When people speak of their experiences with technology at a conference, very often it's what they don't say that's more revealing.
So it was all ears when former-Thomas Cook e-commerce director Russell Gould spoke earlier this week at the Travel Technology Initiative on "changing the status quo".
He didn't mention his former employer once but instead talked, amongst other things, about trends such as web-led evolution of consumer behaviour, about sharing APIs to keep costs down and making monthly changes to adapt to Gen-Y's browsing and shopping behaviour.
And, then it got interesting when, amid all the stuff about the industry using archaic systems, Gould said:
"It's about lots of little agile developments every month, because if you start to build a new platform it will cost a fortune and be likely to be redundant."
Gould will have experienced some of the trials of developing a new platform during his tenure at Thomas Cook, and perhaps the comment echoes some of the challenges.
The tour operator unveiled plans to develop a new platform, code-named Globe, with tech firm BlueSky Travel Systems in August 2006.
The platform was pitched as an all-encompassing, multi-brand and channel reservation system, replacing much of the creaking and, by then, inefficient technology created over countless years at the operator.
Then, in September 2009, BlueSky went into administration amid much speculation for the reasons for its demise, leaving Thomas Cook with a half-completed system.
A year ago, CapGemini replaced IBM as the prime IT contractor for Globe, supposedly tying up all the remaining loose ends.
Does it end there? Or, is Gould right when he says that the longer a project takes to build, the more out of date it is going to be?
Gould left Thomas Cook in September 2009 and founded e-Strategy Consultancy. He recently moved away from the business to take up special projects at Wonga.com.
Thomas Cook also recently signed a 10-year consulting and outsourcing deal for Accenture to manage the group's technology infrastructure across Europe.