Now in its second year, the Bloggers Summit Workshops being organized in the context of the PhoCusWright@ITB conference (a highly successful part of the ITB Convention for the past three years) looks like it is becoming one of the most popular events of the upcoming ITB Berlin show - and not just for technology-focused delegates.

“The reasons for this are all too evident,” said Dr. Martin Buck, director of the Competence Center Travel&Logistics at Messe Berlin. “Travel, tourism, and hospitality are being dramatically impacted by social media. And there is a never-ending list of options related to this that each travel industry marketer needs to understand and leverage - including blogs, user-generated content, YouTube, Facebook, Google Connect, Twitter, and more.”

The Bloggers Summit Workshops, which will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 11 from 14:30, in Hall 7.3, Europa Room, will include a panel of social media experts who will present and debate their top social media trends for 2009. Audience participation is expected to add insight and controversy to the discussion. The first workshop on ‘The Top Social Media Trends for Travel&Tourism’ will conclude with the panel choosing the top three social media trends, which companies need to prioritize in their 2009 sales and marketing plans.

The second session of the afternoon, entitled ‘From Theory to Reality, Putting the Trends to Work for Your Organization,’ will again feature a panel of experts who will discuss and debate each of the top three social media trends for travel, tourism, and hospitality sales and marketing professionals selected in the previous workshop and will highlight ways of implementing them into one’s own organization.

“Knowing what the trends will be for the next year is one thing, but putting them into practice is a totally different matter,” said Bruce Rosard, vice president, sales and marketing for PhoCusWright, discussing the event with ITB’s media team. “Everyone in the audience will have the opportunity of learning from the experts on the panel as they challenge them to show delegates how to achieve successful results.”

The PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit Workshops will be presented by Tips from the T-List, with publisher Stephen Joyce - who is also CEO of Sentias Software - moderating the sessions. Among the other prominent tourism technology experts making up the two panels will be Kevin May - editor, Travolution’s Blog, www.travolution.co.uk/blog; Klaus Hildebrand - FVW editor in chief, www.fvw.de/blog; Darren Cronian - editor, www.Travel-Rants.com; and Martin Schobert - CIO, Austrian National Tourist Office, www.blog.austria.info.