Phocuswright Expands Number of Startups Demonstrating at Conference

Phocuswright announced today a major expansion of the highly acclaimed Travel Innovation Summit portion of The Phocuswright Conference. This year, a total of 60 companies showcase travel industry innovation at both The Travel Innovation Summit and its new preliminary round, The Battleground. This new round takes place November 16, 2015, during The Phocuswright Conference in Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA, and features 21 early-stage startups who have six minutes to demonstrate their innovations in front of a panel of judges and a live audience. The three best innovators will secure a slot and join 39 other companies on the main stage during The Travel Innovation Summit on November 17 – 18.

"We're very excited about our first-ever Travel Innovation Summit: Battleground," says Phocuswright's managing director, Tony D'Astolfo. "The Travel Innovation Summit competition has become one of the most anticipated portions of The Phocuswright Conference – and we're thrilled to almost double the number of innovators we are bringing to our stage."

View the list of Battleground contestants here.

"The keys to business progress in this tech-enabled era are connectivity and interoperability," says Phocuswright's senior technology analyst and editorial director, Innovation Edition, Bob Offut. "And as they become the foundation for the global economy, businesses have to tackle connectivity and interoperability in their models and core beliefs. The innovations in this year's Travel Innovation Summit all do a nice job of this."

The Travel Innovation Summit@The Phocuswright Conference 
Throughout the demonstrations, a panel of savvy travel industry executives, venture capital investors and serial entrepreneurs – the "Dragons" – ask probing questions and provide brutally honest commentary in a live, post-demonstration interaction with the innovators. The Dragons judge each demonstration on technical innovation, business value and potential marketplace impact. Their insights determine the "Best Innovation" winners and runners-up for the coveted Travel Innovation Summit awards.

"I'm really looking forward to the new Battleground format and to hearing from what looks like a very diverse group of innovators," said Ned Williams, partner at Brook Venture Fund and 2015 conference Dragon. "There's so much change going on in the travel industry right now that a company with the right solution can find success very quickly, and there's no place better to launch a great idea than at The Phocuswright Conference."

View the list of demonstrating companies here. 

Members of the press interested in attending The Battleground, The Travel Innovation Summit and/or The Phocuswright Conference can register for a complimentary press pass HERE.