Below is a copy of my presentation on Social Commerce for the June 29, 2011: “Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going” webinar sponsored by Tnooz & Amadeus IT Group. It was great to have over 600 people register for the event.
Talking Travel Tech on the Tnooz Live ‘Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going’ webinar
The panelists and the topics that were covered included:
- Brian Beard, Travel Technology Executive Consultant, Amadeus – Dynamics in Travel Merchandising
- Robert Cole, Founder, RockCheetah – Social Commerce Opportunities in Travel
- Gerry Samuels, Executive Director, Mobile Travel Technologies – Mobile Travel Products, Platforms and Technologies
The Moderator was Kevin May, Editor of Tnooz
Unfortunately due to a family emergency, Stephen Joyce, CEO, Rezgo and Chairman, OpenTravel Alliance was unable to present his perspective on Search, New players and New Horizons.
We wish Stephen and his family all the best and definitely missed his insights on all the topics covered.
My presentation is embedded below and is available for download by clicking the Slideshare link.
For those who did not attend the webinar, the point of selecting The Beatles notorious Butcher Cover for the opening slide was to highlight that the only certainty for the future of Social Commerce is that some big mistakes will be made along the way. The Beatles, undeniably the greatest social phenomena of its time 45 years ago, came very close to broadly distributing this cover image as a commentary on the Vietnam War for a US album release.
Travel organizations aspiring to be known as Social Commerce pioneers will undoubtedly attempt to break convention and venture into uncharted territory. As The Beatles learned, it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly where the “creepy line” lies until you have crossed it…
By the way, if you are interested in acquiring a rare 1st state copy of The Beatles Yesterday & Today with the Butcher Cover, one sold at auction for $4,800 in 2009.
My compliments to my fellow panelists on the content and insight provided by their presentations and to Mr. May for his typically exceptional job moderating. If you would like to learn more about Kevin’s fascinating background, please feel free to enter “Kevin May” into the Views from a Corner Suite Blog site search feature in the right sidebar – Sorry Kev, couldn’t resist… (maniacal laughter…)