I received a ton of feedback and compliments regarding our recent partnership announcement with IATA – where SimpliFlying will be running 3-day courses on airline social media strategy across IATA’s training centers globally. A lot of you asked me for the specific dates and details of these courses. While they’re all listed on the IATA page under the University tab, I’m re-posting them here for your convenience. You can sign up for the course closest to your home base by clicking here.

To get a sense of how these courses run and what the course material is like, you can watch some videos here and download more information here. Hope to see you soon at one of these courses!
Alternatively, if you’d like to have customized courses delivered for your airline, for a duration less than three days – then the SimpliFlying MasterClass would be perfect for your airline/airport, which are offered in 1/2 day, 1 day and 2 day formats. Learn more under University.

Over the last year or so, one of the fastest growing aspect of SimpliFlying has been our training services – from MasterClasses to webinars. So this year, in addition to clubbing these services under SimpliFlying University, we have also partnered with IATA to offer advanced training and certification courses for airline executives looking to get hands-on experience in social media tools and platforms and advance their airlines’ brand strategy.

IATA Training and Development Institute trains more than 35,000 air transport professionals each year. And the “Airline Social Media Strategy” courses will be offered across IATA’s six training centers in Montreal, Geneva, Miami, Delhi, Beijing and Singapore, in addition to other locations like Sao Paolo and Sydney.

These case-study based courses will offer interactive sessions conducted by a SimpliFlying Certified Trainer and offer in-depth analysis into the latest trends in social media while stimulating participants to come up with solutions of their own to pertinent questions. The courses will typically run for three full-days, which makes them very complementary to SimpliFlying’s own MasterClasses, which are offered in 1/2 day, 1 day …

As many of you are aware, I spent the last week in Istanbul at the IATA Commercial Strategy Symposium, being the Chairman of the eMarketing track as well as delivering a keynote on why CRM = Cult Relationship Management (view presentation).

The last session at the conference turned out to be an intimate round-table sharing session, where all those present shared their key takeaways from the conference. It was unique because unlike most sessions where someone speaks and others listen, everyone loosened their ties and got up-close-and-personal.

I’ve compiled here some of those sharings, which essentially gives us a to-d0 list of senior airline executives from a commercial perspective in 2011.
What does the future of airline marketing look like?

“Gotta get off the fence on social media. Time to act is now, otherwise it’s too late” – a major west-European hybrid airline
“The expansion of the traveler lifecycle is a key development to be acted upon, as travel begins much before the passengers board the aircraft.” – Stuart Barwood, Brolin Consulting
“It’s time to accelerate data personalization for travelers, both online and offline” – Datalex VP
“Turkish Airlines should become a lifestyle brand – selling all top brands that are co-related to the …

This week, as many of you are aware, I’m in Istanbul for the IATA Commercial Strategy Symposium. I will be Chairing the eMarketing track, delivering a keynote on the future of CRM for airlines and moderating a few panels. And as always, there will be live updates from the conference on this blog, featuring speakers like Turkish Airlines CEO Dr Temel Kotil, and ex American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall.

Stay tuned for the Live updates here.

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I regularly speak at leading aviation events globally.  And I try to keep all of you involved in those too, by sharing all of my presentation slides online, and often giving the opportunity to SimpliFlying readers and Twitter followers to come join me at these events. Two passes were given away for London’s airline social media summit, and two readers met me in Santiago, Chile earlier in the year too!

Now, I’d like you to come join me in Istanbul, at the IATA Commercial Strategy Symposium (more details here)!

I’ve been invited to deliver a pre-conference workshop and speak on how airline brands can drive engagement, loyalty and revenues from the latest Web 2.0 technologies. I will also be the Chairman of the eMarketing track. In conjunction with that, IATA has kindly agreed to give away two free passes to the Symposium to SimpliFlying readers (yes, you!).

Read on to learn how you can be part of this respected aviation event in Istanbul, and rub shoulders with the likes of Patrick Murphy, former Chairman of Ryanair and Dr Temel Kotil, the CEO of Turkish Airlines.
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Dear SimpliFliers,

As many of you know (from my about page/LinkedIn/Twitter), I’m in Athens, Greece right now at the IATA Commercial Strategy Symposium 2009. It began with me leading a sold-out pre-conference hands-on workshop for airline executives on social media. Today and tomorrow I will be Chairing the e-Marketing and IT tracks.

And I also do a keynote, focusing on trigger points within the customer lifecycle on social media that can be leveraged for driving profits by an airline. And as always, I’d like to share my slides with all of you on the day of the keynote itself. They’re right below (If you can’t see them, click here)

In this presentation, I share examples of how travelers are openly sharing their travel information online, and how airlines can use this for their advantage – for driving revenue and loyalty. One very good example of this is Lufthansa’s MySkyStatus.com (read my thoughts), where you can update your real-time position while traveling, on Facebook and Twitter. I’d love to have your feedback on the presentation!…

Dear SimpliFliers,

On December 7, 20009, SimpliFlying will turn ONE! And what a rocking year it has been. You are part of a community of 206,000 airline and branding enthusiasts, who have spent over 4,700 hours reading almost 250 articles here on airline brands from around the world. You’ve given us over 1,500 suggestions through comments and thousands of you are LinkedIn group members and Twitter followers. Again you have my sincerest thanks, and my assurance that SimpliFlying will remain the leading knowledge source on airline branding you have trusted for a year: FREE, cutting-edge, and thought provoking.
Join us in Athens, Greece: Free social media branding workshop
Moreover, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I want to thank you for making SimpliFlying what it is today. I’ve received multiple requests from airline executives (and other readers) to keep them updated on where I’m speaking and and if there are opportunities to attend. The time has come.

I’d like you to invite you to join us in Athens, Greece, to the IATA Commercial Strategy Symposium (CSS) being held from Dec 8-10. We’ve partnered with IATA to extend a special offer to SimpliFlying readers – you will get free access to the …