OpenTravel

OpenTravel and Forrester Research recently sent out a survey to travel companies worldwide to understand attitudes within the travel industry towards standards-setting organizations and use of standards in XML development.

Henry Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester will reveal those findings as part of his keynote address at OpenTravel’s annual Advisory Forum, April 14-16 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Following the keynote presentation, Mr. Harteveldt will moderate a panel discussion with members of the OpenTravel board of directors.  The group will discuss the findings of Forrester’s research and its impact on the future direction of standards development and OpenTravel’s strategic direction.  Companies participating include American Airlines, Avis Budget Group, Softbrands, and Datalex.

OpenTravel has put together a great and varied agenda, sure to address business and technical topics important to you and your company.

OpenTravel will hold its first-ever CIO Session at this year’s Advisory Forum, and participants include Sue Powers, CIO, Travelport GDS; Jim Peters, CTO, SITA; and Ron Anderson-Lehman, CIO, Continental. 

Join us as they discuss the future of online distribution from the top down and looking forward, including:

• Challenges facing the travel distribution industry
• The most critical issues now, and those coming up
• Driving successful commercial partnerships
• Customer booking preferences
  

Other topics at this year’s Advisory Forum include:

• The Global Travel Ecosystem
• Multi-lingual Websites using OpenTravel Schema
• The Impact of PCI Compliance on OpenTravel Schema
• Update on OpenTravel Work Groups, Project Teams and Future Schema Development
• Ask the Experts, A Series of Case Studies
• And the ever-popular Ideas Market

The early bird discount for registration ends Sunday March 23 2008.  Register now to save $100.

2008 Member Recognition Award

OpenTravel invites you to submit your nominations for the yearly Member Recognition Award. This award will honor the volunteer efforts of an individual on a work group, committee, subcommittee or project team during the past year who has truly 'set the standard' in their impact on the development and enhancement of the OpenTravel specification.

The award will be presented at the 2008 Annual Advisory Forum on April 14-16, 2008 at the Westin Atlanta.

Nomination Process & Selection

• Nominations must be submitted no later than Tuesday March 25
  
• There is no limit to the number of nominations one person can submit
• Nominees must be 1) employed by an OpenTravel member company in good standing and 2) active participants of one of the OpenTravel work groups, committees, subcommittees or project teams.
  

OpenTravel Chairman to Speak at OASIS Open Standards 2008 Symposium

John Turato, chair of the OpenTravel Board of Directors and VP Technology for the Avis Budget Group, will represent the travel industry and the OpenTravel Alliance during a highlight panel on SOA within the Vertical Industries.

As a supporting organization of the event, all OpenTravel members are entitled to a special discounted registration rate (150 USD off the non-member price).  Use “OpenTravel” as the code when registering online.

OpenTravel held its first European Conference during the Travel Technology Show on 5 February 2008 in London. 

The one-day event included speakers and attendees from a range of European businesses, including:

• AxisData, Spain
• SITA, Switzerland
• British Airways, UK
• Accor, France
• Datalex, Ireland
• Hotel.de, Germany
• Amadeus, France
• OpenJaw Technologies, Ireland
• Sun Microsystems, Poland
• EDS, UK
• Accenture, Netherlands

The conference focused on topics specific to the proven value of the OpenTravel specifications, and on how OpenTravel can benefit the European travel industry, including:

• The Role of OpenTravel in the Travel Industry
• Getting Started with OpenTravel Schemas
• OpenTravel Success Stories
• The Future of the Online Travel Transaction

Click here to download the conference presentations.  Based on the success of this event, OpenTravel has decided to hold an annual European Advisory Forum, in addition to its US Advisory Forum, with the first event to be held in the fall of 2009.  Stay tuned!

Has your company recently joined OpenTravel, or do you work for an existing member company and are new to OpenTravel?  Do you have questions about our structure, processes or resources?  If so, you’re invited to attend our next New Member/New Participant call on Thursday March 27 2008.  Send an email to membership@opentravel.org and ask to be added to the invitation list.

Here are the dates for the specification work for the 2008A and 2008B publication cycles.

2008A

2008B