The theme this year is “New Technologies and Emerging Markets”. The rise of New Technologies such as mobile and geo-location services present exciting opportunities for Destination Marketing Organisations and NTOs. This week in Belgrade, marketing experts from across the industry will meet to discuss how to take advantage of these opportunities with a particular focus on how they can be used in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and China.
The conference is ETC's annual e-Business Academy, the only event of its kind to be organised specifically for NTOs, opening for the first time this year to their regional and city partners. It has become an important date in ETC's calendar, giving delegates a valuable forum in which they can share practical experience and professional insights. The Academy is organised by one of ETC's strategic advisory groups, the Marketing and Technology Network (MTN).
Andrew Daines, chairman of the MTN, says: “The value of the Academy is now widely recognised, not only by marketing and technology professionals from NTOs throughout Europe, but also by the event’s commercial sponsors – and I’m particularly pleased that Wilken will be supporting the Academy for the fifth successive year, and that a new company, GeoGuides, will be the premium sponsor at our event.”
This year’s Academy, marking the tenth anniversary, is attracting an impressive line-up of speakers, with Amy Scarth from Informed Tourism, Cees Bosselaar of PhocuWright, Jean-Marie Hullot CEO and founder of Fotopedia and Martin Schöbert from Tourismusdesign and Marvin Liao, Yahoo!.
There will also be presentations from the event's six commercial sponsors: GeoGuides, MovieAsset, New Vision (sponsoring us for the second successive year), SDL, Trip Advisor (sponsoring us for the second successive year) and Wilken. All companies are leaders in their field, offering services of direct relevance and value to the online marketing programmes run by NTOs.