In this video presentation below, Mike Lanza the founder and CEO of Streetography, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of online digital mapping, who the players are and where the future lies. The video is both highly insightful for travel technology entrepreneurs and entertaining. Mike’s presentation took place at Travel Tech Meetup in San Francisco.
Insights in the presentation include:
- A secret about Google that travel technology entrepreneurs need to know about to create a competitive advantage.
- Rapid innovation in mapping navigation is driving billions in investment.
- Our phones may be actually creating mapping data and we don’t even know it.
- Google’s mapping business in AI/machine learning is for autonomous cars and machines.
- Place discovery mapping using photos of places to visit is for people.
Connect with Streetography:
mike@streetography.com
www.streetography.com
Between the increase of gun violence in the U.S. to the spread of the #METOO movement, todays #1 concern for hotel operators is the safety of their guests and employees.
TraknProtect, a TSI portfolio company is making a splash on the hotel scene, as hotels ramp up on-property safety protocols. Panic buttons for hotels, are becoming a must have as union and government mandates spread and as hotel management considers how technology can help keep their employees, guests, and properties safe and secure. For many hotels in larger urban areas, ordinances, laws, and union contracts are requiring panic button implementation as a part of a larger push for employee safety.
UNITE HERE Local 1, a hotel workers union, in Las Vegas sums it up this way, “there is an inherent power imbalance between a man who can pay hundreds of dollars for a hotel room and the woman who cleans that room. When a guest sexually harasses or assaults a hotel worker, it happens in the absence of surveillance cameras or witnesses.”
A second hotel workers union in Las Vegas, representing tens of thousands of hotel employees plans to ask for panic buttons in negotiations for new contracts due in May 2018.
TraknProtect is the only hospitality-focused platform that provides compliant panic buttons with exact real-time location alerts at an affordable price.
How It Works
TraknProtect uses a hardware-software combined panic button solution. TraknProtect panic buttons use BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Beacons. BLE Beacon panic button solutions offer the most robust features for hotels, while significantly less expensive than active RFID and Ultrasonic Beacons.
BLE panic button solutions use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the employee panic button. When a panic button is deployed, it communicates the employee location and can follow the employee if she moves or flees in an emergency, see screenshot below.
By using WiFi and Bluetooth, hotels avoid the costs of adding wire or rewiring. The better solutions in this category integrate with back office systems such as HotSOS. In addition, by leveraging existing operations technologies, the cost of implementation goes down, and you reap the benefits of having incident reports automatically initiated with panic button data integrated seamlessly with your back office software. TraknProtect’s BLE Beacon technology offers other features & options that take advantage of your panic button technology investment, such as inventory tracking, room tray tracking, and monitoring vendors who are accessing the property.
TraknProtect is the preferred vendor for panic buttons for Peninsula North America. Other hotels using the panic buttons include, Westgate Las Vegas, Holiday Inn Chicago, Hotel Felix Chicago, Hotel Cass Chicago. The Robey Chicago, Hotel Blake Chicago, Fairfield White, Hotel Indigo Chicago, Holiday Inn Merchandise Mart, Freehand Chicago, Hotel Versey, Hampton Inn Magnificent Mile.
“Your employees are your most valuable assets. Ensure they feel safe on the job by providing them with the right tools.” CEO, Parminder Batra
To learn more, go here to watch a demo or contact Parminder below.
Contact Parminder: parminder@traknprotect.com
We compiled metrics from our portfolio companies in Travel Startups Incubator® Fund 1 and are publishing some of the most important data. If you have an interest in investing in travel technology or your firm is looking to acquire travel technology, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Matt Zito, Managing Partner, Travel Startups Incubator, LLC matt@travelstartups.co
Frequency a smart device communication system that will replace and augment existing communication tools currently in use in the airline industry using VoIP technology wins the Eye For Travel Startup Awards at the San Francisco Digital Summit.
Frequency’s customers are commercial airlines that use a combination of VHF radios, HF radios, mobile phones, landline phones, satellite phones and emails. Frequency is a startup in Propeller, a Irish TravelTech Accelerator program.
Frequency Founder CEO, Darach Comhrai, Matt Zito, Moderator of the Startup Awards, Frequency Co-founder Justin Perry.
A special thanks to Bruce Rosenberg, COO of HotelPlanner, for sponsoring the Startup Awards. Judges and panelists for the days sessions included, Brian Harniman, Managing Director, Brand New Matter, Seth Rosenfield, Managing Director, Petsky Prunier, Amir Amidi, Managing Partner, Plug and Play Tech Center, Utpal Kaul, Head of New Product Incubation, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Ganesh Mani, Advisor, TravelWits, Briehan Burke, Catalyst Investors and Matt Zito, Managing Partner, Travel Startups Incubator®.
Travel technology companies presenting included: Frequency, TravelCar, Triend, Streetography, OnceThere, Torchfi, Air DB, TWIP, iAppTours and StayPal.
TravelCar was the runner-up.
Samuel Saint-Jean, US Strategic Partnerships, Kimberly Wason, Marketing Director, Matt Zito, Travel Startups Incubator
While in San Francisco, Nicole and I also had the opportunity to meet the entire development team of Streetography, a TSI portfolio company. We had drinks and a great southern dinner at Farmerbrown.
Konstantin Varik, Dimitri Strauneanu, Mike Lanza, Matt Zito, Anna Tropnikova, Cristian Crasneanu, Alex Parshin.
Matt Zito presenting at ASTA conference
Last week, TSI had the opportunity to present, “How Business Leaders Can Innovate in Travel,” to ASTA’s premium business members in New York City. The ASTA Premium Business Summit, is an exclusive annual event that allows its Premium Members to come together and connect on the industry’s most important issues.
Companies in attendance included Expedia, Enterprise, Casto Travel, Plaza Travel, Executive Travel, Ovation Travel, Amadeus, Flight Centre Travel Group, Luxury Retreats, Marriott, Wings Travel Group, Celebrity Cruises, Valerie Wilson Travel, Royal Caribbean, Balboa Travel, BCD Travel, Conlin Travel, Hertz, Travel Leaders, Virtuoso, Hickory Global Partners, Travel Planners International, Viking Cruises, ARC and many more.
TSI spoke about our investments in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Travel Chat Bots and API’s that are impacting travel businesses. We shared strategies by corporate travel players from launching their own incubators and accelerators, starting Innovation Hubs to acquiring startup technology.
Overall, it was a great conference and we met many new people. At TSI, we believe in travel agents and the value they create for travelers. We don’t believe that the travel agency business will die. We do believe that the current travel agency business model is evolving. Technology and new travel trends are changing how people are traveling. In our view, the current travel agency/TMC model must change. Change starts by embracing new technologies and being open to new business models.
A special thanks to Miriam Moscovici with BCD Travel, Erika Richter and Mark Meader with ASTA for inviting us to the conference. The reception at the Westin Times Square followed by Kinky Boots the Broadway musical was a fantastic evening.
You can view our presentation deck below and photos from the conference.
TSI_ASTA
