While we await and process photo contest entries, we thought we would share with you a sampler of earlier photos that found their way to the Inbound Report.
This is what Cathy Keefe, US Travel’s media relations manager (and thousands of other crammed together) saw as they waited to enter the main exhibit area at the Berlin ExpoCenter on the first day of ITB. New technology this year? More people to process delegates? “Nope,” posted Cathy on Facebook. “Just the same four people beeping in 10,000 exhibitors” through the Fast Lane.
Showing how to partner in the booth are: Joe Tropia, director, national sale and marketing, Blue Man Productions; Dave Falsetti, senior sales manager at Big Bus Tours New York; Gisel Vidals, head of national trade sales USA/head of sales and marketing New York City Big Bus Tours; Liz Gilbert, national director-travel industry sales, Entertainment Cruises; Sheelagh Wylie, head of trade sales, Midway Attractions, North America, Merlin Entertainments; and Jennifer Edwards, trade sales manager, Midway Attractions North America at Merlin Entertainments. Merlin recently announced that it had invested more than $34 million for a 15 percent share in Big Bus Tours.
Making an individual pitch at the booth is Dave Falsetti, senior sales manager at Big Bus Tours New York
At the Georgia booth as the event opened are (left-to-right): Mindy Shea, director of international sales, Visit Savannah; Tracy Vaughan, director of international accounts, Georgia Tourism; Dennis Kemp, regional sales manager, Georgia Aquarium; Peter Hannaford, UK representative, Georgia Tourism; Brandon Barnes, director of international sales, Atlanta CVB; and Anja Hoebler, Germany representative, Georgia Tourism.
Robotics were a big part of ITB this year. Here, we see Toshiba’s latest generation of its Chihira robot at the show. It has been programmed to respond to questions in four languages, including German. One observer said the robot was “clearly on this side of the uncanny valley.”
Meanwhile, the 57-centimeter tall Mario, who is the youngest employee at the Ghent Marriott Hotel in Belgium, was featured during ITB’s Hospitality Day. Mario speaks 19 languages.
The room was quiet and serious, almost hushed, when Hubertus Knabe, a German historian and the scientific director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a museum and memorial in a notorious former Stasi torture prison in Berlin, made his presentation.
David Ruetz, head of ITB, “celebrates” the fifth anniversary of the ITB Buyers Circle, by doing an internship at the Circle lounge’s bar.
Though there were several hundred people at the ITB Speed Networking session at this point, the crowd seems engulfed by the huge, curtained-off portion of an exhibit hall room.
If you were an ITB hipster, you just might have received an invitation for the closing party in Berlin put on by Timo Kohlenberg, president and CEO of America Unlimited, which is based in Hannover, Germany. Timo was pleased, it seems, posting this on Facebook: “Thanks to everyone attending our ITB Party. We loved it!”
