Smile 2009: Speaker Lineup Confirmed

SETTING THE SCENE: THE MARKET FORECAST SESSION

9.00am Sarah Duignan
STR Global

What Lies Ahead: A brief from the global benchmark specialists on the latest travel trends from Ireland, Europe & the US.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: THE REVENUE MANAGEMENT SESSIONS
It’s never been more important to re-visit your revenue and pricing strategies. In these sessions, you’ll get answers to all your revenue and pricing questions, benchmark your strategy against your others in your market and prepare your company for the year ahead.

9.30am Patrick Landman
CEO
Xotels.com

Under Your Nose: While most revenue management activity focuses on room revenue, you may be missing the opportunities that are right under your roof in conference & banqueting. In this session, Patrick identifies the other sources of revenue available to you in-house and in-reach.

10.10am Kate Varini,
CEO
BetterRevenue.com

The Bottom Line: Under scrutiny many revenue management strategies prove misguided. In this session, Kate Varini takes a closer look at this exacting area and examines whether your activities are helping or hurting the bottom line.


10.45am Coffee Break

OPPORTUNITY CLICKS – THE DIGITAL SESSIONS
The digital era is a transformational one, where your customers are as responsible for creating the product, brand and experience as you are. The Digital Session brings together some of Ireland’s best brains in digital.

11.15am Brian Harte
Head of Customer Engagement and eMarketing
Tourism Ireland

Web Masters: Being online is no longer enough – you’ve got to really engage your audience. In this presentation, Brian Harte outlines some of the innovative approaches Tourism Ireland are taking to putting Ireland at forefront of the new conversation.

11.50am Richard Delevan
Digital Client Services
McConnells

The Golden Thread: With a career that spans journalism, politics and advertising, Richard Delevan has both made and reported on the news. In this hot-off-the-web session, Richard takes his passion for all things digital to help you unravel the strands of this new-tangled media!

12.30pm Rob Shine
Cybercom

Digital Case Study: With experience working on high-tech solutions for clients across all sectors, Rob will demonstrate some practical examples from hospitality of how to go end-to-end seamlessly using the latest technologies.

1.00pm Lunch

1.30pm Bobby Kerr
Insomnia Coffee and RTE’s Dragons Den.

What’s The Buzz? This leading entrepreneur throws down the gauntlet and offers his thoughts on how to be bold in these challenging times.


CHANNEL CROSSING: THE DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY SESSIONS
Choosing the correct distribution strategy is central to marketing effectiveness – in these sessions, we examine a number of key issues around making the right choice.

2.05pm Des O’Mahony
Founder
Bookassist

Go Direct: They say turnover is vanity, profit sanity; in this session, Des outlines how you can lower your cost of sale and increase customer loyalty through more effective direct booking strategies.

2.45pm Iselin Skogland
E-Hotelservices.Com

Who Dares Wins: The electronic distribution landscape is no place for the fainthearted. In this session, international expert Iselin will equip you with the necessary insights and strategies to make the most of the opportunities that exist.

3.15pm Coffee break

OVER THE LINE: THE SALES PRESENTATION SESSION

3.30pm Richard Newman
M62

Clinching The Deal: Now that you’ve secured that meeting, how will you bring that new business across the line? In this session, master marketer Richard Newman will offer communications tips on making a winning presentation.

TAKE IT FROM THE TOP: THE LEADERSHIP SESSION

4.00pm Panel

Voices Of Experience: We wind up the day with a panel discussion led by Alex Gibson to explore a number of the key issues in marketing with leadership professionals.

Speakers TBC

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: OPEN NETWORKING

4.45pm Open Networking Event

Fortune Favours The Bold...

Smile Conference is a unique one-day workout offering you the inside track on critical sales & marketing issues in the hospitality sector.

This year, we’re inviting you to ‘be bold’ with Smile 2009 promising an even better mix of practical insight, innovative strategies and powerful networking opportunities for those in a sales & marketing role in hospitality and tourism.

So what's new for 2009? Hot topics include:

STR Global Briefing Session – How exactly are the local and international hospitality markets looking for 2009 and beyond?

Revenue Management Session – It’s never been more important to revisit revenue and pricing strategies.

Digital Session – Going online is not enough, you’ve got to engage our customers like never before.

Distribution Strategy – Choosing the right e-strategy is vital to selling effectively online.

Masterful Sales Presentations – Now you’ve secured a meeting with your prospect, how are you going to clinch the deal?

Plus Special Guest Speaker: Insomnia’s Bobby Kerr (RTE’s Dragon’s Den)

Email: Gerard@SmileConference.com for updates on speakers as they're confirmed.

How To Bring A Smile To The Face Of Your Boss

Smile 2007 is a unique one-day conference workout for sales and marketing professionals in hospitality, and this year’s lineup and format makes it the ‘must-attend’ event of the year.

You know it, but your boss or financial controller may need a little convincing. To help you out, we've compiled a handy aid to persuasion.

1. You’ll get a full-on, full day workout tackling critical sales and marketing issues for your business.
2. You’ll be first to hear the findings of our Pulse Rate report, which checks the vital signs of your industry and offers a diagnosis for the future.
3. Thanks to our round-table format, you’ll get to hear from some of the brightest people in the business – both our speakers and your colleagues - and learn how they’re getting to grips with key issues in their business.
4. You’ll get to hear how to access key markets using the power of affiliates, consortia and referral networks, how to make the most of every guest interaction, how to design a search marketing strategy that works and leverage online partnerships and much, much more.
5. You’ll hear from some of the biggest players online what lies ahead and what you need to be doing to get ahead and stay ahead.
6. You’ll get to network formally and informally with your colleagues in the industry and establish important contacts and resources for your work.
7. You’ll get to return to your business armed with presentations, tips and slides to share with your colleagues.
8. In the weeks following Smile 2007, you’ll receive invaluable How To Guides from our partners, covering areas such as: Optimise Your Website, Develop Your Brand and Commission Design.
9. You’ll get to help us design an even more dynamic and effective Smile 2008.
10. And last, but most importantly, you’ll bring a Smile to our faces!

Need even more reasons to Smile? Visit Smile Website for more details.

Smile Right Back

Our third Smile Interview sees Alex trade back and forth with Smile Lost & Found Partner, Frank Hannigan, founder of the ingenious YouGetItBack.com.

An Excellent Referral

In the second of our Smile Interviews, Alex Gibson of The Persuaders chats with speaker Sarah Owen of The Referral Institute who recently dazzled at an event to mark World Networking Day and who promises to deliver a real edge to delegates seeking to make the most of their hospitality and tourism networks.

Good Things In Season

In the first in a series of Interviews with our sponsors and partners, Alex Gibson of The Persuaders speaks with Angela Canny of Seasons Catering (the people who'll be taking such good care of our delegates at Smile 07).

Angela tells us a little of her role in marketing Season's hospitality and catering at the Guinness Storehouse.

Bringing A Smile To Our Faces

Over the last few months, we've been working hard not only to put together a great lineup of speakers (of which more a little later this week) but a strong team of partners too.

We've welcomed on board AFA O'Meara (whose MD, Stuart Fogarty, proved such a popular speaker at Smile 2006), Action Recruitment (specialist hospitality recruiters), YouGetItBack.com (the lost and found specialists who bring out the good samaritan in all of us) and Seasons at the Guinness Storehouse (whose hospitality went down a treat last year).

On top of that, we're delighted to be working again with Quadriga, Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, Dcoy Design (whose excellent logo design for Smile continues to draw admiring glances), Eventznet and the Tourism Research Centre.

No wonder you find us smiling from ear to ear at Smile Central! We find working with them a real pleasure and warmly recommend them to you.