share
The finalists, which were shortlisted from the event’s 15 Launchpad exhibitors, are Airlines Technology, Flyto, Ensygnia, Rich Media Exchange and UnitPal. They were chosen during a three-week online vote, which was open to the public and received over 1,000 nominations. The five will present to a panel of esteemed judges in a Dragons’ Den style pitch to battle it out for this year’s crown, which includes a PR and marketing campaign and a stand at next year’s Travel Technology Europe worth £8,000.
This year’s event will be 30% larger, it has doubled the amount of Launchpad investment, has drawn 56 new exhibitors, 147 in total, and has completely sold out.
The finalists are:
Airlines Technology
Airlines Technology helps Airlines, Travel Agents and third party vendors drive more revenue out of business. With our NDC based solutions we improve traveler’s buying experience, substantially improve airlines ancillary sales with reduced distribution cost. www.airlinestechnology.com
Flyto
Flyto allows travellers to pay for flights in easy, fixed monthly instalments rather than upfront in one go. www.flyto.io
Ensygnia
As consumers are impatient and hackers everywhere, we believe you need brilliant usability combined with the best security. That’s why we created the Onescan platform. It turns any “call-to-action” into an Instant Action via a mobile. Instantly enables registration, login, payments, purchasing and loyalty from print, digital signage, SMS, email, social media, website or anything else you can imagine. www.ensygnia.com
Rich Media Exchange
We are experts in content curation, aggregation, production, management, marketing, delivery and distribution – so you don’t have to be. We provide the largest library of travel content available in the marketplace, we distribute partner content to over 1,800 media and 3,000+ travel agents/agencies, and we deliver the most intuitive and robust self-service content portal to our subscribers. We provide a one-stop shop to our customers for content, hosting, syndication, delivery, and production. richmediaexchange.com
UnitPal
The complexity of hotel property management and revenue management made simple. With UnitPal, no installations are needed and there are no manuals to read. Hotels simply create beds, rooms, prices and packages and are instantly set for making reservations, sending confirmations, checking in guests and issuing invoices. www.unitpal.com
The judges are:
- Walter Toscano, Senior Advisor, Travel & Telecom Ltd
- Jon Pickles, Global Director – 360 Engagement, The Travel Corporation
- Tim Wright, Chairman, Travel Technology Initiative
- Lee Hayhurst, Editor, Travolution
Travel Technology Europe increased its investment in innovation this year: 15 as opposed to eight start-ups will exhibit for free in the Launchpad next week. They include the Disrupt finalists plus Winding Tree, Tineri, upgrade2, Tengio, traveknowledgy, RoomAssistant, AirGateway, Bubbl, Sumplex and Switch.cm.
The show’s organisers have also invested in new technology called Poken to further boost networking opportunities for buyers. All buyers – and media – visiting Travel Technology Europe next week will receive a Poken: a hand-shaped USB attached to their lanyard that allows them to swap business cards digitally with suppliers, speakers and other buyers simply by tapping the hands together. Where they see Poken Collect boards they can also download information straight to their USB ready to be uploaded to their PC when they get back to the office.
Sam Cande, group commercial director, Travel Technology Europe, added: “Supporting innovation in the travel technology sector is very important to us and by increasing our investment into more start-ups, our visitors get the chance to see some of the most exciting products coming to market. Following the first year’s successful Launchpad, it’s an honour to be able to lend a helping hand to the future titans of the travel technology industry through Launchpad and the Disrupt Award. We wish the companies the best of luck and look forward to working with the winner in the future. This was only our second year of hosting both Launchpad and the Disrupt Award and we’ve been overwhelmed with the response. We had over 40 applications for this year’s Launchpad and over 1,000 votes to whittle those exhibitors down to our five Disrupt finalists.”
