Note: Airport pick-up and drop-off at the Hotel
(This is applicable only to guests arriving by air, who have provided their flight schedules. If you arrive on an earlier date, you will also be provided with that service)

Networking opportunity with Sky floor scenic view to Sofia
Location: 2A Klokotnitza Str.
Event sponsored by CenTransit.com and TravelStoreMaker.com

• The evolution of online travel – retrospective analysis and forecast for the future of online travel
• How Social Media impacts consumer behavior – Is Social Media a FAD and is it really here to stay
• Using Facebook as a business platform – Crowdsourcing and how companies leverage crowds in order to gain benefits
• Trends in Mobile online shopping
• How Video is being used in the travel industry;

• Understand the distribution models and players and the perspectives for growth;
• Changes in the online market trends over the past 12 to 24 months,
• Forecast for the next 12 to 24 months and how your company strategy should evolve;
• Key factors to drive the online market;
• How is the travel lanscape shifting from offline to online channels;
• What is the evolution of tour operators and packaging;
• Future threats and opportunities;
• Case study – Local opportunities.

• Search Engine Marketing, Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex – Do we have to flirt with all of them?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) explained
• Social Media Marketing - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace; Social Bookmarking - Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious – How do we leverage all these networks and communities?
• Video Marketing - Video sharing, Viral marketing, Video Promotion methods that work

• Email Marketing, getting through spam filters, tracking and analysis – how do we achieve better conversion rates
• Connecting with Bloggers, next generation journalists – Learn how to spread your ideas far and wide
• Innovative Web Design:

            -  Creative Design, the art of creating unique look and feel  
            -  Easy Navigation – the best way to keep your visitors on your site
            -  Content and copywriting strategies - Grab your readers by the eyeballs

• How much time people spend on your site and what are they looking at – Learn more about the behavior of your customers
• Sitе tracking and analytics tools

• Turning hotel websites into online travel portals – Increase your profits and revenue.
• Extending the concierge portfolio
• Unbundling hotel service

Henning Kripendorf, Tracklayer Ltd.
Bernard May, IDeaS.com, www.IDeaS.com

• Hotel management automation – How technology helps hoteliers be better managers and how it helps them be successful
• Channel management tools
• Outsourcing contact center service – Hot spots for outsourcing, when should we do that and how do we start the process
• Price comparison tools - know what your competitors are saying, tactics and methods that will help you compete with them

• Next Generation Internet Booking Engine Technology – features, core technology principles, what does the market want
• The challenge of dynamically aggregating multiple sources
• Content integration and mapping
• Internet Booking Engines vs XML API's
• GDS API's vs third party API's

• Multi GDS online booking engine
• Payment gateway solution, security and fraud prevention
• Internet placement of insurance products
• Importance of managing contacts, web based CRM and sales contact management tools
• Low cost carrier integration, dynamic packaging, auto-ticketing
• The wholesale model targeting the professional user, mid size agencies and corporations

• Current trends – the Internet challenge to the brick and mortar agencies
• Which agencies are possitioned to survive, which agencies will die
• Winners and loosers; The survival guide, home based agents, cruises and the niche markets

Blaine Stanga, Commercial Director Everbread, former Travelport e-commerce Director Europe
Koos Schouten, CEO Webfactory, www.webfactory.bg

• GDS competitors;
• GDS's new business models;
• Are they technology or distribution companies;
• Will they divest or invest;

John Hazlewood, CEO TravelStoreMaker, www.TravelStoreMaker.com
Kathy Misunas, former-CEO Sabre Group, former-CIO American Airlines, former-CEO Reed Travel Group
Blaine Stanga, Commercial Director Everbread, former Travelport e-commerce Director Europe
Andrew Shepp, CIO of TravelNow, www.travelnow.com
Koos Schouten, CEO Webfactory, www.webfactory.bg

Bicky Carlra, CEO Travision, www.astraighttalk.com
Henning Kripendorf, Tracklayer Ltd

• Payment gateway solutions, security and fraud prevention
• Customer Relations Management
• Low cost carrier integration, dynamic packaging, auto-ticketing
• The wholesale model targeting the professional user, mid size agencies and corporations

• promoting not only the destination as a whole, but also hotels, agencies, tourist attractions, restaurants, activities in the destination itself
• going where the consumer is,
• engaging customers with the assistance of the latest interactive marketing tools

• Is online a solution to delivering corporate travel better?
• Improving the efficiency and reducing cost
• Providing real-time dynamic pricing
• Is taking Corporate Travel online the best way forward for all clients in every region

Bicky Carlra | CEO Travision, www.astraighttalk.com
Benjo Vanlaarhoven, Executive Vice President at Alshamel International / Carlsonwagonlit Travel, www.carlsonwagonlit.com

• What is innovation
• How to innovate
• How to position your company for investment by strategic investor
• How to prepare for purchase by a major player
• How to approach an investor or a buyer

Kathy Misunas, former-CEO Sabre Group, former-CIO American Airlines, former-CEO Reed Travel Group

• Internet millionaire – what does it take?
• Recognizing innovation

• What investors are looking for
• Start-up, seed and early stage / late stage in comparison
• Prospect investors; Friends and family, angels, strategic investors, venture capital
• Opportunities on the regional stock markets; Central Eastern Europe and the region
• Exit strategies, prospect buyers, and possibilities for Initial Public Offering (IPO);

Victor Papazov, Founder and former-Chairman of the Board of Bulgarian Stock Exchange, www.bse-sofia.bg
Valery Petrov, Bancroft, www.bancroftgroup.com
Martin Paev, Owner and General Manager SORTIS INVEST, www.sortis.bg
Pavlin Petkov, Investment Manager at Axxess Capital, www.axxesscapital.net
Ivaylo Simov, Director Global Finance, www.globalfinance.gr
Kathy Misunas, former-CEO Sabre Group, former-CIO American Airlines, former-CEO Reed Travel Group

James B. Warlick, The US Ambassador to Bulgaria, www.bulgaria.usembassy.gov
Solomon Passy, former-Bulgarian Foreign Minister and Founder of Atlantic Club

• Robonaut 2 – Next Generation Robot
• Hubble and next generation space telescopes
• NASA innovations

• Space challenges program
• Inspiring youth in advancing humanity through the peaceful uses of outer space
• Google Lunar X Prize

Raicho Raichev, Association Tsiolkovsky, www.tsiolkovsky.net,
Space Generation Advisory Council - www.spacegen.org

• Earth from Space and the Cosmos
• SpaceWalk: Even for astronauts, the opportunity to leave the space station and float above the Earth is a rare and inspiring experience.
• Are we alone?
• Extra terrestrials and UFOs
• Q&A

• Going Green – the eco movement or the eco revolution? Trendy, in vogue is it a FAD and will disappear or here to stay?
• What are companies doing to position themselves as an Eco friendly company?
• Does being an Eco friendly company produce higher conversion and customer loyalty?
• Save the planet
• Are humans already polluting space?
• ECO Fashion Show - "CenTransit ECO Collection" - created by students from the "Bulgarian Academy of ART" and Evgeni Petkov

• The Next Frontier: Space Tourism
• Travel agencies selling space travel
• A view from space
• Sex in Space and off earth reproduction….and the 2Suit
• NASA's planning long-term missions for lunar settlements with goals to explore and colonize space
• Zero Gravity Flights
• Suborbital Space Flight
• Lunar Mission
• Space elevator
• Spaceplan
• Virgin Galactic and founder Richard Branson
• Blue Origin and founder Jeff Bezos…and founder of Amazon
• Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station and founder Robert Bigelow of Budget Suites of America

Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales, Founder and CEO, www.zero2infinity.com, www.inbloon.com
Story Musgrave, NASA Austronaut, www.lannistoria.com
Raicho Raichev, Association Tsiolkovsky, www.tsiolkovsky.net,
Space Generation Advisory Council - www.spacegen.org