Fashion, fun, competition, sales pitches, giveaways and the drugs on the stands. On the ground at WTM 2014.
Day one of WTM is “invite only” – longer trade meetings, established partnerships, reviewing sales figures, trends, sharing gossip and catching up on the year that was.
The reality of day two and three at WTM
Day two is for the punters and it gets interesting. Well, for the first few hours.
I fronted our Stand which was one step back from the main entrance. Location location. So over the next 2 days I had the same conversation 64 times. Several thousand people walked past us.
It is all about keeping energetic and keeping it fresh. Its knackering.
Multinational
My first 5 meetings, in 20 minutes, were with a pom, a German group, a couple of African journo’s, a staggeringly tall eastern European woman and an Italian man who kept asking if I spoke Italian. Being Australian seemed to be novel to many. Not that many Americans.
There are no secrets
This I found the most fascinating. Wholesalers spoke freely about the business prospects of players in the market. Staff movements. Gossip spreads like wildfire. Everyone knows everyone else’s history, the dealings of their related companies, who owes who, what’s coming next. One bloke said directly
“I’m just not telling anyone at WTM as everyone will know.” He emailed us the gossip on Friday.
They also know business metrics and recognize when companies are loss leading and when credit needs to be squeezed. And they tell you.
Fashion
Pommy hipsters wear distressed brown leather shoes, slim fit jeans, a shirt with optional vest and a grey or brown jacket and swagger, but it looks like a uniform en masse. The Germans, well, pretty boring. Eastern European women – anything, as long as it as extreme in colour, shortness of dress, plunging of neck line and if you are already really tall, wear high heels. Some wildly quirky Japanese, manga inspired looks. Awesome.
My grey suit started to feel boring. But purple knee high socks and a lime green skirt make my bum look big, so I wore a more colourful shirt on day three.
Competition
Commenting on “competition” is fraught with danger lest you be perceived to be “swiping” your competition….commenting on a competitive landscape is more my style. Competition is healthy, it keeps you on your toes, drives innovation, stops you from being lazy.
In the tech section, the risk for many is that companies are coming with identical promises and going with cash in their pockets and no service delivered. In 2009 it was a group called XXXXX travel who apparently owed 20 Million Euro, moved offices to the other side of the street and promptly built 3 hotels for 20 Million Euro. What a model.
Natural attrition means a few survive only to be bought by larger players who close down the market in their niche, especially in travel tech like booking systems, social media systems, marketing systems, dynamic packaging systems and hotel PMS’s. I’m part geek and struggled to identify original USP’s apart from hotter chicks in brighter, shorter skirts at the front of the booths.
The big themes
Service, support and longevity were recurring themes in our meetings, especially with partners we have had for 7 or 8 years. Service is a long term investment in your clients. A reputation of providing good support to your customers means you hold onto them, making you more financially viable for other companies doing business with you.
roomsXML is not massive like an airline, a Kuoni or a bookings.com; agents only remember bookings that go pear shaped, so our level of service needs to be above and beyond expectation to keep doors open.
The drugs
So by day three, I was tiring, getting flat. Three days of wake up, get on tube, go to exhibition, tube, hotel. No outdoors. I’d had the same conversation with everyone. I needed a pick me up. Caffeine wasn’t doing it.
Our booth giveaway was “Kaju Katli” – an Indian delicacy made from cashews, sugar and more sugar. When people queried ingredients, I told them “Kaju” was for cashews, Katli meant sweet and we added cocaine. My partner Ruchir would smile his innocent smile and tell people we just poisoned them. Occasionally they noticed. There was a stoned Russian bloke with mega tattoo’s and a build of a street fighter. He couldn’t get enough.
Gave us a laugh and the enthusiasm we needed.
Following up with your customers
Again, I may have gotten mischievous and started writing in our meeting diaries “seemed like a nice guy, invited him over for dinner” or “she said he would be the next Expedia and was looking for funds, so loaned him Ruchir’s credit card”.
Mostly my partners saw the joke.
So what did I learn
The prevalence of big data. Hotels are trying to squeeze the balance of power. Bad short term investments bite companies on the arse. The importance of paying on time. Sales people hate dealing with issues. That’s there’s lots and lots of bullshit. That travel is huge, complex, yet at times, simple.
But mostly, to pack a towel.