With all the new technology, blogging and twittering going on this year's  ITB, Yeoh Siew Hoon reckons you could know what's going on at the show without actually having to leave your hotel room.

You could, if you wanted to, technically cover the whole ITB Berlin without actually leaving your hotel room and going to the fairground this year.

That's thanks to the new things that's being implemented this year.

On Tuesday, there was the press conference which was shown live on the Internet. It took me a while to access it given that I am a Mac-head and had to download a special plug-in to play but I got in eventually.

Now here's the first tip about streaming press conferences "live". Unless they are truly riveting – ie feature good speakers and great can't-be-missed content – they can get rather boring very quickly.

Because you are not physically in the room, your attention tends to wander and if the speaker rambles on and the question being asked does not interest you, there is no motivation for you to stay tuned to your computer screen. Besides, nobody's watching you to see if you're paying attention so you could be singing in the shower while the "live" press conference is going on.

It made me think that if organisers wish to stream their press conferences "live", then perhaps there is reason to rethink their format so they are as friendly to the Web audience as to the physical audience in the room.

It's like the old days when people just took their printed brochure and put it on the web and called it their website. Most content do not cross media platforms that well – a lot gets lost in translation.

Then there's the PhoCusWright Bloggers' Summit at which more than 50 bloggers have signed up and most will be blogging and twittering away about events as they unfold.

For instance, following the twits of Kevin May, editor of Travolution UK, I read that he believes "Twitter experiencing faster adoption by travel companies than blogs because of brief …" (he couldn't say what he wanted to say in 140 characters here)

Then, later, he twittered, "retribution is the new distribution" for hoteliers trying to reach consumers at the expense of OTAs. ouch. :-)

To which fellow Twitterer @samdaams responded, "agree. but surely those hotel chains will have similar 'promotion' strategies with other third parties?"

Another avid Twitterer is Stephen Joyce, "entrepreneur and tourism technology expert" who is moderating a panel at the Bloggers Summit. His latest pronouncement, at my press time, "Watch private equity investment in travel technologies. This is a good indicator of the rebound for travel industry."

Yet another twit: "Companies that play defense may not have anything to preserve once the rebound happens."

Or "70% are hurting, 20% are stagnant, 10% are in growth. So, focus on the 10% because they are ones to watch. TIS 2009?"

But despite the fact that I can cover ITB without being there, I am happy I left my room at Swissotel this morning to attend my first day at the show.

Otherwise I wouldn't have had my group blog-hug at the Bloggers Summit – it was nice to meet so many fellow bloggers, all writing about different things.

One runs a blog called "happy hotelier" and says it is his second life, and he blogs about anything he likes. Another writes a blog for "women in their prime who love to travel" while yet another explores the issue of cultural tourism.

Another new thing they're trying at ITB this year is an ITB Mobile guide which you can download through the website. It works if you have a WAP-enabled phone or have WAP set up on it. Or you can download with Bluetooth at the GIATA Stand.

The guide gives you a map of the fairground, list of exhibitors and their booth numbers, the full programme and more. The idea is you know exactly what's going on where and you don't get lost.

Well, despite that, I still spent my first day at ITB like I do every year – wandering around like a headless chook, wondering what's happening where and never going from one point to the other in a straight line because, my goodness, there are so many people to say hello to on the way somewhere.

Wish you were here.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com

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