; Nellie Huang - WildJunket.com; Gary Arndt - EverythingEverywhere.com; Matt Kepnes - NomadicMatt
Interrogators: Mark Hodson - Group Editor 101Holidays; Jennifer Howze, Co-founder BritMums.
Moderator: Kevin May - Co-founder Tnooz
Four experienced bloggers reveal how they’ve evolved in 2012, bringing their skills to different markets. Janice helped devise and publish a series of Traveler Handbooks; Kash is midway through visiting 50 hostels across Europe for a book and website; Sarah has created a huge video project and TV travel series (as well as being a partner in Traveler Handbooks) and Nellie launched an interactive iPad travel magazine. Meanwhile, Gary and Matt have been busy pressing the monetizing button in 2012 with spectacular results. Sit back and learn from the blogging maestros, with questions from two print journalists-turned-digital entrepreneurs - Jennifer and Mark - and all thoroughly moderated by digital travel guru Kevin - SK

The WTM-weary blogger or writer

6pm-late The STM Table Football Challenge: INVITE ONLY

Are you a blogger or writer attending WTM Social Travel Market? Then join 100 others at our annual table football challenge event held at the legendary Bar Kick in nearby Shoreditch. Update: The event is now full but you can join the waitlist here. (Note this event is only open to bloggers, writers and STM partners.)

With thanks to the following partners who have made the STM Table Football Challenge possible.

See the line-up for Thursday

For more information on speaker biographies, and other social and digital media sessions running at World Travel Market, take a look at this page. And we look forward to seeing you all!