It is often illuminating to see what new jobs are being created at companies in the business travel space to see where the industry is going.
A good example of this is the recent appointment by American Express Global Business Travel of Evan Konwiser as vice president, digital traveller, who will have responsibility for all traveller-facing technology, including mobile and online booking. Konwiser's background is in leisure and tech start-up area. Most recently, he was co-founder and chief operating officer of luxury leisure travel agency Lark Travel Group. Previously, he built two other travel products: FlightCaster, which predicts flight delays real-time and was acquired in 2010, and Farely, which analyses airline cost data for travel buyers. Konwiser has also been an advisor to travel start-ups, including Olset, RocketMiles and GetGoing.
The appointment recognises the consumerisation of business travel.
The company says, "This raises the bar for the kind of technology that we as a travel management company need to provide to our customers and their travellers as their expectations and demands have shifted. Evan's appointment highlights how we are bringing more people into our business who have experience winning over consumers directly.
"Bringing Evan onboard — someone who has a deep expertise in developing solutions specifically aimed at enhancing the traveller experience - is a sign of our commitment to developing strategies and solutions that meet the needs of the end traveller in the context of a corporate travel programme. Part of GBT's strategy and Evan's mandate is to build technology that will allow GBT to materially improve the traveller experience in a globally consistent way. This is a major industry challenge today where technology is mostly regional and the experience is owned by a myriad of players."
Speaking to Business Travel iQ, Evan said, "Our industry's challenge is to meet the needs of the individual traveller while also ensuring our corporate customers can deliver on their priorities. As the expectations of our customers and their travellers have changed, our industry must adapt. For example, mobile has quickly become a primary channel for both improving the travel experience and meeting customer policy goals. This is partly about being more traveller-centric, but also about building a technology platform that will enable us to continue to evolve and service our customers as their expectations evolve."
Evan Konwiser