The first wave of voting for the inaugural Business Travel Show Disrupt Awards has now opened with eight innovative start-ups vying for the top prize.
The eight nominees are all under two years’ old and feature in the show’s Launchpad, introduced this year to provide a free platform to showcase new business travel ventures with pioneering products and services.
The nominees are Beepry, beTravelwise, DUFL, Flitways, JetHunter, Magicevent, Revolut and TravelPerk. The first wave of public voting will see these whittled down to five finalists who will be invited to pitch their products to a panel of esteemed industry judges in a Dragon’s Den style presentation, which takes place at 11:30 on 25 February at the show.
The judging panel consists of:
Mark Cuschieri, ITM chairman and executive director, Group Corporate Services, Global Travel Management UBS
Jafles Pacheco, head of Global Travel, OC Oerlikon Management AG
Carol Randall, head of Consulting, UK at Areka Consulting
Achim Schmitz, senior director Travel Management, Adidas Group
The winner will receive a three-hour consultancy session with travel technology entrepreneur and investor Matt Ztio and the Travel Startups Incubator advisory team, as well as a stand at the Business Travel Show 2017 worth £8,000.
“It’s hard to not be excited by the list of companies nominated for our first Business Travel Show Disrupt Awards; they are all using technology in such innovative ways, solving problems and making lives easier for business travel buyers, bookers and managers as well as the travellers themselves,” said David Chapple, director, Business Travel Show.
The eight nominees in more detail:
Beepry
Beepry is a flight meta search specialised in complex itineraries (multi-leg letting buyers find the best solution in terms of cost and simplicity.
beTravelwise
beTravelwise is a travel safety training company offering courses designed to support organisations in their travel risk management programmes. By utilising the latest eLearning technologies and learning theories coupled with the clever use of high spec animations, its online courses make travel education engaging, concise and importantly enjoyable!
DUFL
DUFL is a travel app that cleans the users’ clothes, stores them in their own virtual closet, then packs and ships their business attire to their specified destination.
FlitWays
FliWays offers the premier pre-booking travel ride for travellers and ground transportation distribution for travel resellers in 110 cities.
JetHunter
JetHunter is a radically new way to charter a private jet in a fully automated way without middlemen.
MagicEvent
MagicEvent.com, a French start-up, is the leading apartment rental platform exclusively dedicated to business travel offering over 30,000 types of accommodation – studios, apartments, villas – in 60 cities across.
Revolut
Revolut is a global money app and MasterCard® which enables users to easily and transparently manage and use money around the world. Users spend as if they had a local card wherever they are, send money for free within the app or externally via text, Whatsapp or email and exchange currency at the interbank rate.
TravelPerk
TravelPerk is revolutionising the way that organisations budget, book and manage their business travel. They offer a unique dynamic budgeting algorithm, incentives for employees to save, as well as reporting, dashboards, expense integrations, flexible payments and more, all within a single easy-to-use platform and at no cost to the user.
7,500 European industry professionals are expected to attend the Business Travel Show 2016, alongside 250 suppliers covering every area of travel from global airlines and hotel groups, to trailblazing technology start-ups. Exhibitors include American Airlines, Avis, Belmond, Diners Club, Eurostar, Hertz and Virgin Trains, American Express Global Business Travel, easyJet, Hailo, Hilton, HRG, Premier Inn, Star Alliance and Travelport.
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