woodwing

Of course it is not easy to justify travel cost these days.

Travel is the easiest budget to cut. When the results drop, it is almost expected as being the first measure taken, no explanation necessary.

But cutting your travel budget will not make your company flourishing again!

There is only one way to recover from times like these and that is innovation! Address new markets, find new ways of working, adapt things that worked for others, dare to think differently.

Going to a conference is still the ultimate way to gather ideas. Being away from operations, being among peers, talking to people and sharing experiences works for a vast majority of people.

Funny enough, I must admit, for me personally it is not the speaker's subject specifically that gives me new ideas. It is the setting that triggers new thoughts, creates different associations.

More than ever before, the need to find new ways of working is a necessity for publishers and the ecosystem surrounding them. Let's face it. Cost cutting will not attract (new) advertisers.

I just had a look at the predictions of Zenith Optimedia for the advertising expenditures until 2011. Advertising in newspapers will drop another 4% worldwide. Advertising in magazines 1%. The only growth is anticipated in online advertising.

Publishers will have to work hard to earn their share of this growth, or they will have great difficulty staying profitable. And being a supplier for this industry, we have to work hard to deliver the tools to materialize this.

How Woodwing is doing this is, we’ll present during our conference in Athens. My point here is this: do you want to recover during recession? Here is the news: a cut on travel will not get you there. New insights is what you need, inspiration from peers, ideas from vendors.

See you in Athens ;-)