Mr. Heller Test Drives Travel 2.0
...Make That Test Drives [Insert Industry Here] 2.0
Web 2.0 is one of those strange concepts that means something different to almost anyone you ask. Sure there's a Wikipedia entry for it but, in practice, it seems like people apply the term to almost anything that they put on the Web that they think is new and exciting. (Hearing people talk about the term always reminds me of Justice Potter Stewart saying that he couldn't define objectionable pornography but he "knew it when he saw it.")Since I've seen Web 2.0 and Real Estate 2.0, I thought I'd hit the opening session on "Travel 2.0" here at NBTA. After just ten minutes in the session, I realized that the most interesting thing about "<insert industry here> 2.0" isn't how the "2.0" concept is the same for that industry, but how its different. Sure, the 2.0 movement is all about vertical integration of content, mash-ups, and user content, but the travel world has taken the concept and made it its own by adding immense review sites (think: TripAdvisor.com) social travel sites, and even completely new business models such as predictive fare search sites and seat map selection sites for ultra-frequent travelers.
I thought Norm Rose of TravelTech Consulting (a truly young looking guy to have earned his adopted title of "grandfather of online booking tool advice") gave a good presentation on the topic and was particularly interested in how he further applied the concept specifically to the corporate travel industry, which has a history of lagging behind leisure on this type of new technology. (I can't speak for others in the industry but I can personally attest to the hours we spend talking about this stuff at Expedia Corporate Travel and how thinking about everything we want to do keeps my friend Angie, our director of PM, up at night!!) Norman did a great job of getting folks in the audience to understand how many different communities there are within their constituent population (travelers, arrangers, finance managers, etc...) If you segment them out differently in your head it makes it easy to think about the ways they communicate with each other and how to best serve them as a travel management company, a travel manager or supplier...
For those that want to know more about Travel 2.0, check out this write up from the coiner of the phrase, Philip Wolf.
Finally, just for fun, I ran our Expedia Corporate Travel logo through the web 2.0 logo generator. What do you think?
Expedia%20Corporate%20Travel.png "ECT Web 2.0 logo")
(I'm sure Mark Hoben, our lead designer, loves that ...)
-Eric Heller, Director of Marketing, Expedia Corporate Travel