Chief executives from leading travel companies will gather at the WIT Ideas Lab at ITB Asia to discuss strategies to position your business for the recovery, as well as share ideas to transform your business for the future.

The WIT Ideas Lab, being organized in conjunction with WIT-Web In Travel, especially for ITB Asia delegates will be held from 9-11am on October 22 and 23.

The opening session on Oct 22 will feature names such as Patrick Imbardelli, CEO, Pan Pacific Hotels Group; Chananya Phataraprasit, Chairman, East West Siam/Asian Oasis, Thailand and Karthik Siva, Chairman, Global Brand Forum, who will talk about how they have tackled the challenges of the economic downturn and the changes they have made to position for recovery.

To kick off the session on October 23, tour operating veteran Hans Lerch, Vice Chairman of the Board of Hotelplan, Switzerland, and responsible for expanding the travel and tourism interests of Migros Group, will share ideas on how you can transform your business for the future.

Changes in travel distribution and marketing, as well as those taking place in the value chain, will also come under the spotlight.

Four experts in travel distribution and marketing – Ram Badrinathan, General Manager-Asia, PhoCusWright Inc, Timothy Hughes, BOOT – The Business of Online Travel Blog, Brett Henry, Vice President Marketing, Abacus International and Martin Symes, CEO, Wego.com – will talk about how changes in in this space will impact your business, whether you are a hotelier, airline or travel agency.

And to discuss changes in the world of intermediaries, a panel comprising Laurent Kuenzle, Managing Director, Asian Trails Group, Gregory O'Neil, President Asia Pacific, BCD Travel and Adrian Currie, Chairman, Agoda has been assembled.

For the first time, WIT Ideas Lab will also feature workouts in which group leaders will lead discussions on topics such as Taming The Social Beast (Morris Sim, CEO, Circos.com); Fat Dumb and Lazy? How to Cut Fat in Distribution (Timothy O'Neil Dunne, Managing Partner, T2 Impact) and Innovation for Free including Marketing on a Zero Budget  (Ivan Wong, CEO, Maple Commerce).

Note: The WIT Ideas Lab at ITB Asia is open to all WIT delegates and ITB Asia participants

4Hoteliers is the "Official Daily News" of WIT09

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