PhoCusWright’s 2nd Town Hall Breakfast was held last week in Seattle, Washington. I just returned from the event where local travel leaders from Microsoft, Concur, Google, Expedia/Hotels.com, Edelman, EuropeExpress, Yapta, Evergreen Escapes, Raveable, Escapia , EngineWorks, Madrona Venture Group and Concur gathered in an intimate setting to discuss the current state of online travel - both locally and globally.

Campagne Restaurant, adjacent to Pike Place Market, was an ideal setting for the event. The Pacific Northwest is truly a hotbed for travel technology and the discussion was riveting from start to finish. The format was quite different than your standard PhoCusWright event. Nothing is planned, prepared or time slotted (is the PCWI events team cringing?); only the arrival time and departure time was set. The event was designed to foster discussion and interaction from industry thought leaders, and in typical PhoCusWright fashion, it didn’t disappoint. Topics ranged from the state of the economy to business travel to how companies are adjusting strategies to meet the challenging environment.

Some interesting thoughts came out of the gathering:

• There is a lot of buzz about Bing. Can Bing permanently steal market share from Google or will their large marketing budget just allow them to borrow it for a few weeks/months.
• Many of the companies and individuals that were attending had not known each other prior to the event.
• The common belief is that we are at bottom or the bottom is slightly behind us.
• Business travel has been hit much harder than leisure travel. Most think the nature of business travel has been changed forever.
• Hotel rate recovery will take quite some time. Good deals will continue for travelers.
• How do we know that we are in unprecedented times? Four Seasons is spending advertising dollars with Google.
• There are no experts on Twitter, just students: good students, bad students and everything in between.
• Going green is a slippery slope. Many think the best practice is to maintain a low profile as it is hard to be completely green and satisfy everyone’s threshold.
• VC money still exists, yet value must be proven before money is awarded.

These are just bits and pieces of the content that was discussed. Philip Wolf facilitated the conversation and interjected when necessary, yet the conversation was free flowing and unfettered. This format works well for those who enjoy spontaneity and creativity and is a good balance to the professional production and unprecedented speakers of The PhoCusWright Conference.

Thanks again to all that attended and contributed to a successful event. Look for PhoCusWright Town Hall Breakfast #3, coming to a city near you!

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