This November, the travel industry is all set to be one of it’s own biggest customers, as hundreds of travel & tourism leaders and executives enjoy Orlando’s hospitality. The PhoCusWright Conference will be held at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate (Nov 17-19, 2009).

This is the sixteenth year for The PhoCusWright Conference, and promises to be just as big, interesting and informative as last year. Even more so, given the wrenching changes in the last year or so.

Attendees will discover how other travel companies are growing their businesses, hear where the industry is heading to and learn how to apply new strategies and ideas. Millions of dollars’ worth in deals and networking opportunities are there for the taking.

Day 1 (Tuesday, Nov 17) starts with the Travel Innovation Summit. Thirty innovators from around the world will demonstrate applications, mobile technology and solutions that significantly impact travel planning, purchasing and memorializing.

The audience rates the innovators in real-time, and the top 4 innovators will duke it for the big prize on Nov 19. You can see the full list of this year’s innovators here. Last year’s winner was Interactive MOBILE @dvertising ([email protected])

Day 2 (Wednesday, Nov 18) is Deal Day and makes up the meat of The PhoCusWright Conference. In addition to two DMO workshops being presented by PhoCusWright, you can learn about future trends and hot products from workshops presented by Compete Inc., Akamai Technologies, TripAdvisor, Expedia Media Solutions and others.

A big attraction on day 2 is the Bloggers Summit town hall presented by Tips from the T-List, moderated by Stephen Joyce. The panelists include:-

Kevin May – Editor|Tnooz;
Dennis Schaal  - Travel Industry journalist & blogger for Tnooz;
Joe Buhler – PhoCusWright blogger & social media consultant;
Elliott Ng – UpTake co-founder and the driving force behind UpTake’s blog network

Attendees will also be able to dig further into the innovators and establish new relationships, cultivate leads and meet diverse companies face-to-face on the exhibitor floor.

Day 3 (Thursday, Nov 19) brings Center Stage, focused on “Money, Media, Mobile and Moxie” - this year’s theme, which translated reads something like this – financial stability, expanded revenue streams, technical innovation and the guts to achieve challenging objectives in a demanding, complex environment. The audience is encouraged to question the speakers – challenging them and providing their own insights.

One more interesting aspect of this year’s PhoCusWright Conference is the Online Ticket, which brings the Conference to your Desktop. If you’re not able to be in Orlando in-person, then this ticket is the next best thing – you can watch the conference real-time, interact with the audience and online attendees worldwide, and review archived presentations.

PhoCusWright says the response to the online tickets has been stunning, but equally stunning is the heavy registration for in-person attendance this year – which included the highest single-day registration sales ever on record for any PhoCusWright Conference.

This is a shining example of the travel industry showing the way for reconciliating the necessity of face-to-face meetings & business travel with the power of technology and virtual conferencing.

Registration and ticketing information – www.phocuswright.com/the_phocuswright_conference_register.