ITB takes you to… Mars?
Today, we are well into the ITB Berlin NOW adventure. We choose the word “adventure” carefully, as here, we are referring to a leap into the unknown – a journey into uncharted territory. It seems fitting that while we are sitting around virtual tables drinking virtual coffee in cyberspace as a direct response to our current human condition, we are also marvelling at the landing of a huge new rover on Mars, tens of millions of kilometres away. Yet again, humankind ventures into new, undiscovered territory.
Don’t be fooled. Spaceship ITB was not thrown together in a Silicon Valley garage. It is the fruit of a huge amount of work, thought and expertise over the past year, by a team of highly dedicated people. And just like a spaceship, it was rather important to ensure that “failure was not an option”. With tens of thousands of people all flocking to the same server at the same time this week, countless video streams and face-to-face meetings, it just couldn’t fail. Thus, amongst other things, an ultra-heavy-duty AWS Amazon Server has been ensuring that people from the farthest corners of the earth could take part without any issues. And it was essential that this new platform be as “user friendly” as possible. The organisers have conceived an intuitive user interface for the activities, functions and key elements that one is used to at in-person events, in the knowledge it cannot be an adequate replacement. They therefore made a conscious decision not to use 3-D animation, avatars or digital trade fair stands. The platform is a new and independent design.
One could say that as a purely digital event, the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show has already received exceptional feedback, thanks to the extension of the reach and interaction with those who were unable to travel to Berlin.
At ITB Berlin NOW, the focus is clear. Its key elements are business, networking, content and news. And it does that all exceptionally well.
