The fourth edition of WIT Japan & North Asia will feature a full-day Bootcamp the day before, June 4, for all delegates. It will set the stage for the main conference which will be held at Hotel Nikko on June 5, marking the theme, “A New Dawn Rises”. 
“As we’ve grown, demand for more educational content has also increased and so we’ve expanded the Bootcamp to cover topics beyond start-ups,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT. “The numbers attending our half-day event have also increased over the last two years.”
The Bootcamp, which will be held at Google Japan’s offices, will continue its focus on start-ups and will have educational sessions aimed at hoteliers and anyone running an online travel business.
Some of the topics include:
• How to generate meaningful traffic from Facebook without losing money
• How to generate traffic without competing with giant OTAs head to head
• How to diversify your user acquisition channel by distributing content through mobile
• How to fully leverage the latest online advertising technology
• How to manage travel reviews and turn them to your advantage and yield your rates
• How to Get The Right Price for your Room at the right time
Added co-organiser Kei Shibata, CEO of Venture Republic, “As competition intensifies in every area of market disciplines from user acquisition to revenue management, leveraging the latest technology and applying new ideas will make a huge difference to travel companies.
“I am excited to learn about the industry’s best practices and have them shared across the industry to accelerate the market growth.”
Last year’s judges for the Start-Up Pitch
A top-level line-up of judges has also been assembled for the Start-Up Pitch to be held during the day.
They include:
Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Queen’s Road Capital, James Tan, QuestVC, Jason Jang, Tour Baksa, South Korea, Kenichi Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic, Mikihiro Yasuda, DeNA, Rani Francois Marie-Saad, Vice President, Abacus Ventures and Corporate Development, Abacus International, Ryuichi Nishida, B-dash and Wilfred Fan, Managing Director, North Asia, Agoda.
The deadline for submissions to enter this competition is April 17.
Meanwhile, the programme for WIT Japan & North Asia is coming together.
Confirmed speakers so far include:
• Takao Ozawa, Corporate Officer Executive Vice President, President of Shopping Company, Yahoo Japan Corporation & Board Director, YJ Capital
• Masabumi Mori, President, Ikyu Corporation
• Kenichiro Miyamoto, Executive Manager, Travel Information Div, Recruit Life Style Co Ltd
• Toshiyuki Imai, President & CEO, i.JTB Corp
• Kiyoshi Takano, Executive Officer, Information System Division, Senior General Manager, H.I.S Co Ltd
• Adrian Currie, Senior Vice President, Priceline Group
• Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
• Kathleen Tan, CEO, AirAsia Expedia
• Oliver Hua, Managing Director, APAC, Booking.com
• Robin Harries, Head of APAC, Trivago
• Timothy Hughes, Vice President-Marketing, Agoda
• Hyuk Park, Head of Planning, Jeju Air
• James Rhee, CEO, North Asia, AirAsia
• George Dai, Taipei Inn Group
“In putting together this year’s programme, we want to look at the new dawn rising in the online travel space in North Asia, from OTAs to airlines and hotels, and what are the trends in social and sharing that are shaping travel.
“One area we will feature is the in-destination piece which is the hot space right now as mobile goes truly mainstream. The North Asia market is an exciting, dynamic region, with affluent consumers and superb infrastructure, and it is truly undergoing change on a major scale.
“We’re delighted to return to Hotel Nikko for our fourth outing in Tokyo,” said Siew Hoon.
A ticket to WIT Japan & North Asia gains you entry to the Bootcamp.
