Virtuoso Travel Tech Summit Start-Up Panel

He's been on our podcast before and , of course , he invited me to the event last year , and we're back in his suite here at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with an incredible group of startups that presented yesterday at the Travel Tech Summit .

Now Gilad always does an incredible job with his presentations , with the event , but also bringing together such an incredibly talented and diverse group of people that I couldn't be more excited to introduce you to .

And actually , when I spoke to Gilad earlier this morning , he said you know , they're not all about technology and I said that's okay , because we're all about travel trends . Now I want to give Gilad the opportunity to kick things off and provide a brief overview of the Travel Tech Summit and then we'll go around and introduce everyone .

And having all these amazing innovators here is really what makes this event what it is , and , as you guys probably remember from last year , the whole idea here is to bring together innovators from large companies , startups , investors , analysts and other thought leaders for us to co-create , for us to work together , because , I like to say every year , innovation is

not a single person sport , it's a team sport , and we all got to work together to do it . So it was a blast . We had a main stage session with a bunch of big speakers , and then , of course , everyone's favorite part is the startup showcase , and some of the guys are joining us here today .

If you put all that together and you could actually plan your trip , ask questions and actually see all the pictures , maps and itinerary associated with that , that's mindtripai .

I had a lot of clients who were coming my way and saying we're trying to figure out whether we should stay together or get divorced or going on vacation . We're trying to kind of reimagine what intimacy looks like , because you know , we have kids and it's been a long time for us to connect .

We are going on vacation , and so I thought what if we blended all of the best of luxury with skill building , personal development and transformational education and educational experiences to really help couples travel with a purpose ? And so that's what we do at Intimacy Moons and just happy to be here .

It's not just video , it's 360 live video , and the most effective way to sort of experience it is through a VR headset , but we have a 2D application as well , which could be applied with web and mobile , but it's really a way for the supplier to convey major data points from the room to the common areas .

And this came from my own experience owning operating businesses in the hospitality space , both in the events lodging and food and beverage , and also a planning and design company . So I thoroughly understand both sides of the marketplace and we're super excited to bring this to hospitality .

For the past five years , I've been a vacation host for seven homes near use , so I really learned the value of one-on-one communication and personalized experiences . We're building the AI concierge for hospitality , starting with hotels .

It's a way for hotels to be able to give their guests a wonderful experience with 24-7 multilingual support , with all of the best data for the destination hotel and things to do . The partnership allows guests to be able to have access to plan the best trips and experiences customized to you . So super excited about this .

Thanks for having me here experiences customized to you .

I think you've heard a bit about their backgrounds , which are clearly very diverse , and , of course , we're here at Virtuoso , which is focused on travel advisors and tour operators , that , of course , being the theme for this series , where we're looking at travel advisors and how they are undergoing this incredible renaissance and their importance and relevance , and so

that's what I wanted to dig into . But I think you've gotten a good idea of the backgrounds for Andy and Marissa and Akiva and Jesse and I want to go to Andy first , because I've heard so much about MindTrip over the past year .

You clearly have an impressive background , you've got an amazing team and you've built a really compelling service that totally works for B2C , but clearly there's also a massive opportunity for B2B , so I'm thrilled that Gilad brought you here , and I saw your presentation yesterday , where you were talking about some of the B2B solutions that you've been implementing ,

especially for DMOs , and I think your technology is clearly perfect for solving a number of those problems .

But , given your journey on the path to B2C and now being here looking at the massive opportunity for B2B , I thought it'd be great to start with you to tell us what brought you here and some of the solutions that you're working on that will solve the problems for travel advisors , or what we refer to as the trade Absolutely so .

You can check it all out at mindtripai

. What we then found , though , was that we had a lot of people in the industry actually really look at what we were doing and sort of say , hey , this would actually work really well with our content as well , and the first place where we started with that was actually with the DMOs and the tourism boards and that kind of stuff .

So we actually have five DMOs actually signed up for a lighthouse program . You can actually embed our AI assistant right on their content , and the AI is smart enough to know actually which page it's actually looking at as well . So if it's talking about the Monterey Bay Aquarium , the assistant can actually start asking questions about the aquarium .

We're also very focused on collaboration , so another key piece of your planning a trip is obviously who you're traveling with and planning together , so that's one of the areas where we actually think it might be really good for travel advisors .

Can it be that you can actually plan a trip with your advisor and use our AI tools to actually do that collaboratively and then actually sort of work on that as you actually go through the trip as well ? So I mean , we're here ready to learn the travel of Pfizer world .

We're just getting into that and we're just getting amazing feedback at this conference about just how it might fit in .

The one that stood out to me , of course , was that 66% of couples go on holidays to work on their relationships , which I mentioned on our executive panel , and a number of the executives that joined that discussion were also equally impressed by your presentation .

And at a time when wellness is such a priority for travelers , the idea of sexual wellness is very relevant , very timely , and I was so impressed that there was no awkward moments yesterday during your presentation . Given the subject matter , everyone was just gripped with it because they could see how important it's going to be to their clients .

And I guess that's what I wanted to ask you . Is that , given your background , and now you're here at Virtuoso with this incredible new business , Intimacy Moons I'd love to know what brought you to the event and how some of the trade partners and the travel community will be able to engage with you after ?

My dad is a retired pilot from Delta , so it is kind of travel has always been ingrained in who I am , and so as I started learning more about what my clients really needed and how not everybody was ready for therapy right . I think a lot of times when couples are going through stuff , they can be disconnected . They can be together for a long time .

I think one of the things that I mentioned at the talk yesterday is that the average Intimacy Moons client has been married for at least 15 to 20 years , with most clients being married for 25 years plus , and so , with that being said , they love the person that they're with . They just know that we feel disconnected . Life is getting in the way .

How do we do this ? Not everybody is ready for therapy .

For me , intimacy Moons was how do we support people in the middle who's not ready to go to therapy yet , but are open to transformational experiences , open to talking about intimacy and mental health and sexual wellness in a new way , something that felt a lot more approachable , and so for me , I think that it was important to meet people where they're at , and

I'm here because I think the community that Virtuoso has the symbiotic relationship between travel advisors and hotels and just operators the way in which Virtuoso functions it's a beautiful synergy . I love the synergy and the collaboration and the friendliness of this community .

If you have a question , if you're curious about something you're like , hey , I want to connect with you to talk about this . There is a graciousness about this community and really that's why I'm here . I'm here because I want to be able to serve and continue serving couples at scale , because there is no doubt that people are suffering . People need support .

I'm here really to continue that collaboration with other advisors and to continue to let everybody know what we do in the heart for this work that I have .

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It's really wonderful to see four smiling faces around the table that are new to Virtuoso , and I remember exactly how that felt last year . And since we're kind of midway through the event and I know there's a lot more that you're going to be able to benefit from , but given it's everyone's first time , I really want to get your initial perspectives .

And Akiva , with FeelVR , I really enjoyed your presentation yesterday as well , and I felt like no one else has tapped into this potential for VR , and it's such an important element for travel inspiration and being able to experience the destination before you travel , and so having video content versus just static images , which , unfortunately , so many travel companies

still rely on in their magazines , brochures and websites . It's so one-dimensional . What you presented yesterday was incredibly exciting to give customers a chance to experience the destination before they get there or actually encourage them to go . So tell us a bit more about what brought you here and some of the customers you're hoping to generate as a result .

Now you have the reverse effect with properties that don't show well , which is actually part of the user's pain point where they get to a property , and it's false advertising . Some other technologies are doing which would have been a good product . We want to be a great product , which is about distribution .

So , instead of distributing headsets to 2 billion customers , our mission is to distribute headsets to 100,000 users , which are the brokers , the event planners , the travel advisors , and they can easily send headsets to their customers as well .

But our 2D application is as important , if not more important today In other words , the partnerships that we're creating both in the leisure , corporate and events world is to just change your image to an activated video where the viewer controls the video Full stop . Yeah , I mean in my presentation showing that clip from Talladega Nights .

It's really about a feeling right . When you're seeing a trailer , your decision-making jumps by 80% 71% of our users we surveyed 1,500 users and we had 430 responses said that they canceled site inspections or vacations because they saw the property as if they were there . It means they found in the directory a property that really fits their desires .

She highlighted her dog , Remy . So I'm keen to get Jesse , who runs GuestOS , get your take on your first experience here at Virtuoso and how you thought everything went yesterday and specifically some of the reach-outs you had , because I saw each of you had a number of people lined up to speak to you after your sessions , whether it's partners or investors .

So tell us what intrigued them and some of the highlights from your experience so far .

And I think the most attractive part to everyone in this industry is the focus is on the human connection , enhancing that and so being able to provide your guest or your customer with this still high level experience based on the best quality data .

You're training it on you , so it's an extension of yourself , your hotel , your business , and so that is super exciting and it's available 24 seven and being able to not have to repeat yourself . I grew up in the hospitality industry . Since the age of 12 .

I've been repeating the same questions about Yosemite , the same questions about check-in to so much more meaningful in-person focus on guests and really really performing those experiences that are memorable , versus a coordination and sort of mundane tasks that AI will now handle .

And so , in addition to that , we're seeing a huge focus on experiences , especially at hotels . People are utilizing the real estate that they have and providing the and combining that with with the inventory and experiences based on every single guest , which is incredibly awesome .

So that was another person who reached out focused on super high-end hotels in Asia and he he said that he's focused on being able to provide them with more experiences , and so that that's what we're really excited to do and provide every hotel business in the hospitality industry with the ability to focus on human connection .

I mean , jesse , when you first arrived , you'd actually set up a meetup for an informal speaker's dinner the night before , and I think you'll hear it from everyone's voices , you'll see it in the pictures That'll be shared on social from the event , on LinkedIn and elsewhere . You know , it's really an amazing community that Gillette has brought together .

It sparks innovation and it's really important at the beginning of Virtuoso . What I heard yesterday from a number of people I was speaking to is how practical and useful they felt the sessions were and there was a number of partners that they thought they could work with .

So it really is a terrific opportunity for these startups to be here , to connect with the well-established travel agent community , to be able to find new business opportunities and partnerships . So it really is all about relationships and connections , as Gilad knows all too well .

So , gilad , tell us what was some of the feedback that you heard yesterday from the sessions , from both the startups here and the wider audience , from both the onstage and the breakout sessions .

I'll say this Virtuoso has always been a home for innovators From the very beginning of the company . Almost 40 years ago brought together a group of owners of agencies who are working to share technology and data and insights together .

So Virtuoso has always been a home for innovators and I'm very proud that we're continuing that with our tech summit offering , and I loved what a couple of you said . I measure success for our tech summit based on the quality of the conversation that happens at lunch and the days to follow .

So I love what you just said there , dan , because that's what I'm in it for is to have conversation that lifts all of us together . And one of the things I should have said before is this year in the startup showcases , we broke them into three primary groups and you heard representatives from each of the groups .

The first was technology for agencies and hotels and really focusing on how do we help our agency partners and our hotel partners adopt technology and do a better job by partnering with these startups and these innovators .

The second group of social commerce , which is a really important up and coming element of our ecosystem and really commerce across any industry , but travel which is so experiential and so collaborative is really important .

And the third one , of course , being traveler perspectives and Marissa is such a great representative of that group really trying to focus on travelers who have specific needs and desires and goals from their trips beyond just a good time , and making sure that we can highlight the needs of all of our different constituencies .

So I was really proud of what happened yesterday and I think a few of the things we heard from our speakers this morning and our guests here on your pod was really exciting .

Andy talked a lot about the B2C and B2B opportunities and , as we all know , for any of us who've watched a travel tech space for a long time , there's a lot more success in B2B because this industry is highly collaborative . There's actually not a lot of examples of startups succeeding on their own in the B2C space .

Airbnb is really one of the last ones that succeeded and Airbnb is well over 20 years old at this point . So I love that combination of how do you partner and combine B2C and B2B2C and how do you learn from there . Of course , marissa talking about other ways to connect through travel , I mean that's why I love travel . Travel is about human connection .

We travel to connect with the humans we're with , with the humans we meet , with , the cultures and histories and foods of there , which , of course , are all human creations . So I love that . My favorite thing that Akiva said .

I mean there's a lot of things I love about feel , but my favorite part is giving the traveler actual control , the fact that they get to decide where they want to look and what they want to experience . That's actually what we want to offer customers . Personalization is about giving them the experience to see , so I love that element .

And then , of course , jesse did a beautiful job of talking about the importance of using technology to elevate the human connection . That's the entire goal that brings us together here is using technology to elevate the human connection . So I felt really great about yesterday and , like you said , I'm really excited for the conversation .

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I also wanted to touch on what everyone's looking forward to over the next few days at this event , since there is so much that you're going to be able to benefit from and you know there was such an incredible number of sessions yesterday and the keynote that Gilad delivered is available online , so you can access that and watch that for yourself .

And I think that's important , both with this podcast and with Virtuoso is being able to showcase everyone that is here and what is actually happening at this event . So I'm also keen to get your take on some of the other themes and trends that you saw from the sessions yesterday and really what stood out to you .

And then I'd like to go back around to everyone here around the table and get your take on what you're looking forward to over the next few days .

so . My three themes that I focused on in my talk and , of course , a lot of our speakers focused on as well , were in three groups artificial intelligence , and specifically what I call the great commoditization of AI , which is about a lot more than gen AI and really about giving access to these capabilities to businesses , large and small .

We talked about new monetization methods , and there's a whole lot of different new , different monetization offerings within travel , largely because it's one of the fastest growing industries in the world and , of course , we all know the public markets reward companies for being engaged in growth markets , which is why we're seeing so many non-traditional travel businesses

coming in . So we focus deeply on that . Two areas that I'm most interested in is financialization of travel and travelization of finance , and we saw examples of both of those yesterday .

And then we finished by talking about connected systems , and we spent a lot of time yesterday talking about the connected trip , which is really the holy grail I think many of us are building towards , and , at the end of the day , the connected trip really is the rising tide that lifts all boats .

When a traveler has a better experience , the advisor , the agency , the supplier , the partners everyone wins .

So these were the three themes that I focused on on stage but , like you heard before , we really looked at social commerce and all these other things that are really important in our industry and I was very proud of all the speakers and presenters that we had .

I think one of the things we're actually sort of excited about is we actually launched a product a couple of weeks ago called Start Anywhere , where you can take any content that you already have , and obviously Virtuoso plus a lot of the agencies and advisors just have amazing content about travel , so you can use the AI to take a photo or an itinerary that

already exists , or a video with an audio transcript about sort of where to travel . All of that information . We can actually use the AI to actually build itineraries and favorite lists and all that kind that you can actually then make actionable . So another area we're interested in is how do you just tap into that content ?

It's almost like the social commerce sort of angle you were talking about earlier , so I think that is one of the key things we're trying to learn more about .

I think that particularly entrepreneurship can be , it could be lonely at times , and so , even if you have other friends I have other friends that are entrepreneurs not everybody understands this business , this world , and so it's .

I think what I'm very excited about is to continue to collaborate , to continue to learn , to continue to hold space for amazing conversations wherever it leads , even just to be in company with other startup founders , to learn from each other . I don't know everything .

I think the one thing about entrepreneurship and innovation is that you're going to try , you're going to fail , you're going to try , you're going to try again , and I think I'm really just looking forward to just the process and the journey this weekend .

Talking to other technologies , startups that are , we can potentially , for example , mindtrip you're designing your trip , but ultimately , if the consumer doesn't understand their product that they're looking at because they're using images , there is a place for collaboration , I think , across the board .

Ultimately , the user needs to understand their product , and so I'm really excited about the community . It's tough because when you don't have dedicated time , I can tell you for myself I'm doing , on average , 14 hour days . I'm moving quickly .

To some it might feel aggressive , but at the same time , if you , if you dedicate time to the point , exactly what Gilad is saying , which is personal connection is like hey , I'm dedicating these next 20 minutes to look in your eyes and have a discussion and listen and understand sort of what your roadmap is , what are your challenges and how we potentially can

work together . There could be risks in that as well If you're an early stage startup . There's different stages of startups , but the idea is to communicate and create connection at a time that's dedicated for that , and so I love this what Gilad has built here as just that , as dedicated time for understanding .

But there's so much to talk about and I'm excited to continue these conversations .

And so just being around and watching the panel yesterday focused on the same mission of creating this connected trip and really focused on guest and human connection and I think it's just so incredible .

Everyone knows this stuff , but then you hear from experts and you have the data to back it behind and you're just nodding in agreement the entire panel and you're like , wow , that makes a lot of sense and we're all working toward achieving this and I think that's been super incredible . Where I'm based in San Francisco , people aren't as familiar with travel .

So , being here , you don't have to give the backstory , everyone understands and it just makes sense . So that's really nice , being around people that understand it and that are focused on this . So I think that's a really interesting thing . It's been really wonderful and I'm really looking forward to the prototyping session . I love building .

I love creating solutions to challenges that we all face . I just published an interview on my podcast , peak Conversations , with a tour operator who's been based out of the Netherlands and has been in business for over 40 years and she talks about .

They have all this data and really deep insights into the experience , but it's really on everyone hotels and tours and everyone to come together to make sure that their client has a good experience , relationships built , that you build trust and you're like , okay , you'll handle the rest of the client trip .

My team is going to have the most amazing experience and I think that's really cool . You're meeting people who you're able to connect with and make sure that your guests can have this amazing experience when they're on their trip . Very awesome to see .

We're both very lucky , we're both very fortunate . Exactly , if anyone listened to the end of season three for ours , they know how much Zach needs to fix in post , and so what I wanted to highlight about that is that we're building out a Friends of Travel Trends section on the website to highlight all the other amazing podcasts that you can listen to .

So obviously , make sure we'll put some more details out there for all of the great guests that we have on season four here , because after season one , I think there was about four people from our 10 episodes that started podcasts as a result of the season , and I think that's wonderful

.

I couldn't be more supportive of the community , because everyone has their own interesting perspective , and the conversations that Gilad have is quite unique from the conversations we have about travel trends , because he's very focused on travel tech , which couldn't be more important to many of our listeners , but I want to go back around and make sure everyone knows how

to follow up with each of you . And then , Gilad , I'd like you to bring us home on how everyone can find out more about what's happened here at Virtuoso and the Travel Tech Summit . So we're going to go back in reverse order with you , jessie .

It's all connected in some way , so thanks again , kivafeel IO .

So the first goal is to co-create . So I would love for you to reach out to me and to any one of our speakers and presenters in the summit because , by virtue of being here , they told you they want to work together , to co-create and to engage together with the industry . Second is inside out learning , or bi-directional learning .

Our goal is for those of us who are veterans in the industry to share what we've learned , and for those of us who are new and innovators to share what we've learned , and for all of us to work together . And the third thing , of course , is to inspire more innovation and more investment in our ecosystem .

I don't think you're going to find anyone that's going to argue that travel is a leader in technology adoption today , but I really think that could change . And the only way that could change is if we all co-create together . If we all work together .

We bring in entrepreneurs , technologists , investors and the industry together , so that's actually what I'm most excited about and most grateful for for all of you here and for Dan for being a part of this and for everyone else who participated and I'm really looking forward to it .

So the next couple of weeks , I'm going to share some of my learnings on LinkedIn , and I'm sure many other people will as well , so please join the conversation and thank you , dan , for highlighting this .

So there's an incredible history between Virtuoso and the Bellagio and for any of the fans of Ocean's Eleven I'm a huge fan I always find coming here very inspiring , and certainly this conversation has been . It's been wonderful to be able to speak to Andy , marissa Akiva and Jesse to get your stories .

I know there's going to be a lot of interest for each of you . I'm very excited to see your growth and potential . One of the people that we actually not only interviewed last year , um , that runs a company called travel wits . He gave a presentation yesterday .

It was the second time he's he came back and when you saw the growth year over year of his business , it was truly remarkable . I mean $70 million in revenue , 80 new clients , and I said to Jesse afterwards he clearly knows his audience and has had an incredible year by virtue of connecting with this community .

So what I wanted to say to each of you is that I hope you're exactly in the same position as he is today , this time next year , and I look forward to seeing each of your businesses grow and succeed . So thank you so much for being here . Real pleasure to meet you , and I think Gilad wants to say one more thing . Thanks so much , gilad .

It's wonderful to be back here with you and terrific to be sitting at this table in your suite at the Bellagio , surrounded by this incredible group of individuals . Thank you so much , andy , marissa , akiva and Jesse , for sharing your stories . I'm sure there's going to be so much interest in each of your startups .

I'm very excited to see your growth over the next year , and one of the startups that I saw yesterday is Travelwits . Armin was presenting for the second time , and when you saw the growth of his business over the past year , it's truly remarkable .

I mean $70 million in revenue , 80 new clients , and I said to Jesse afterwards , armin clearly knows his audience and has had an incredible year by virtue of connecting with this community . So what I wanted to say and finish up on is that I hope that each of you end up in the same position next year as he is today .

And I think Gilab wants to say one additional thing .

The whole goal is , a year from now , for all these companies to be more mature , more embedded and innovating even further . So thank you for highlighting all these guys .

making time for this . Good luck over the next few days , and I'd like to extend a big thanks to all of our listeners for joining us on this episode of Travel Trends , with a special spotlight on Virtuoso and the startup panel . I hope you really enjoyed this discussion and the executive roundtable as well .

Over the course of season four , we're actually going to feature a few additional highlights from Virtuoso , so get ready to hear from some additional executives and startups as well .

Don't forget to make sure that you are subscribed on your favorite streaming service to get the latest Travel Trends episodes , and be sure to check us out on YouTube and Instagram for video highlights and some photos as well , and be sure to check us out on LinkedIn for all of our latest updates .

Thanks so much for joining us and get ready for our next series , where we do a deep dive into travel advisors . Until next time , safe travels .