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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Last week, I was in Sydney at the Aviation Outlook Summit and on the first day of the conference, I sent out this Tweet:

Right in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, Turkish Airlines had this flagrant display of teenagers in red, visible not just to all the conference attendees but also to those passing by the hotel (see pic below). And they had totally stolen the thunder from Malaysia Airlines, which had paid thousands of dollars for being the official sponsor of the conference.

Turkish Airlines had announced its presence, and in quite some style. After spending some time with Dr Temel Kotil, the airlines’ humble CEO, I feel other competitors should be vary of the rising star from Turkey.

Why’s Turkish the atypical Middle Eastern airline?
Dr Kotil mentions a number of points in the video interview below which prove that Turkish Airlines in not yet another Middle Eastern airline with global ambitions. …