Web in Travel Embraces New Technology

Web in Travel, a leading travel distribution, marketing and technology conference in Asia, is using several new customer engagement tools with its delegates.

“Since we are a conference that’s a lot about discussing ‘the next big thing’ and encouraging innovation, it is important that as organizers, we too demonstrate the motivation to try out new ways of doing old business,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, owner of the conference.

One of the new solutions it will use is a flight tracking mobile application called ArrivedOK. For the delegates who sign up for the service upon registration, ArrivedOK will track the delegates’ flight and inform loved ones and colleagues back home when they have arrived in Singapore. In addition, delegates will also receive a detailed menu of information services pertaining to the conference including conference venue details, Singapore Visitor Centre details and taxi hotlines and others.

Another way WIT delegates will be engaged at the conference would be through a proprietary solution that WIT developed with a partner, Circos Brand Karma. Called WITCast, the solution allows delegates to tweet their comments and questions to the speakers and panelists as the sessions are ongoing.

“We did a trial run of this solution last year. After the delegates got used to seeing the tweets and questions flow on the screens during the sessions, they actually liked how interactive it was. This way, we got more audience participation and the whole conference took on another dimension of interactivity,” said Yeoh. “It also allowed people who weren’t at the conference to follow proceedings.”

WIT is also active on Facebook, with a community set up early in the year in order to allow for networking to begin way before the actual conference starts. Facebook is also the platform WIT chose to run its global video contest “Why I love to travel”.