WHILE everyone in the travel and tourism industry continues trying to forecast the latest trends in order to boost their businesses, one of the undeniable growth areas for 2011 has to be the rise of online social networks and the spin-offs they have made within the industry as a whole.
Nowadays it seems everybody is hooked up via an iPhone, a Blackberry or even an iPad to get destination information or receive important real-time data such as changes to flight times delivered via their smart phones.
With the fifth edition of GIBTM due to take place from March 28 to 30, the Mice industry in particular is looking for opportunities to take advantage of post-recessionary growth; and Reed Travel Exhibitions has invested heavily in the show’s online activity, introducing Twitter and LinkedIn accounts as well as a Youtube channel, in addition to its regular website.
Plans are also underway to launch an online community user-group for GIBTM visitors, called ‘Connect@’. Through it, visitors to the show will be able to see who else is attending, upload their picture and profile and network with other visitors before the show.
In addition GIBTM will also be launching a Facebook fan page and a dedicated iphone app which will allow hosted buyers, visitors and exhibitors the ability to access event schedule details, exhibitor information and other key show information, during and after the event, from any Apple iPhone or iPod touch.
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Although the Middle East has traditionally lagged behind other parts of the world in its online usage, it is fast catching up. Facebook continues to be the number one social networking site – now viewable in 70 languages with 65 million people also accessing it via mobile phone.
There are now more Facebook users in the GCC than there are printed newspapers distributed in the region, in fact 8.3 per cent of active Facebook users come from the Mena region, representing a penetration of around eight per cent.
The fastest growth in user adoption in the region is in the 55+age group. Among the Arab countries, the top seven countries in active Facebook user usage are Egypt (1,820,000), Saudi Arabia (920,000), Morocco (860,000), the UAE (840,000), Tunisia (690,000), Lebanon (680,000) and Jordan (490,000). LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking site, has more than 100 million members worldwide and 2.6 million are from the Middle East – a percentage of 2.5, Pakistan and the UAE are on top of the list with 0.6 million each followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Linkedln is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, operates in 200-plus countries and is used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies. So it makes perfect sense to promote events through social media, which is now seen as an integral part of any event marketing campaign.
Ever since its inception, GIBTM has been growing in size as more and more people understand the relevance of what is on offer and how they can utilise this information within their own sectors.
Few companies can afford to ignore the social media phenomenon. If you think about it, meetings are the forerunner of social media and associations are the original social networks. Therefore, they fit in perfectly to market events and engage attendees before, during and after an event.
GIBTM is an ideal venue for industry players to meet and conduct business. Our online portal starts that process even before the actual event by linking potential attendees and exhibitors.
It allows them to watch videos uploaded by exhibitors, search for exhibitors by their product categories or by country, contact them to arrange meetings in advance and read their press releases. This increases better business understanding and fosters improved interaction prior to and at GIBTM, therefore increasing success and productivity of the event throughout the year.
Free seminar sessions, suitable for all levels of attendees, will be available at the show. And, not surprisingly, one of the key topics for discussion will be the rise of social media and its impact on the Mice sector.
More information on exhibitors, networking opportunities and the seminars being given can be found on the GIBTM website at www.gibtm.com where you also will find links to the GIBTM LinkedIn and Twitter pages.
Lloyd Kenyon is the exhibition manager of GIBTM 2011.
Mice diaries
by Lloyd Kenyon