In this section we list the people and products who you may not have heard of yet but we are predicting you will have by the end of 2016...
Return to Hotlist 2016 homepage
CYTORA
WITH THE CURRENT GEOPOLITICAL CLIMATE unstable and volatile, it’s no surprise security, duty-of-care and traveller tracking are among the main priorities for buyers in 2016 – and it’s in this space that Cytora fits in.
Cytora was founded on the belief that data used to evaluate geopolitical risk was poor quality, sparse, out of date and low resolution, leading to gaps in knowledge and costly failures.
Cytora uses technology deployed against the entire contents of the web. It generates real-time and highly localised event data across all major risk types – enabling global organisations to make decisions about their risk exposure.
Its analytics technology is deployed in some of the largest companies and governments around the globe, and it recently received a second round of investment led by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge.
HYPERCAT
WE ARE ENTERING A WORLD NOW where a lot of tasks performed by humans can, and are, being performed by machines. This trend is being driven by the growth of the Internet of Things (IOT). Simply put, the IOT is about connecting devices through the internet, allowing them to ‘talk’ to each other.
Hypercat is a government-backed consortium of 40 UK-based companies, including BT and ARM. It works by creating an online catalogue tagged with metadata that can be read by other IOT devices. An example would be your car sharing data with the AA – if you have a breakdown it automatically alerts the company with fault and location details.
To do this you need a common computing language, so Hypercat lays down some basic principles by which systems can read and understand the information associated with a ‘thing’ – think the IOT’s equivalent to travel distribution standard NDC...
AURÉLIE KRAU, FOUNDER, TRAVEL THINK
DESPITE ONLY BEING 29 YEARS OLD, Aurélie Krau has already established herself as a key commentator on business travel technology.
Krau is founder of Travel Think, which offers consultancy services in areas such as project management and creation of specialised services, as well as publishing white papers and reports for the likes of KDS, IATA and GBTA. Her other roles include operations manager for GBTA France.
Her previous employers include Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Amadeus and American Express.
Krau was nominated by a BBT reader who said she is “facilitating the continuing trend for content marketing across the industry’s suppliers”, adding that she is also “a sign of the times, as her work breaches the leisure/business travel divide”.
AGENTIVITY
NEW TECHNOLOGY PROVIDER AGENTIVITY is an agency reporting and automation tool. It was founded by travel technology and distribution experts Riaan Van Schoor and Edd McArdle, who identified a need in the market to provide travel management companies (TMCs) with instant web-based access to real-time data insights, covering all aspects of their business and empowering agents to react to potential problems and opportunities instantly.
Despite only being a few years old, Agentivity already has high-profile TMCs on board, such as CWT and HRG. Agentivity was nominated by Clyde Travel Management managing director, Brian Potter. He said: “Data analysis will be a driver in 2016 as TMCs look for new ways to add value for their corporate clients. Using tools such as Agentivity to drive efficiencies and additional revenue will be key to this deliverable.”
Sign up to BBT’s twice-weekly newsletter