20 November 2009

What's Missing In All This? Reflections from the PhocusWright 2009 Conference

Typically a PhocusWright conference is looking forward to a future better world. Innovation etc etc.

We see people coming up with a compelling story but not necessarily a compelling history. One question Philip Wolf was constantly asking a question to which he never got a satisfactory answer - When/how/will a new brand/competitor emerge?

So in the Professor's inimitable style - I want to ask the question why this is the case or more importantly why not.

Over the next few days I shall be posting some insight on public and some private observations.

The show this year was a bit more upbeat than last year when the world was collapsing in total fear. The meteoric rise in Expedia's stock and now the market cap for PCLN being over $2Bn more than Expedia has shaken the traditional views. The market is as one analyst put it "more of a voting machine than a weighing machine"

It has now been effectively 15 years of innovation driven from the web. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect as clearly suppliers and almost everyone associated with the travel value chain are beginning to show.

But one of the stars of the Show has to be Marvin the Dinosaur. Not to mention a reference to dogs!

Cheers

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