AITO Specialist Travel Agents has announced social media expert Charles Reid will be a speaker at its Prague conference next month.
Reid, who was also a speaker at AITO Agents’ conference in Cyrpus six years ago, is business director at Carat, a leading independent media planning and buying specialist. He specialises in digital acquisition and innovation and has a client base which includes Netflights, recently bought by Dnata from Thomas Cook, and Neilson Active Holidays.
He will talk about how best to use social media in the workplace and digital opportunities for the future for the trade as well as discussing how social media has changed in the last five years.
Reid, the first speaker to be announced for the June conference, said: “I’ll be reviewing the market, including the growth of the online travel agent and comparison sites. We will consider how high street travel companies are responding to the challenge and what we can learn to improve our chances, as well as trying to identify what could be the next digital opportunity for agents.”
AITO Agents chairman Oliver Broad said: “Charles last spoke to us six years ago in Cyprus where he announced how Facebook would soon be a force to be reckoned with…how right he was.
“We will hear from Charles about how large corporate brands in the travel industry are now adopting new social media platforms. Delegates will learn how they can best adapt these ideas to suit their own strategic business plans.”
The overall focus of this year’s conference business sessions will be innovation, with ideas on how to provide the best experience for clients, how to achieve success in the day to day running of a business and motivating teams.
The AITO Agents panel will also announce its long term strategic view and Broad’s successor as chariman.