Announcing the Finalists and Judges for the 3rd SimpliFlying Awards for Excellence in Social Media

The Voting Begins!

After 2 weeks and almost 50 nominations, we are thrilled to unveil the finalists for the following categories.

• Best Airline in Social Media
• Best Airport in Social Media
• Best Use of Social Media to Drive Customer Service
• Best Use of Social Media to Drive Revenue

Note: ‘Best Social Media Solution Provider for Travel’ is not open for voting and will be solely scored by the judging panel. The final nominees will be announced later this week.

The voting is now open! (See below.)

The Process

• Voting is open from now till Aug 25. Voting will make up 50% of the final score. Note that votes will not be counted in their absolute numbers but as percentages of the fan-base (Facebook, Twitter) to level the playing field.
• Finalists are also required to submit a presentation pitch, between now and Aug 25. The judges will be scoring the presentation pitch and conducting a 30-minute interview with each finalist, between Aug 26 and Sep 2. This will make up 50% of the final score. Please send your pitches to awards@simpliflying.com.
• Please note that in cases where there is a huge discrepancy between votes and judges’ scores, the judges have the power to overturn the mandate of the votes.
• 3 winners from each category will be announced one month before the awards ceremony.
• The overall top winner for each category will be invited to present their initiative at the awards ceremony to be held at the EyeforTravel Summit in Amsterdam on Oct 3, 2012.

Judges

Our distinguished panel of judges comprises:

Mary Kirby, Editor-in-Chief, APEX Media Platform

On 1 December 2011, Mary Kirby was appointed by London-headquartered Ink as Editor-in-Chief of the Airline  Passenger Experience magazine and APEX media platform. The magazine aims to become the premier aviation B2B  title in the world. For nearly 14 years Mary has covered the aviation industry as both a journalist and an editor. In  1999 she joined Flightglobal as a reporter for its real-time news site Air Transport Intelligence. She was promoted to  deputy editor (Americas) in 2003 and later to US editor. In 2007 Mary assumed the position of senior editor at Flightglobal’s weekly title, Flight International magazine, where she led coverage of in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) and aircraft interiors, and became a regular contributor to sister publication Airline Business. She was also proprietor of the highly regarded Runway Girl blog, which focused on covering the passenger experience industry. Mary regularly speaks at industry events about such topics as in-flight connectivity, ancillary revenue opportunities for airlines, and social media.

Paula Berg, Digital Media Leader, Linhart Public Relations

Paula Berg is the Digital Media Leader at Linhart PR, a national public relations and corporate communications  counseling firm based in Denver, CO, where she specializes in social media strategy, infrastructure, engagement,  and crisis management for both B2C and B2B organizations across a variety of industries.  Paula earned her  social media stripes at Southwest Airlines, where she served as the company’s first Manager of Emerging Media,  responsible for the development of the airlines’ now acclaimed online communication and social media strategy.  She also led the airline’s six-person emerging media team, with the goal of integrating social media into every internal and external communication effort to support company objectives and meet customer expectations. Under her leadership, the airlines’ blog, “Nuts About Southwest,” was named Best Blog by PR News in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and has been cited in countless publications ranging from Wired magazine to the Wall Street Journal for providing a community for loyal Customers, serving as a virtual focus group, and influencing several business decisions. Prior to her work in social media, Paula was a company spokesperson with emphasis on media relations and reputation management. Paula also supervised on-location production of Airline!, Southwest’s reality series for the A&E Television Network.  Paula is a contributor to The Huffington Post and Colorado Biz Magazine and serves on the University of Colorado Alumni Board of Directors.

Raymond Kollau, Founder and Trend Analyst, Airlinetrends.com

Raymond Kollau is founder of an independent industry and consumer trends research agency airlinetrends.com.  Airlinetrends.com monitors the global aviation industry for commercial innovations in response to changing  consumer behavior. Having been part of leading consumer trend firm trendwatching.com since its inception,  Raymond founded airlinetrends.com to focus on trends and innovations in the global airline industry.

Raymond holds a Master degree in Business from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and also studied International Relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His professional background also includes positions as Industry Analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Internet Strategist at agency.com.

David McMullen, Business Development Director, Routesonline

With a career that demonstrates over a decade of continuous success in sales and marketing, David was introduced to UBM Aviation Routes Ltd in 2008 to provide leadership on digital strategy and drive their new online concept for route development – Routesonline.

During the last 4 years, working with airports of all sizes, guiding clients in route development strategy and  marketing communications he has assisted over 500 airports to develop their online presence and revolutionised the way airports and airlines collaborate with their latest innovation Route Exchange – the online trading zone  for airline capacity. With over 350 airline and airport members, Route Exchange has become the secure and trusted platform for airlines to tender for new air service.

In addition to his work with the award-winning Routesonline, he is a regular speaker with Airport Strategy & Marketing (ASM) – global route development experts, introducing social media and digital marketing into the ‘fundamentals’ of route development.

Without further ado then, let the voting begin!