The Q&A is your chance to tell us what you think about working in digital media. Everybody can take part � just go to www.surveyshack.com to fill in the questionnaire.

Graeme Fan, Cheapflights Limited (www.cheapflights.com), graeme.fan (A) cheapflights.com

August 2003

1. What does your business do?
   Cheapflights is the No 1 guide to travel deals displaying offers to millions of consumers.
   
   
2. What's currently hot for your business?
   The fact that more and more consumers are turning to the internet to compare and contrast deals from the travel industry, that the pay per click performance model is working well for advertisers and that our proven UK formula is working well in the USA. The technology enables Cheapflights to deliver travel deals in a timely and accurate fashion to its many viewers.
   
   
3. What's not?
   Selling things. Lots of other people do this and it requires elaborate security systems, call centres and delivery mechanisms. We intend to remain a guide and to avoid retailing products.
   
   
4. How long have you worked in digital media?
   5 years.
   
   
5. What's been the high point?
   Being afforded the opportunity to make my mark and to make a difference within the dynamic organisation that is Cheapflights Limited.
   
   
6. Any regrets?
   None.
   
   
7. Best digital marketing / advertising campaign you've seen recently?
   The BA campaign on www.cheapflights.co.uk is very clever, combining as it does skilful use of badge and banner positions together with a huge offering of competitive prices - an optimal example of a hybrid campaign.
   
   
8. What websites help you most in your job?
   I look at www.google.com and www.ebay.com as for me they are clear examples of how the internet should be used to bring complex data in front of consumers quickly and easily. They are therefore a role model for the display of information, which is core to my mission at Cheapflights.
   
   
9. What websites distract you most when you should be working?
   Some of Cheapflights advertisers have wonderfully tempting websites for example Saddle Skedaddle and Journey Latin America offer exotic trips to the wilds of South America - they are quite expensive but would be the holiday of a lifetime. The only problem is I don't have time to take holidays.
   
   
10. Have you got a personal site or blog?
    Not currently.
    
    
11. Most useful application or software that you use?
    Outlook.
    
    
12. Best advice you've been given about working in this industry?
    Stay focused, it is very easy to get distracted as the industry is moving so quickly. You have to remain true to a set of core values if you know those values work.
    
    
13. What, if anything, should the Government be doing to help digital media companies?
    This Government shows little understanding about the needs of and problems faced by small businesses. There is far too much red tape and taxation, both of which should be reduced. It is no coincidence that most of the worlds great digital media companies are American where the Government has a much better grasp of the free enterprise economy. Also it is rather strange that the Government permits the BBC to spend money on digital activities when this is something that the private sector is well able to do.
    
    
14. Most annoying jargon used in digital media?
    "We need to build scale before we become profitable"
    
    
15. Any bad things about your line of work?
    Cheapflights has always been profitable and always grown out of cash flow. We have never had a large pot of gold from which to draw for our technology projects. This has been a constraint for me as we are unable to do everything at once and I am constantly juggling with priorities. I sometimes envy those other companies who can throw money at technology... that is until I read about their demise.
    
    
16. What's playing on your ipod?
    E Samba by Junior Jack.
    
    
17. What's the next big thing in digital media?
    Personal computer technology will become as cheap as easy to use as transistor radios. Today we have the equivalent of the valve-enabled wireless set. Tomorrow we will have the equivalent of the transistor radio. Each person will probably have several units for instance one that sits in the kitchen, one that can be used for travel and perhaps one with a high fashion look that can sit in the living room.
    
    
18. If you didn't work in this industry, what would you do?
    Travel to as many interesting and exotic parts of the world as possible.
    
    
19. Anything else you'd like to say?
    I feel extraordinarily lucky to be participating in such a major technology revolution which affects the lives of millions of people. In our small company, Cheapflights, we make it possible for consumers to find the very best travel deals available in the market. This is very empowering and allows a freedom of choice that in the old economy would have been impossible.