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Posted Aug 17, 2010
I attended the NBTA Convention in Houston last week. Frankly I have been to so many NBTA conventions, I have lost count (this was probably my 22nd or 23rd convention). What was shocking to me was how there was so little change in the content of the program from those I attended back in the early 1990s. Sessions on travel policy, expense management, globalization, vendor negotiations and meetings management represented the bulk of the content. There were a few progressive sessions on the social Web and mobile apps (the session I spoke at), but in general the lack of innovation and progressive thought was quite evident. Why is the corporate travel industry so stagnant? What does this mean to the state of corporate travel technology? It is my belief that a major culprit is turnover.
Posted Aug 3, 2010
We hardly cover awards, aside from our own of course, but in June I issued my " off-the-cuff opinions of only a semi-frequent traveler" regarding stuff that real frequent travelers are more qualified to assess: the nominees for the National Business Travel Association's first-ever Business Traveler Innovation Awards, in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal. The results are in. Let's see how I did ...
Posted May 27, 2010
Good innovation solves worthy problems. Here are three problems that strike me as worthy, and their very rough calls to action.
Posted May 3, 2010
After recent announcements there is now the great fear that Apple doesn't just enter the travel industry but even takes over as they did the music industry (over 25% of the songs are sold via iTunes). What people don't realize is that it is our self made lack of innovation which allows strong players outside of the industry to step up.
Posted Apr 29, 2010
Yesterday I spoke at the Open Travel Alliance's Forum on the topic of innovation in consumer travel. This post summarizes the major factors influencing travel innovation, and the top innovations in consumer travel from the last two decades.
Posted Dec 2, 2009
As most of you know I was intimately involved with this year's PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit. I have been tracking both new media and traditional coverage of this event. I wanted to provide you some feedback from the inside as well as some comments on the overall subject of innovation.
Posted Nov 18, 2009
Yesterday I watched 34 firms pitch their innovations at a PhoCusWright's travel innovation conference. Nearly all were aimed at the leisure travel segment, but keep reading, because innovations in the consumer market will shape the face of business travel.
Posted Feb 12, 2009
Only those open to change will reap the rewards
by Michael Strauss
From a technological point of view, the travel industry is not the hunter, but the hunted. Innovations are neither fostered nor developed to the necessary extent. Suppliers, distributors, travel management companies, but also technology providers are partially to blame for this. However, new concepts can help the travel industry to reduce costs, master crises and offer better products.
Posted Oct 3, 2008
Today as we face a challenging economy and ever increasing belt-tightening, there is an unfortunate consequence on our industry.
Innovation is being quashed.
No one planned for this to happen. But happen, it has.
The innovations over the last few years have been incremental at best.
Posted Sept 26, 2008
Apologize for the slight delay in posting my observations about Day Two of The Beat Live conference in Cleveland this week.
I would like to say that this conference was really unlike the bulk of the conferences I've attended in this industry over the last decade. I told Jay Campbell that I thought that the candor shown by everyone (audience and speakers alike) was truly astounding in a public forum, but that perhaps it is because The Beat writes such honest observations of this industry to begin with. So perhaps there is no fear in telling the truth. That's the way it seemed anyway!
Day two of the conference focused on innovation, both in pricing and in functionality.
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