Le Web’11 generated many reports in many blogs, I’m focusing here on personal subjective observations.
First things first. Loic and Geraldine Le Meur have created over the years an incredible event. So incredible that I’ve heard that other countries are now jealous.

The hard way

Let me start this blog post with two considerations.

My daughter is considering a doctoral thesis in literature. The topic will cover something along the lines of “the influence of 17th Century theatre on morals and the scandal of tragic heroines”, though I’m probably wording it incorrectly. (You might be thinking that this is useless, or that it has little to do with travel software. I believe that nothing is more useful than some of us continuing to focus on seemingly useless matters - but we are drifting.) This is going to require many months spent in a lot of libraries gathering an incredible amount of information and drawing on it all to produce original and well crafted content. For such an endeavour, you need to be passionate and, more importantly, ready to dedicate 2 to 3 years of your life to research. You are going to try to know about and digest everything that has been written on the topic.

Speaking on an ACTE mobility panel, the level of confusion which is caused by this technology within enterprises struck me again. In this blog I have previously spoken about the new disruption brought on by what John Doerr calls SoLoMo (Social, Local and Mobile media). We can see why this disruption is broader in the specific context of Travel and Expense management than in any other domain. For the first time, a device is mapping the ontological nature of the traveler: being mobile.

We operate in a complex industry - Travel and Expense. There are thousands of content providers, millions of options, all of which are multiplied by the number of companies we do business with, then multiplied again by the different geographies across which both KDS and our customers operate.
 

Much is written about how easy it is to influence people. Both academic texts and self-help books mine this rich seam of public interest. The idea also makes many, including myself, a bit uncomfortable. We like to think that we are rational beings, in control of our own decisions. Being manipulated by advertisers or during a business negotiation seems unfair, like we’ve being tricked.

It was interesting to me to see the UK Government appoint a Chief Procurement Officer, a post already prevalent in the private sector, but one that could add tremendous value in the public sector also. There are three reasons why this is interesting to me:

As the trend toward ancillary revenues in the travel industry continues at pace, cost management becomes an even more challenging process.

There are several reasons why you become an entrepreneur. Many are good, noble motivations, and some are less favorable; for example, when I was a kid, it was hard for me to respect any kind of authority. Of course, it would be stupid to gather every entrepreneur under the same umbrella or propose that only one given type of individual can succeed. As in love, the mystery remains.

ACTE (http://www.acte.org), the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, is a major organization in the travel industry. 

The ACTE European Conference is, at the time I’m writing, taking place in Berlin, an incredible and ‘must visit’ city. I must confess I used the opportunity of attending the conference to spend two days here before the event. Coincidentally, October 3 was the 20^thanniversary of German reunification, one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and you can imagine the celebrations taking place. 

It wasn’t a very comfortable feeling. I’m used to demonstrating, explaining, selling what we do. So watching a user try out KDS for the first time with no opportunity to interact was a bit like watching your child walk through the gates on the first day of school. And then, a few minutes in, it happened. 

In most industries, each new wave of technological capability spawns a new wave of business solutions. Travel and Expense is no exception.

When suppliers talk to customers, watch out for the words they use and when they mention ethics and honesty. Don’t always trust them. When you cross the path of someone really honest, she does not need to tell you that honesty is one of her core values; you know it. When companies do care about their customers, they don’t need to say so; customers recognize the fact. Similarly, advertisements for “unparalleled customer service” should make you wary.

The latest developments in the war between Zynga and Facebook are being followed with a lot of interest on the Internet. Here is what’s happening: Zynga is a gaming company that has grown at the speed of light, relying almost exclusively on traffic from Facebook. The latter is now trying to get 30% of Zynga’s revenue, threatening to pull the plug.  The best guess at the time I’m writing this post is that Zynga will have to give in.

Why are we fascinated by these stories? Why are we following with such excitement Eric Schmidt’s departure from Apple’s board, a scene-setter for an Apple vs Google battle (“Don’t be Evil” mantra is bullshit Steve Job’s says), or Steve Jobs threats to Adobe that he will stop supporting Flash on the iPad and other Apple products, calling it a “dying, buggy technology”?

I’m going to blog. I refrained from blogging for quite a long time until I felt that my experience and views could add a little value to what I’m reading elsewhere. Readers will tell if this is the case or not. Having an intense professional life, I was also afraid of not finding the time to respect a reasonable frequency. Here again future will tell; I give myself a weekly frequency target and I know it’s going to be tough.