Harnessing the power of technology to enhance travel experiences.
Utpal Kaul, Global Head New Product Innovation @ CWT (formerly Carlson Wagonlits Travel)
Alexander Shartsis is currently the Head of Acquisitions of Opendoor. He is the former Co-founder and CEO of PerfectPrice, and prior to this endeavor, he functioned as Head of Business Development and 5th employee at Drawbridge, brought on just after seed funding from Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. There he grew the company from pre-product and pre-revenue to a $10mm run rate and a $100 million valuation series B in 13 months. He closed both the first 12 advertising clients (e.g., Disney) and first publisher deals including MoPub’s first RTB exchange partnership, and helped build a world class business team.
Before his time with Drawbridge, Alex was Director of Business Development at TripIt, from its Series A through its $120 million acquisition by Concur (subsequently acquired by SAP). There he launched the advertising business, lead the public launch of TripIt’s API, sourced, led and closed major distribution deals with Fortune 100 companies including American Express and Expedia, and created and managed relationships with partners including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn.
Robert Reive is a serial technology entrepreneur and inventor focused on distributed clean energy solutions which improve quality of life for all.
Robert’s early career involved factory work bringing new products to market with shoe giant Bata, and evolved quickly into designing, coding and supplying small manufacturers , distributors and service companies with business and operations management database centric software solutions running on PC and early LAN Networks.
Scale or die. How to master a market platform and creating equal demand to the supply you are building.
Jannik Lawaets is the Founder and CEO of LuggageHero, a growing network of affordable luggage-storage sites. He launched the service in 2016, inspired by a personal need to conveniently store luggage while traveling in cities. He started in his hometown of Copenhagen, and rapidly expanded to London and New York City. In 2019, Lawaetz will further expand LuggageHero into an additional 36 cities in North American and Europe.
Jade Brandais is the Founder and CEO of Renge, Inc., a networking platform geofenced around venues. Jade is an internationally published Technology Innovator and Networking-Technology Expert and is regularly invited for guest appearances on various shows and publications as a Social and Business Networking Expert. When speaking on public forums she offers real-life networking tips for millennials and “anyone addicted to their smartphones.”
With a background in the entertainment industry as a film producer, she is well-versed in the LA event circuit and the importance of networking. Trying to connect with the right people to collaborate and partner with can be a daunting task that depends not solely on a resume but trust between both parties. This trust germinates from a deep connection which doesn’t take place online but in real life. Finding these connections may seem serendipitous but with the technology of Renge one is always in the right place, at the right time with the right people; simply, See Who’s Here.
Blockchain provides infinite possibilities for business value creation. Are you ready to disrupt your competition or be disrupted?
Scott Mairs is the CEO of Blockchain Business Solutions. A proven technology and business executive with over 25 years in telecommunications, banking, insurance, private equity, risk management, and digital transformation, Scott has served in multiple C-level, Partner, Managing Director and other global leadership roles including Citibank, Bank of America, Sungard, and multiple IT and Strategic Advisory Consulting Firms.
Simon Maple is the Director of Developer Relations at Snyk.io, a Java Champion since 2014, JavaOne Rockstar speaker in 2014, Duke’s Choice award winner, Virtual JUG founder and organiser, and London Java Community co-leader. He is an experienced speaker, having presented at JavaOne, JavaZone, Jfokus, DevoxxUK, DevoxxFR, JavaLand, JMaghreb and many more including many JUG tours. His passion is around user groups and communities. When not traveling, Simon enjoys spending quality time with his family, cooking and eating great food.
Jonathan Chou is the CEO and Founder of BeeToken, a platform that seeks to reinvent the Home Sharing Economy by building a middleman free, peer-to-peer network of hosts and guests on the decentralized web.
Jonathan is mostly interested in Enterprise travel solutions and Blockchain / Crytocurrency.
Fayiaz Chaudhri is General Counsel and CEO for AIMACTEK Inc. He is responsible for management of the company’s legal department and legal entities, and serves on the executive board. Prior to AIMACTEK, Fayiaz was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Atos IT Solutions and Services Inc where he managed the legal affairs of a multibillion dollar organization.
Prior to Atos Fayiaz was Americas General Counsel at Infosys, where he was responsible for the legal operations of a $7.5 billion business unit. During his tenure, Infosys broke its record for most new business won in a year and he was recognized within the company as an exemplary team manager, key contributor and top performer through various awards. Prior to Infosys, Fayiaz was Senior Legal Counsel at Steria, EMEA Head of Legal at Epson and Head of Legal at PSINet. A leading expert in developing legal teams, negotiation and IT outsourcing, Fayiaz is a faculty member at Practising Law Institute and is regularly invited to speak at educational events by various training organizations.
Emily Jones Joanisse holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and an MBA in International Development and has worked in Information Technology for over 14 years, both in Canada and internationally (Europe and Australia). She is currently a part-time Management Professor at the Algonquin College School of Business and has also worked as an ICT Teacher at an International Baccalaureate school in Italy.
Tasneem (Tas) Damen holds B.Sc. Honours in Computer Mathematics from Carleton University and Graduate Certificate in IT Project Management from uOttawa. She is a Software Architect by vocation with over a decade of professional experience consulting for Fortune 500 companies. ML-based chatbot SaaS offering aimed at B2B organizations is one of her latest projects in eCommerce domain.
Tom Powers is the Founder and CEO of Abodeca, a great alternative search site for Vacation Rentals. Some other great site affiliated with Abodeca are FindRentals and Vacaryx. You can also find a lot of great alternative search on FindIt. The main take away is that with a little knowledge and effort you can directly connect with companies and save on the expensive situation that has evolved in standard search.
Deepak Anchala is the Founder and CEO of Slintel, a deep prospecting platform to boost conversion rates. Deepak affirms that sales and marketing teams today are inundated with company and contact lists and that many teams launch campaigns based on their target criteria and end up getting extremely low conversion rates (Industry average is < 2% on cold mails; <.5% on cold calls). This spray and pray approach has frustrated the buyer community (most buyers are drowned in seller spam), and also has led to the sales teams eroding their target clientele over time.
He thinks that the most important question sales and marketing teams need to be asking themselves is:
Who is most likely to buy my product or service, today?
That is all they need to launch the perfect campaign. Slintel seeks out to solve this problem.
The art and science of product design and strategy based on lessons learned during a 25-year career.
Paul Shustak is a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years’ experience in product design, development and marketing. He is currently founder and CEO of Karen.care, a SaaS platform that helps families care for their aging parents.
Ben Block, Founder & CEO of GozAround Inc., is a serial entrepreneur and lawyer with a passion for making a difference to those around him. Inspired by the power of technology to build real world relationships, and driven by his love of business, Ben is on a mission to change the way people, business and non-profits connect and do good.
In August 2014, GozAround launched from its base in Edmonton, Canada, with one big act of goodness. GozAround brought together big-hearted businesses from around the city to throw a wedding for a terminally ill mother of five. Complete with a limo, video, photographers, cake, flowers and all – it didn’t cost the couple a cent and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. This life changing event was designed to prove the concept behind GozAround…that people and business badly want to make a difference…they just need a better way to find, measure and share their contributions.
Ben Block is a technology entrepreneur and business operator with vast experience in all things Internet. Ben has worked with early stage startups, mature private Internet companies as well as large public corporations.
In August 2016, Ben was named CEO of DH Enterprise & Associates, a New York based Internet travel company selling prepackaged leisure vacations through both the web and its call center. For the two years preceding his appointment as CEO, Ben served on DH’s Board of Directors, providing technical and management advice to the board and management team.
In 2014 Ben Co-Founded Bask Labs, a business focused on developing data driven solutions for the online food ordering space. He was responsible for driving the product and technical innovations the company brought to online food ordering through its personalization technology. Under Ben’s leadership, Bask built a content-based recommendation engine and an intelligent search engine. These two products led to the sale of Bask to GrubHub in 2016.
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