New Visitors - check out these posts

Google has been kind enough to put me on the front page of Blogger as a "Blog of Note". For the thousands of new visitors here are a selection of posts you might like

1. My 2011 predictions for the online travel industry;

2. As summary of my most recent 100 posts;

3. My 5,500 words on how much I hate Dell;

4. Introducing the Twelevator Pitch; and

5. Tnooz Post: Authority and Page Rank in Google is changing, are you ready?

Shanghai skyline 1990 vs 2010

China has often been a topic here on the BOOT. Nothing sums up the growth and change in China like this photo comparing the Shanghai skyline of 1990 with last year (2010).

Hat tips it io9 and @nils_gilman

BOOT has an iPhone - what should he do with it?

The BOOT is on the hunt. I have a new iPhone in a my pocket and gigabytes of empty space waiting to be filled with apps. Please let me know your recommendations for the best general, social media and especially travel apps.

Once I am a few months into iPhone ownership I will launch a new App Review section at the BOOT to go alongside my seat reviews.

For some background thoughts check out my two part post on Tnooz about the mobile revolution (part 1, part 2).

thanks to Jeffrey Beall for the photo via flickr

Frank Grasso on boredom

Nice post over at an eChannel search by CEO Frank Grasso on boredom and the open ended question.

The BOOT in Travel Weekly - first on social then on search

The BOOT has appeared in a couple of Travel Weekly (Australia) online news pieces that might interest you.

Back in December they reported on my comments on social media at the ATEC conference (for my top five social media tips see here)

A week ago they carried by comments on how search is changing. For more on that see my predictions for 2011.

2011 Predictions: The BOOT on which trends live and which ones die in 2011

I loved 2010. So much happened in online travel that I have cricks in my neck from looking left and right, from scanning an RSS news feed on one side, tweets and r-tweets on the other, conference presentations filled with announcements, press releases filling up my inbox, posts to the left of me, news to the right...here we are stuck in the middle of the most exciting online industry in the world.

Don't slow down, 2011 is already here. The Boot has six predictions for 2010. Three things will live and thrive and three things will wither and die:

2011 - three things will thrive

1. Social lives: the parallel rises of social media, the open ended question and consumers willingness to discuss and share everything openly and freely will in 20011 continue to change the way the industry attracts and retains customers. The traffic numbers of Facebook, Twitter, foursquare etc are all but unprecedented. But it is not their rise that is the story. The story is the consumer behaviour behind the rise of these products. Pick your metaphor - consumers have opened the kimono, dropped their pants or invited everyone in to their lives. Nothing is sacred. Everything can and will be shared. In 2011 the online travel industry will continue to adjust marketing channels and communications techniques to match this trend. Five tips on how to do that are here.

2. Search lives: but not as you know it. Search has changed forever especially the measure of authority. The display changes we have seen in Google and Bing in 2010 are a precursor to the profound changes I expect to see in the measure of authority for content/sites in search in 2011.
The old measure of inbound links will be enhanced with input from social networks, context and location, expert advice, preference matching and more. Search marketing will have to change to encompass content, social, information syndication and data mining. I am predicting there will be as many six factors that drive authority in search.

In addition to the changes in authority, search will change in how results are displayed. Results will become multi-destinational and multi-dimensional.

3. Data lives: In 2010 the Economist introduced me to the yottabyte as a indicator of how much data is being collected every day on everything (yottabyte = 2 to the power of 80 bytes or 1000 Zettabyte). The online travel industry following suit - collecting data on a scale unimaginable five years ago and the quantity is rising exponentially by the day. The access to this level of data and the open and honest nature of this data gives the industry the chance to profile and market to consumers at a level of detail down to and below the level of the individual. In 2011 that data will be put to use. My EveryYou concept will take even further hold in online travel (more on EveryYou here). More and more you will hear of activities in online travel to develop specific and targeted recommendations of one based on the unique combination of desires, needs and interests of each individual at any moment in time. Micro-targeting at scale.

2011 - three things will die

1. Convergence dies: For the first decade and half of online travel and the last fifteen years of communications technology, the non-stop talk was around convergence. That devices would merge. That our phones, computers, TVs, game consoles, printers, fridges and more would all come together in one device. The opposite is true. Convergence is dead. Devices are becoming (at the same time) more specialised, more capable and more connected. As a result, in 2011 we will give up on the idea of convergence of devices and instead adopt a concept of multiple devices supporting a communications ecosystem. Activities will start on one device, continue on another and conclude on a third. Each device in the chain will have a main purpose different from the other but will be able to support activities spread across other devices. Our different devices will remain with separate functions (content creation devices, gaming and entertainment devices, communications devices) but each will connect and share with the other in a common network.

2. Mobile dies: Sure mobile is everywhere. Sure I ate humble pie and admitted that 2009 was the year of the mobile. But in 2011 the mobile/tablet/PC debate will change from building for devices to building for display preferences. Device distinction as a designator for what is or is not built will die. Device platform discussions will move from “which product is this built for” to “is this compatible for all displays”.

Much like we now say that a site has to be web ready rather than differentiating between its readiness on FireFox, Chrome, Safari, opera and IE. The type of the device and whether or not it is mobile is now irrelevant. Mobile/PC/Tablet will be the different “browsers” of 2011. All code will need to be written in preparation for this.

(OK that is not the death of mobile - more like the enlightenment or complete ubiquity of mobile - but you get the gist)

3. BAR dies: Best Available Rate has been a staple of the online travel industry since 2002. In response to the absolute transparency of the Internet, chain and independent hotels guaranteed common prices across each distribution channel. In 2011 we have reached a point where through a combination of dramatically improved IP address targeting, growth in closed user groups, private sale sites, group coupon sites and more there will be a myriad of ways in which hotels will put deals out there that are different to their BAR. Get ready for a move to a world of more and more targeting, more and more yield management and a wider variety of prices for the same property and product.

Close your tray tables and turn off your electronic devices. We are in for an amazing and 2011 and the BOOT is here to cover it for you.

If you are interested here are my 2010 predictions

Thanks to 1suisse1 for the image via flickr

BOOT - 7 tips to make flying to the USA easier

Flying to the US can be hard work. There are forms to fill in, inspections to get through, constantly changing rules (so much so that the enforcers or the rules are often not up to date) and airports mired in outdated infrastructure, unable to cope with the numbers of people coming through. For the first time business or leisure traveler I give you business traveler tip number 8. Seven tips for making flying to the US easier

1. Pre register for a visa through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization system (my earlier post on this). It was a long and confusing role out but as at the date of this post it seams that for many countries the green visa waiver form is finally dead. Instead you need to register before your flight at this website. This applies to the (currently) 36 countries on the visa waiver list (full list here). But beware, these rule change constantly. Check back before each flight;
   
2. Avoid LAX if you can. You may not have a choice coming from Asia or the Pacific as to which airport you go through. If you do, choose SFO over LAX. There are less flights per day, the staff are more relaxed (in style not in rule enforcement) and the queue system more orderly. Clearly customs in SFO is simply less stressful that LAX;
3. Get off the plane fast and keep moving. Once you hit your entry point airport presumably you will be on a plane with another four hundred or so people. Each of whom are doing the same thing you do. Each one you get in front of before the immigration queue is one less person you need to wait to be tagged, bagged and hash-tagged by the immigration team. Get off the plane first and move quickly;
4. Do not joke or look frustrated with Immigration or TSA. I am sure there are exceptions to this rule and airport/customs/immigration/customs people are people too, but play it safe and play it neutral. No jokes, no expressions of annoyance, no crankiness, no harping, sniping, wobbling, jiggling, biting, kicking or screaming. Play it nice, polite, neutral and grateful (without being a suck up)
5. Have a hotel/address ready. They will want to know where you are staying. Have the address and phone number handy. If you are staying with a friend or don't know then in theory you have to leave in blank and explain. That means longer in the queue and more delays. Better to put the name and address of a downtown holiday inn or equiv rather than leave blank;
6. Bring some proof of your work or meeting esp if coming from Asia. Unfortunately there are links to nationals from many Asian countries and attacks on America including 9/11. As a result immigration has been known to be very thorough in their interviews and screening of some Asian passport holders. Therefore it is worth carrying a business card and meeting agenda/conference reciept/letter from your employer that confirms the purpose of the meeting. No need to present unless asked. Proof of return flight also a good idea; and
   
7. Beware the Super Shuttle. Last thing you need after 14 + hours in a plane is the impromptu 2 hour tour of whatever town it is that you are staying in that will result from using a Super Shuttle or equivalent. A share bus/van arrangement like a Super Shuttle is a definite money saver but you pay for it with a long and winding trip to the hotel. Take a cab or book a car instead. On the price of the flight it will be a rounding error and worth every penny.

Any other tips?

thanks to im elsewhere via flickr for the photo

1001 not out (and Happy 2011)

2010 has closed. Welcome and all the best for 2011. In time for the end of 2010 I have completed another milestone here at the BOOT.

The rate per month may be slowing but another 100 posts are live on the BOOT. In my regular "not out series" recap I post a few reminders and highlights form the last 100 posts. It started with 101 not out and continued with 201, 301, 401, 501. 601, 701, 801 and 901 not out. Here we go....

I examined search, looked at the future of recommendations and made up a lot of new words:

• Introduced the Tastegraph via an interview with LikeCube. Also talked Tastegraph with TripAdvisor's Adam Medros;
  
• On Tnooz published five tips for launching a social media strategy;
• Discussed the future of Page rank and authority also on Tnooz (with new words like memegraph, expertgraph and genomegraph);
• Introduced some new (made up concepts) of search becoming multi-destinational and multi-destinational (more Tnooz goodness)
• Introduced the concept of the Twelevator pitch - if you cant describe your business in 140 characters then something is wrong
  

Focused on Australia I looked into:

• How Groupon took over the world and the business model hit Australia with a bang (Jump on it raised millions);
• How interesting and competitive the online vacation rental/short let marketing was getting in Australia via a conversation with the boss of Occupancy.com and estimated the size of the online vacation rentail/short let market in Australia at $450-$500mm per year.
  

Some handy tools:

• Summarised all of the TripAdvisor acquisitions in a (hopefully) useful table; and
• Posted the BOOT's guide to researching the world
  

From various conference presentations and attendences I:

• Took you through how social media "hijacked" Eyefortravel asia - in a good way;
  
• Shared some Stories from TravelTech;
  
• Presented at WebInTravel and posted two follow up stories on Tnooz (part 1, part 2); and
• Attended PhoCusWright and posted reviews and comments on Everbread, Movitas, HomeAway, SilverRail and Revinate vs TrustYou
  

Speaking of reviews, the BOOT covered another 200,000kms or so and wrote reviews of

• Air NZ economy class;
• Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy;
  
• Qantas Premium Economy
  

Ultimately I ranked Cathay Pacific as my airline of the year after a close pitched battle between the Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic Herringbone seats

On the quirky front:

• I shared Best looking cappuccino in the world care of the Observatory Hotel
• Qantas killed Virgin in a on-board movie; and
  
• I wrote and published on Customer Underground my biggest post ever. 5,500 words on Dell Hell.

Three more business traveller tips were published on

• Surviving 5 star hotels
• Travelling in China; and
  
• Surviving business travel in economy class

Finally - the BOOT received mentions in

• The Guardian;
  
• USA today; and
  
• The Australian

If you are still reading, I will keep writing. All the best for 2011 - see you on the road.

Thanks to Dustin Ling for the photo of the BOOT in action at ATEC

The Wanderfly Sessions: Talking travel inspiration and discovery with Wanderfly co-founder Christy Liu

Two years ago I started writing about travel discovery and inspiration sites. Interviewing start up CEOs and Chairmen about the future of travel discovery and how to build a start up business under the shadows of Google, social media and the big four OTAs. Start up Wanderfly has joined the race for inspiration in this new wave of online travel search and discovery. I recently spoke with Wanderfly co-founder and Director of Marketing Christy Liu (pictured) about inspirations, advice for start-ups and building traffic.

We have seen a variety of different approaches to the user interface for travel discover and inspiration engines. Joobili asks you start with a date, Triporati start with 64 interest areas and ask you to rank them and Tripbase have five criteria with "sliders" to select a balance. Wanderfly's angle is for a combination of sliders on dates and price and tabs/buttons for twelve interests or activities.

Review of the site

Wanderfly have tried to differentiate themselves with a very slick landing page layout. They have integrated baseline content and descriptions with booking engine feeds and content imported from lonely planet and foursquare. There is also a Facebook connect login reminiscent of the TripAdvisor Tripfriends integrate. To date the Wanderfly destination landing page is the cleanest looking integration I have seen of social media, editorial and pricing/trip cost functionality. Result is a very usable and attractive destination page. I commend them on the UI and layout.

While the page looks good, there is still a lot of work to do around the depth of content. I did a search on Culture, Outdoors, Beach and Eco. Parameters of $5,000 per person and destination Africa. The recommendation was Masindi in Uganda (shot below).

This is an intriguing answer. It is a place I have never heard of in a country with a name that invokes many positive and negative images. It is not on my list of places to go in Africa (top 2 currently are Tanzania and the Okovanko Delta). Unfortunately the Wanderfly destination page for Masindi is light on content and does not indicate why it is that this is the best destination based on my criteria. The layout is clean and clear allowing for ease of use and encouraging reuse but consumers will need more both in terms of absolute levels of content and in terms of explanatory text on why a destination is proposed. For example there is still a bit of work to do around incorporation of and depth of news feeds and improved photo tagging to help indicate what it is that has been photographed (or how to find it).

First thing to fix is the “Change Trip” option top right. This is the button that allows users to find the rest of the recommendations made. Chances are customers wont see it or understand it and assume that there is only one recommendation. Liu told me this was a deliberate tactic. They are modeling Wanderfly after real human conversations. The theory being that a human response would be one suggestion at a time rather than a list. Click tracking should point out soon enough that consumers are not clicking on options past the first one.

Collecting Data

This time last year I published my three rules for what is needed to start a consumer information or UGC based online travel start up.

In it I discussed how important it is for a content company to collect data from outside sources. I talk to Liu about where she was getting her data to build the pages and how hard it was to collect. Liu said that the team has spent part of the last 18 months integrating into more than 20 partners for data including Expedia, Kayak, Yelp, Foursquare and Lonely Planet. Many of these are open APIs but some required customer deals. She indicated that it was also important to add an editorial level. To include a manual review, writing and matching process. Much like my 2007 post on the balance between UGC and editorial content Liu said they were aware of the need for an editorial level – especially when it comes to matching a destination to the twelve designated trip themes

Themes and trip tags

I asked Liu – why twelve themes and would more be chosen. She told me that Google traffic levels were the main criteria for selecting a theme. But she acknowledged that twelve themes were not enough. Wanderfly are planning to launch a ten to fifteen more. We also discussed the challenge in attaching a theme to an individual’s needs when each individual may have a different definition of what that theme. Luxury is a classic example. One person’s definition of luxury is very different to another. Liu is aware of this and is betting that their research and search depth can help solve this.

Company background and advice for other entrepreneurs

Liu shared that the company is 1.5 years old and is working off dollars from a round of angle funding. Liu said they are actively looking for and negotiating for a new round. An announcement was expected before the end of the year - I have not see the release yet. Via email Liu tells me that there should be an announcement coming early in the new year [UPDATE - 1 Feb announced $1mm raised from a series of angles]. Once raised money will be used on product and content – I think that is the right call.

I also asked Liu for any advice she might have for other entrepreneurs trying to launch a product or business. She replied

“the big one is to trust your gut and trust your instinct. Many people offered us advice and guidance. A few times we went through with advice that we did not feel comfortable with and did not end up where we expected.”

My take

The look and feel is great and my support of the inspiration space is well known. To success Wanderfly have three challenges to face

1. Depth of Content – as per above (and my comments in a recent Tnooz search post) the future of search will need lots of content and information but will also need the reasons for the results. Consumers will want to know why a result was chosen. Specifically what elements of the search drove that result and what influencers pushed it. Wanderfly have started the collection part through their 20 plus connections. But more is needed in areas of news, photos and activities. More importantly they need to work on a reasoning index. A method for describing the reasons behind the recommendation
   
2. Distribution - with the revenue model for inspiration and discovery sites still under development and lagging the travel retail sector, finding a voice in the marketing noise of online travel is very hard for value of travel discovery and inspiration sites. This is no greater challenge for Wanderfly than any other site. Liu is aware of this - especially the challenges of search. To succeed in search Wanderfly will need to ensure that their aggregated landing pages are sufficient to meet the unique requirements of Google and can adjust to meet all the changes occurring the page rank algorithms. Liu told me in a follow up email that the longer term marketing plans are to focus on affiliate distribution through major deals and widget/link affiliate programs.
   
3. Reasons for launch “notice a problem while we were trying to book a trip” - Kevin May of Tnooz and Rod Cuthbert of Viator have a theory (that I agree with) that any business founded in online travel because some people were trying to plan a trip and noticed that it was really hard and thought they should build something to make it easier….is doomed for failure because it is being built for a very small audience in mind (ie the founders). Wanderfly will be confronted with this challenge. To ensure that the product is designed with a large enough audience in mind.

Check out Wanderfly and let me know what you think.

Tnooz Post: Authority and Page Rank in Google is changing, are you ready?

New Tnooz post live titled "Is travel ready for the Google Page Rank overhaul?". In the post I discuss Google Places and speculate on what it means for new elements in the page rank alogrithm including the tastegraph, sociograph, memegraph, expertgraph, genomegraph, contextgraph and a lot of other made up words new media concepts. Read the full post here.

QF32, A380, exploding engine and Rolls Royce - listen to the full story on what happened

ABC radio national's current affairs program Background Briefing just published a piece titled "The airline, the engine maker, the 500 passengers and their luck escape".

It contains the most comprehensive analysis I have seen/heard on what happened on that flight and the subsequent battles between Qantas, Rolls Royce, Airbus and others. What makes this reporting particularly interesting is the balance they have met between keeping the explanations simple and digestible for the less technically minded while covering a lot of ground and detail on what spun off where and hit what causing the other thing to explode. This link gives you access to a download, stream or transcript.

Thank you to the Professor for the photo

Profile of Google's Claire Hatton

The Sydney Morning Herald is carrying a detailed profile of Google's Claire Hatton. Hatton is the Industry lead for Travel, Government and Local in Australia & New Zealand. Worth a read.

The BOOT in the Australian - "search and you shall find"

Travel journo Dave Carroll had a piece in weekend version of the Australian titled "Search and you shall find". In the article he talks about some of the changes in search patterns by consumers in online travel. He interviewed me for the piece. I share my views on different measures for authority, the tastegraph and the sociograph - building on my Tnooz piece "Google instant is just the beginning in the search revolution in travel".

Full piece from Dave with my comments is here. I mention tripadvisor, jetsetter, bonvoyou, triporati. joobili and (in a where did they go moment) gliider.

11 New Yorker cartoons on being fondled by a TSA agent

In solidarity with the millions of Americans racing around the country eating Turkeys and recovering from their close encounters of the TSA kind I am posting a link to a New Yorker page with 11 New Yorker style Airport Security Cartoons.

Is the BOOT Recommended Read of the week

Thanks to Madame BOOT for sending through

Thanks to charlesfittinger via flickr for the dont touch icon

BOOT presenting at ATEC - Wed 1 December Hilton Sydney

I will be presenting Next week at the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Meeting Place event at the Hilton in Sydney.

I will be presenting on Future trends and technology in travel – innovation that will change your business

Straight after me Martin Kelly of Traveltrends will be providing a briefing from his report "Caught in the Web"

PhoCusWright: HomeAway boss Brian Sharples talks acquisitions and how far we are from instant conf in online vacation rental

The travel industry has conquered the sale of hotels online. The big four (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline) as well as local players (Wotif, Rakuten, Ctrip, HRS) have been aggressively and successfully selling hotels online for nearly a decade.

I have often looked to the very under developed market for the booking of vacation rentals and wondered when it will be ready for the same level of online sales as hotels. When will the structural and supply roadblocks impeding online vacation rentals be removed to allow for the massive amounts of online research for vacation rental and pent up demand for vacation rentals translate into bookings. Actual online transactions rather than the listing and referral models that dominate.

With that background HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples took to the centre stage at PhoCusWright yesterday with his vision for the company and the vacation rental business. As a reminder HomeAway is the biggest of the vacation rental aggregators. They have raised more than $450mm in venture funding including a massive $250mm round in November 2008 - specifically targeted for acquisition spending.

Brian shared with us that they have been very active in spending that money having completed fourteen acquisitions 5 years. He made one of the most acquisition positive statements I have ever heard from an online travel CEO. "If you can't compete with it, buy it" was his rallying cry for growth through consolidation.

The potential for Vacation Rental online is substantial given the difference in the online percentage of sales for vacation rental compared to hotels. According to the recent PhoCusWright report on the industry called "Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Challenge" in 2008 the total vacation rental market was about $25bb in the US and $100bb globally. But only 12% of the vacation rental market is online. PhoCusWright predict that the online market in the US will hit just $4.6bb in 2010 compared to online hotels being a $100bb plus market.

But as the report and Sharples both say, the biggest impediment to the industry is the challenge of securing inventory from property owners. To enable consumers to be able to secure instant confirmation bookings rather just kicking of an email conversation with the property owner. To enable the aggregators like HomeAway to generate merchant level margins by shifting from being a listing business to a merchant.

Sharples indicated that he is determined to get to the merchant model. Two of the fourteen companies bought by HomeAway are property management technology companies. Sharples will use these to supply property owners with the means (and rewards for) providing real time inventory. He is backing that up by "first time in three years increasing our tech budget as a percent of revenue" That is not surprising. The biggest player in the online vacation rental market should be working day and night on finding a solution.

What is surprising is how far away the industry is from the solution. Sharples believes that "it will take 5-7 years for vacation rental to be properly online" (instant confirmation). Dara Khosrowshahi (Expedia CEO) was similarly pessimistic about how long it would take. During his executive interview the next day Khosrowshahi said that instant confirmation vacation rental transactions were 3-5 years away.

It has been five years since the launch of HomeAway (crunchbase profile), seven-eight years since Cendant first started to put together a consolidation play of European vacation rental sites and 11 years after Expedia bought Vacationspot and Rent-a-holiday. Yet according to two of the best placed execs in the market we are still half a decade (or more) away from instant confirmation bookings at scale. Clearest evidence imaginable of how hard it is and will be to crack instant confirmation on the most distributed and fragment accommodation sector.

BTW - for more on this sector but in a different region see my recent interview series with Australian vacation rental boss Justin Butterworth. Part 1 here, part 2 here.

Innovation Summit: the BOOT picks two out of four

A new BOOT post on Tnooz is live discussing the finalists and runners up in the PhoCusWright Innovation Summit.

Last night I tweeted my top four picks. Two of them made the final four. My picks were all transportation search companies. I chose air search companies Everbread and Vayant, meta-search innovator Hipmunk and online rail company SilverRail. The two runners up I chose were Facebook trip planner Gogobot and social media monitoring company Revinate (competitor to finalist TrustYou). Democracy at PhoCusWright had a different view and the attendees have chosen 2010 innovation finalists up SilverRail, Hipmunk, Goby Technologies and Kony Solutions as the finalists for the 2010 Travel Innovation Summit. Runners up were TrustYou, Cruiselabs and Groundlink.

Full post on Tnooz with my thoughts here.

For more background check out my posts from yesterday on Revinate and TrustYou, Everbread and SilverRail.

Innovation Summit: Everbread - air search change that sounds good but need to see more before I can be sure it is revoultionary

Everbread is in the middle of a perfect storm of PR and buzz. A storm combining the high profile of their CEO (Morten Lund - who famously invested in Skype), the constant chatter over the need for alternatives to ITA in the wake of the Google/ITA merger and efforts by their staff to demo the product anywhere anytime (including in a suit, by a pool in 35C/99% humidity in Singapore).

Assen Vassilev Co-Founder and VP Strategy and Business Development of Everbread spoke today at the PhoCusWright Innovation Summit about his Haystack product. Haystack is an air availability and pricing search engine. A search engine but not a booking engine. They are seeking to by a B2B engine provider who separates searching from booking and fulfillment.

Their claim to a difference between existing OTA search and engines like ITA is that they are able to display fare and routing combinations not seen before. Combinations of on-GDS and off-GDS fares and routes (ie LCC) from different airports supporting the destination or departure city. Combinations that go beyond interline and carrier alliance ties. In the demos I saw at WebInTravel in Singapore I was shown fare and routing combinations that were less convenient but cheaper than traditional search results. Different to anything I have seen from an OTA or meta-search company. During the presentation Vassilev claimed that Haystack often presented results that were both more convenient and cheaper due to the ability bring in different departure airport options.

I had high expectations of this presentation coming into the Summit. The shots shown to me in Singapore were unlike anything I had seen from any other search engine. Unfortunately after the Innovation Summit presentation I was left with some of the same questions I had in Singapore and a desire to see more. The presentation needed to show more of examples rather than build up the story behind the business and the need for search revolution. The audience would have been more impressed by a series of examples of successful savings and routings rather needing to be introduced to the concept. I recommend that Everbread start a campaign of getting examples out there.

Rod Cuthbert on the Critics Circle agreed calling the presentation "entertaining" but felt it "left him in the dark about the business". Gene Quinn (also on the panel) said that "so many people are looking for alternatives to the Google/ITA combination" and thought that Everbread had "potentially a very powerful solution" but that he "did not see enough of the engine."

The people I have met from Everbread are smart and engaging and the story is a good one but I need to see more proof before we can confirm the tag of revolutionary.

For more on Everbread check out these stories - Tnooz and TechCrunch

Innovation Summit: SilverRail - is now (finally) the time for online rail?

Rail is well overdue for online travel innovation. We are into the third decade of online travel yet it is still almost impossible to book online train tickets through the traditional online travel channels of OTAs and meta-search. [ side not - At least in the west it is. In India online rail is a booming sector]

At the PhoCusWright Innovation Summit Aaron Gowell Founder and CEO of SilverRail used the of billions and billions of dollars in annual rail ticket sales to convince the audience of the potential for online rail.

He claimed that rail was a $300bb a year global market and the fastest growing sector in travel. Maps filled the power point slides showing high speed lines being built across Europe and China. Billions and billions in infrastructure spend. There are clear examples of long distance rail beating the airline business. The channel tunnel has stolen 80% of the market share in the Paris to London route. Hundred's of billions in investment and sales of rail tickets yet still 60% of the tickets are booked at the station.

Gowell told us that the only agency channel making progress in selling rail was corporate agencies. But most of those agencies have to transfer the call to separate call centres. As a result of this and complexity Gowell claims that corporate agencies are only able to do 4 bookings per hour vs 20 per hour for flights.

SilverRail also convinced us that they are well placed as a company to take advantage. They have some big name backers who contributed to a $9.5million series A round including Sutter Hill Ventures, Accel Partners, GrandBanks Capital and Brook Ventures. Gowell told me after the presentation that he has about 8 months of money left but is not worried as the potential is so great that he is confident that a new round of raising was not a problem. On revenue SilverRail are taking a transaction clip from the supplier - much like a GDS or switch.

Within 2 minutes of his presentation I was convinced of the potential for online rail. Unfortunately Gowell used nine of his twelve minutes to convince us of the market potential. This was more time than needed and cut short the time available for him to show us the SilverRail Product. What we saw of the product was impressive but I was left feeling like I needed to see more to be certain they would not end up like Wandrian.

On the critics circle (American Idol style panel at the Summit) Jim Hornthal of Triporati put a number of very important challenges/questions to SilverRail which I then had a chance to ask Gallow during an interview after his presentation.

Jim said: I am not sure what we need rail sold through OTA people are comfortable booking through the supplier direct (like the Low Cost Carrier model).

Aaron responded: model has changed dramatically in the last two years. Suppliers now need and are asking for distribution. For example you can now get a train from Germany to the UK. This is not a product that can only be sold on the Deutchebahn website. 2 years ago it was a hard sell to suppliers but now they are looking for us.

Jim said: There is not commission in rail so not attractive to OTAs

Aaron responded: packaging. With so much of the air spend shifting to rail (ie London to Paris route) the OTAs need to add more transport options to facilitate their packaging sales. Make their money out of the hotel.

I am a believer on the timing and potential for online rail. SilverRail put on a great show and have a very impressive list of staff and backers but (as like many at the Summit) I was left wanting to see more of the product and less of the power point.

update - here is what Bootsnall had to say about SilverRail

Innovation Summit: Movitas - I get the problem but not sure they solve it

At the PhoCusWright Innovation Summit Chuck Sacco VP Client Strategy of Movitas very cleanly and clearly described the problem his company was trying to solve - how to move the conversation and interaction between hotel and customer from the room to the whole property. Customers are constantly on the move on property with connected devices yet the main interaction between the property and the customer continues to be phone calls from the room or visits to the front desk.

While the problem was easy to describe, from the twelve minute presentation it was challenging to see how Movitas solved it. As a Bootsnall tweet said " kinda struggling to put what they do into one sentence.."

Sacco described the system as "developing for hotels a guest operating system"– a means for on property communications that connects a hotel and guest when the customer is outside of their room. For example a consumer can check in virtually using the tool and then go on to search local information, on property information, book tours, make reservations and pay their bill.

From the 12 minute presentation at the Summit it was hard to see how good a job Movitas is doing at meeting challenge as the presentation was delivered very quickly - too quickly. Lots of screen shots streamed a lightening speed. I would have preferred to have seen one or two examples of the product displayed slowly rather than the half a dozen or more screen shots and moving images flashing left, right, up and down. I am also not convinced that a hotel can persuade busy mobile road warrior customers to come to the hotel's own mobile platform when apps from Google, TripAdvisor, Orbitz, Kayak and more provide the vast majority of the functionality that Movitas was describing without the need for a new download or functionality learning curve.

The hotel guest is on the move and is connected - no doubt about it. They are hungry for information and content - absolutely. But they already have lots of apps and tools downloaded. I am not convinced that Movitas will be able to persuade hoteliers to persuade customers to add one more.

Update - here is what Bootsnall had to say about Movitas