Tim Ryan of Modobag - Bagging a Ride

Modobag is the world’s first motorized, smart and connected carry-on that gets you to your destination up to three times faster than walking. CMO Tim Ryan offers insight into one of the most innovative and exciting advancements to hit the travel industry since rolling suitcases were introduced in the 1970's, on location at CES 2020.

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How do the world’s leading travel companies approach emerging technology companies coming to market right now? Moreover -- what do they see as the biggest opportunities, and how do you balance that with proving out partnerships with these startups to the rest of the organization? It's an important, and complex topic to explore. The good news? Nicola Poirier (Senior Manager, Strategy & Business Development at Expedia Group) and Kerri Zeil (Head of Amadeus for Startups) share everything on the travel innovation spectrum - from blue ocean opportunities to how to shop an idea and concept internally at an enterprise company. Buckle up!

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If you shop for a flight online today, you’ll notice a wide range of options available to you. From seat selection to presentation of hotel and rental car options after booking, it seems like the traveler’s booking experience has become more and more holistic. Yet, there are many opportunities to grow. What has driven this trend in the last 5 years? Ancillaries packaging, New Distribution Capability, emerging technologies, and more. Senior travel executives Werner Georg Kunz-Cho (Co-CEO, Chief Human Resource Officer of Fareportal) and Alexandra Arguelles (Vice President, Online Travel Group of Amadeus North America) share what makes the holistic shopping cart window of today -- and tomorrow.

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As the global travel industry continues to advance its technology infrastructure to meet the needs of modern travelers, new challenges make way for the need for new solutions. Two leading travel industry experts, Jay Richmond (Head of Business Travel Group, North America) and Kerri Zeil (Head of Amadeus for Startups) of Amadeus, discuss with host John Matson how to distinguish between disrupting the industry, and just conforming to new technologies. It's a deep dive into what's on the horizon and how to nurture innovation from within a global enterprise travel brand, including how to manage travel content at scale and how NDC will impact aspects of the travel industry beyond airlines.

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Data. It continues to be a huge topic for any brand to tackle. And of course that includes travel. But the jump from gathering data to turning it into action is another. Two leading travel experts, Ella Schreiber of Hopper and Shameem Ahmed of Amadeus, share how they are leveraging data science and machine learning to maximize user acquisition and conversion. From the aspects of traveler data that are the most useful for certain aspects of buyer behavior, to deploying data science across a large organization, this is also a look at how industries leaders make data a priority and an opportunity for market growth and international expansion.

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A Reverse Pitch - heads of leading corporate innovation programs at travel brands share their companies' approaches to making partnership work between a startup and an enterprise company. 

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The hospitality industry is diverse, fragmented and involves a lot of stakeholders. At Voyage HQ's Travel Disruption Summit in NY, Javier Egipciaco (the Managing Director of the innovative boutique hotel brand Arla) and Kelsey Recht, the CEO of VenueBook (a platform driving dynamic bookings of event spaces), debated on the importance of hospitality brands working together to deliver a better experience for the customer. 

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The genesis of online booking for activities has turned tourism into the Wild West for online travel brands. In this recap from VoyagerHQ's 2019 Travel Disruption Summit, CEOs of some of the industry's most influential brands, including Foursquare and Lonely Planet, discuss changes in booking experiences and what they mean for the traveler.

PANEL: Jeff Glueck (CEO of Foursquare), Luis Cabrera (CEO of Lonely Planet), and Shane Mayer (Head of Partnerships, GetYourGuide)

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Telling location-centered stories around the world, including articles, videos, photography, illustration and animation, with an in-house creative and editorial teams work with a global network of freelance creators -- Alex Shebar, Director of Experiences for Culture Trip, joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studio.

In this episode:

• It’s Bess’ last show! She’s going to get her Masters from Stanford.
• Alex talks about how travelers are looking for different experiences. It’s not just the Louvre, it’s the stuff the locals know about, and the way to access that information is through content.
• What sets Culture Trip apart from the countless other travel blogs that have been around even longer? The secret is in the amazing community of content creators all over the world that they’ve been able to put together.
• The travel responsibility trend. People are being very conscious about the kind of traveling they’re doing, who are the people, what’s the culture you’re becoming a part of when you visit?
• Alex’s snack - pickles from the pickle guys! He went there with his fiancé on a local experience tour, and loved it.
• A little bit about Alex - from Boston, went to journalism school, but quickly found out he hated being one after working the night shift and showing up to crime scenes alone in the middle of the night. He was in Cincinnati, and started organizing public screenings of the top 100 films of all time, which blew up, Yelp contacted him to be a community manager, then worked for Bumble before landing at Culture Trip.
• Turning content into experience. Culture Trip has the users, they can create partnerships all over the world. Getting users excited about content they want to be a part of, and then giving them the opportunity to book it.
• Alex wants Culture Trip to be a household name, and would love to work with the Met or MOMA or the London Zoo, as well as weirder smaller tours.
• What does Alex miss most from Boston? Believe it or not it’s the sort of touristy places: Legal Seafood, Neptune House.
• Bess shares a final thought - she’s really optimistic about the travel industry. There are so many great companies starting out and she feels theres even more opportunity out there to go big and off the wall.

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How can you scale cool? True personalization in travel. Leiti Hsu, Cofounder of Journy (an AI-enabled, expert-curated modern travel planning service that personalizes your trip planning, including bookings and reservations), show host, and food connector, joins John Matson and Bess Chapman in the MouthMedia Network studio.

• Journy uses humans, who do their jobs better with tech?
• Leiti and Susan (her cofounder) are the Yin and the Yang. They met dancing on speakers in Shanghai, while both traveling, and they become travel buddies.
• Traditional travel agencies still have humans doing things a computer can do better. Journy uses technology so that their humans can spend 80% of their time doing things only humans can do - planning amazing trips.
• Journy is for all! You can be on a budget or go for an ultimate luxury experience. Either way, Journy knows their customer extremely well.
• Learn about QQ! A texture that Taiwanese and other asian cultures love. Think boba in bubble tea - like al dente but squishier.
• Leiti saw the end of media as we knew it as Gourmet Magazine folded, and now surprisingly Journy has become a big of a media company.
• An unexpected brand Journy has worked with is 23 and Me. They gave away 23 DNA kits and planned the trips for those people back to their ancestors’ countries.
• Leiti’s home away from home travel-wise is San Sebastain. It’s the Taiwan of Europe! It’s like paradise with really good food.
• After Leiti’s mom was diagnosed with stage 4 non-smoking lung cancer, she created her dream restaurant pop-up. A hole in the wall Taiwanese beef noodle soup spot, called Tsu Soup.

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