Review: Tough Love – Web in Travel 2009

WIT – 5 years on – Web In Travel celebrated its 5th birthday and even though it was my first WIT, I came away with the understanding that the conference has depth and sincerity that can only be achieved through trust.

Stage for WIT 2009

On arrival, I was handed a program guide and tucked inside was a list of what must be the who’s who of the online travel industry that were attending.

One of the Many Panels of Experts

I am now going to proceed and summarise my WIT 2009 journey in the best way I know – the social media way = keywords.

Enlightening, profound, humorous, creative, conflicting, old ways, new ways, homemade cookies, social media, engagement, search, entrepreneurship, mentors, students, Twitter, status, community, art, opinions, fear, deals, Facebook, style, value, graffiti, empathy, monitor, react, pre-emptive, classic, roses, luxury, budget, holistic, experience, destinations, in your face, google, to serve, passion, tough love, did I say Facebook?

NEW: Twitter Roost @ WIT

Special mention needs to be made relating to the events discussion I witnessed, even with prompting by distinguished moderator – there seemed to be no obvious understanding or relevance or decisive recognition of how social media might have an enormous impact on the events business. I can only direct those in the events business to a review of an event I was involved in that clearly shows how events can deliver superior results if you engage a community online in somewhere like Facebook.

David Meerman Scott speaks Tattoos – http://www.webinknow.com/2009/01/how-an-active-facebook-group-drove-15000-people-to-the-singapore-tattoo-show.html

[Yeoh Siew Hoon our Host]

My congrats to Yeoh Siew Hoon (SHY) and her team on Web In Travel 2009. Happy 5th Birthday. – APLINK.

Willy Foo - facebook guy... leads the crew

All images courtesy of Willy Foo – to see the entire set visit:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=166745&id=719891275

Facebook’s Response To Twitter

Facebook made a number of announcements today about changes to its home page, profile pages, and activity streams. Taken together, these represent a concerted response to the rise of Twitter as a real-time message broadcasting system that goes beyond members’ personal circle of friends.

One of the biggest changes is that Facebook is getting rid of the distinction between private profiles and public pages. The 5,000-friend limit will be dropped from the public pages. Facebook doesn’t want Twitter to become the way large companies and public figures connect to fans. Up until now, Facebook Pages haven’t really been the place fans go to connect with their favorite celebrities or brands. For that, they’ve started going to Twitter, where they can get updates in real time.

Facebook is also speeding up the updates that populate the news feeds on everyone’s personal page. Before, these would be updated every 10 minutes or so. Facebook’s introduction of real-time updates and a one-sided follow system mimics Twitter’s functionality. While it may be a little late to this part of the game, its user base of 175 million dwarf’s Twitter’s. Explains CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

Facebook’s Response To Twitter.