More educational sessions were named for BTC – an Italy-based events exhibition to be held in Fortezza da Basso, Florence, from Nov. 11-12.
This includes eight sessions; one lasts a full day, with panel discussions and seminars for the hotel industry. This is in addition to the 13 sessions previously announced in July.
Educational offerings have never been so extensive in BTC’s 30-year history, both in terms of quantity – with even a third slot still to be incorporated – and quality. The BTC education program, organized by Margherita Franchetti, content manager of the show and editor-in-chief of industry news website Event Report, presents topics of interest to both demand- and supply-side operators, able to stimulate all players in the value chain. For this reason, it does not relate solely to conferencing in its strictest sense.
Events and their organization
The first topic is experience design or the design of events to make them significant and memorable experiences. This will be explored by Dario Cherubino, partner of agency Azimut and chairman of Site Italy, an international chapter of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence.
Donatella Consolandi, chair of national union of communication companies (Unicom) will talk about events of the Public Administration as opportunities for direct contact with the target and not as self-congratulatory shop windows for the promoting agency.
Gabriele Gamberi from non-profit foundation ASPHI will tackle the topic of special needs for elderly and differently-abled guests, at a meeting with a highly evocative title: how to create an event “possibly” for everyone.
Marketing and regions
Alessandro Fregni, digital sales and inbound marketing manager of Yocrowd, will explain content marketing for destinations: how to generate content through events and participants’ experience. In the session “Sport as a value for the region,” Giammarco D’Orazio, marketing consultant and founder of the Festival del Basket [Basketball Festival], and Luca Corsolini, Sky journalist and editor of Basket Magazine, expert and lecturer in sports communication, will illustrate techniques to create, communicate and finance sports events.
Company events
Gianluca Fiscato, vice chairman of Frogmarketing, will hold a seminar on gamification and storytelling, responding to companies’ need for new solutions to stimulate internal creativity. MPI Italia, the Italian chapter of Meeting Professionals International, and Cisalpina Tours are organizing a panel discussion for the second year in a row, dedicated to Expo 2015 and company events: opportunities, growth and implications for the corporate world. Speakers will be Cisalpina Tours Marketing Manager Rosemarie Caglia; Quality Travel Editor-in-Chief Giulio Carloni; Vorwerk Folletto Communications and Events Manager Luca Corsi; Cisalpina MICE Director Maria Guadalupe Lucasevich; and MICE Consultant, Author and MPI Italia Chair Olimpia Ponno.
Hotels and Web marketing
Finally, the session “Hotels and Web marketing:” What to do in the current market environment? — organized by tourism consultancy and training agency Sicaniasc — represents an important part of BTC’s education program. It will begin with a seminar on the cloud used for hotel management, given by Giuseppe Pellegrini (GP Dati).
There will be a panel discussion on disintermediation, with the following speakers: Tina Ingaldi (GP Dati), Gianluca Piras (Expedia), Vito D’Amico (Sicaniasc) and Simone Puorto (WIHP), moderated by Armando Travaglini (DMT). There will then be a seminar on revenue management, by Vito D’Amico, followed by another panel discussion onWi-Fi and Web marketing, with Vincenzo Ricciardi (Koobi), Diego Orzalesi (Hootsuite), Armando Travaglini (DMT) and Luca Tarullo (InLine), moderated by Vito D’Amico.
The afternoon session will be kicked off by Gianluca Laterza (Tripadvisor) with the seminar “A simple move to convert visitors into paying guests.” Thereafter, Gianluca Piras and Salvatore Lo Re, both from Expedia, will hold “From data to strategy: the key is differentiation,” in which they will explain how to optimize revenue and online distribution policies in light of the variety of customer segments targeted. The day will close with a panel discussion on Product marketing: USP (Unique Selling Point) and target, with speakers Vito D’Amico, Gianluca Laterza and Gianluca Piras, moderated by Simone Puorto.
Associations
In conclusion, this year sees a strong convergence of industry associations and the mar-com sector, each of which will present at least one seminar at BTC. This slot includes MPI, Unicom and Site.
Online registration to attend the seminars will open on www.btc.it in October. Entrance is free of charge.
