Innovation. Last year I had the privilege of presenting rezgo.com at PhoCusWright’s Innovation Summit in 2008. The format is intense, 12 minute presentation after 12 minute presentation. While this can be a little overwhelming, I will be putting together a brief overview of all that are presenting to give some background knowledge on each company.

Here are the first round of presenters:

Time Presenting My Overview Product Name
Twitter Tag
Presenter and Company name
 My rating out of 10 (10 being that it is very innovative and will change the travel industry)
9:15 am – 9:27 am

(12 min)

 Vinepulse aggregates social media reviews for a hotel brand and provides a simplified interface for each brand stakeholder to have control of their determined aspect. It will allow for each brand to determine the importance of a number of alerts. I like the idea of providing a simplified interface in the travel industry, my experience is that the KISS rule is also the golden rule. 1.1 10Best SolutionsProduct Name: VinePulse

#pc10best

Brice J. Bay, President and CEO, 10Best Solutions

 6
9:27 am – 9:39 am(12 min) Goby is a search engine that tries to answer “what would you like to do in your free time?” The sleek interface is simple, and the semantic wording of their categories is really well developed. The focus of Goby is on short escapes that are activity focused, and when you perform a search, it will link you to the 3rd party page directly. They may want to integrate their own hotel / activity feed to monetize their interface, or else I can only see it as a referral based business. Interested in seeing more. 1.2 Goby#pcgobyMark Watkins, Co-Founder and CEO, Goby 7
9:39 am – 9:51 am(12 min) I think I saw this last year. They have developed a complete booking engine within Outlook. This is targeted towards the business client that wants a straight forward, get-to-the point booking experience. I can see this helping to streamline bookings for those of us without assistants, as it holds records of preferences for the user. This is innovative for an email platform, however I can only wonder if ecommerce will thrive outside of the browser. 1.3 TripwareProduct Name: Tripware OutBook#pctripware

Clark C. Rines, President and CEO, Tripware

 6
9:51 am – 10:03 am(12 min) GuestCentric Systems has created a one-stop-suite for independent hotels that do not have an online booking enabled website. Their suite includes a website, dynamic booking engine, a reservations platform for reservations management, as well as Internet hotel marketing. Seems to be a good combo, although this aspect of the travel industry is foreign to me, so I am not sure about what value this provides. 1.4 GuestCentric Systems#pcguestcentricPedro Colaco, President and CEO, GuestCentric Systems 6
10:03 am – 10:15 am(12 min) [x+1] are in the business of connecting the right person to the right message, which should in turn lower your CPA and increase your sign-ups/ transactions. Their technology is built for advertisers as well as retailers to help optimize experiences. I am not sure on the specifics, however it sounds promising, and their case studies sound great. 1.5 [x+1]Product Name: Site+1#pcxplus1

Jason Shulman, Chief Revenue Officer, [x+1]

 7
10:15 am – 10:27 am(12 min) CarTrawler is an online car rental booking aggregation system that can be integrated within other booking platforms. This is a simple way for online booking companies to connect with ancillary revenue opportunities. I am not sure if what I would assume to be the decreased margins that their users receive is worth the cost, but I am interested to learn more. 1.6 CarTrawlerProduct Name: CarTrawler Ovi Mobile#pccartrawler

Bobby Healy, CTO, CarTrawler

 7
10:27 am – 10:39 am(12 min) Exalead’s Cloudview search is a ’semantic’ search engine for a business’ internal and unprotected data. While this is not sexy per say, it is a powerful way of maximizing a corporations online resources. Hard to know the true level of innovation for the travel industry, however this could be useful for a large operators / suppliers. 1.7 ExaleadProduct Name: CloudView “Smart” Search#pcexalead

Paul Doscher, U.S. CEO, Exalead

 7
10:39 am – 10:51 am(12 min) PhoCusWright’s own Claude Guay’s webValidator Continuous Listening Solution provides qualitative and quantitative feedback on a website’s performance. I am not familiar with the specifics, but his stats sound promising with a 90% completion rate, and easy access to is surveys, this may be incremental innovation, it is innovative none the less. 1.8 iPerceptionsProduct Name: webValidator Continuous Listening Solution (premium) and 4Q (free)#pciperceptions

Claude Guay, President and CEO, iPerceptions

 6
10:51 am – 11:03 am(12 min) Luggagetag.com says it all. About $15 for your own customized luggage tags that have your image/text on them. Really simple to use their interface, and a novel idea. Not sure how scalable it is, but interested to hear from them. 1.9 Vanguard ID SystemsProduct Name: Luggagetag.com#pcluggagetag

Richard O. Warther, President and CEO, Vanguard ID Systems Inc.

 5
11:03 am – 11:15 am(12 min) gliider is a plugin for Firefox browsers that allows the user to consolidate all of their travel information into one place, create a guide book, and also receive offers for the trip that the use is planning. The interface seems slick and easy to use, and the concept is pretty good for those looking to do alot of research before a trip. Looks interesting. 1.10 gliider#pcgliider

Jordan Stolper, Co-Founder and CEO, gliider

 8
11:15 am – 11:27 am(12 min) cheaplimorates.com is another appropriately named service that aggregates limo bookings. Their site seems to feature social media aspects such as connecting with friends whil looking for limos. This could be good for graduation parties and the like. Not a bad idea, and could be a success. 1.11 CheapLimoRates.com#pccheaplimorates

Alan Kushmakov, Founder and CEO, CheapLimoRates.com

 6

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