In the beginning there was an idea. Bring to Asia through Singapore, the gateway to the region, the state of the art in online travel. Eight years later, it is a very different story.

Now Asia stands on its own. China is poised to take over from the USA as the leading travel market in the world. Already it is a massive market. Beijing is the largest airport in the world. Sometime in 2013, China’s corporate marketplace is likely to surpass that of the USA. We even surmise that it will be the world’s largest GDS market at some point in the next 24 months.

When the first WIT appeared, Yeoh Siew Hoon gathered some of her friends around her and asked pointed questions of how to encourage Asia to wake up to the Web. Not just as a way to bring the latest craze from the US and Northern Europe, but rather how the interchange between the two could spark and create a fire of its own.

Now the world comes to pay attention to Asia. This year’s WIT had some of the leading players. Arguably the big three in online travel – Google, Priceline and Expedia – came to bring their perspectives but also too up-and-comers. New players from Japan and China as well as now some of the heavy hitters in the region such as Rakuten, Qunar, Ctrip, MakeMyTrip, Yatra to name but a few.

But perhaps this was all inevitable and predictable. The rise of Asia has been expected for a long time. What was not expected was the spirit and the love of travel and the social element.

Perhaps it is here that Asia is leading the way in a manner that was rather unexpected. Travel has been the catalyst in many parts of the world for moving from the high street to the hi-speed world of the web. What defines the web today – Social, Mobile and Local is truly different in Asia.

Unfettered and freed from the constraints of traditional business, Asia is moving at a faster and, in my view, clearly different pace. It is defining its own set of rules. What played in Philadelphia no long plays so well in Phnom Penh.

The monolithic big brands such as Expedia don’t have quite the same ring and cannot be spun the same way any more. Local brands are more meaningful as we move into the third generation of the web.

Here Asia feels different, smells different – IS different.

The eighth edition of WIT was a vastly transformed affair from the first one. Who would have thought that it would be based at the Marina Bay Sands that itself was hardly thought of at the time of the first WIT.

Yes of course Siew Hoon is to be complimented for having the foresight to develop the idea. She has had some great help along the way – but this was her vision. It has become polished and even professional in many ways. It has grown up – and those of us who have been around since the beginning have too. We have seen some fabulous successes and some spectacular failures. Along the way – so many stories – some personal, some very public, all meaningful.

So here’s to the first eight and to the next eight. I doubt I will have the honour of being around at the 16th one. That spark has become a self-sustaining flame that has now spread to Japan, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. It has spawned derivates focused on the young and women.

And most of all – here’s to the audience who have changed the way the world sees travel in Asia.

Timothy O’Neil-Dunne is Managing Partner at T2Impact and Founder of VaultPAD Ventures. He is one of only a small band of people who have participated at every single WIT Conference. Picture shows him speaking at WIT 2006.