Tech Talk: Israel’s emerging tech ecosystem goes to Las Vegas
A travel-tech showcase brought to the entertainment capital of the world a delegation of 15 Israeli start-ups with solutions for gaming and integrated resorts.
By ARIEL SHAPIRAUpdated: NOVEMBER 23, 2017 11:38Right to left: Rom Hendler - InnoVel Founder/Managing Partner , Ramesh Srinivasan - CEO, Agilysys , Pete Boyd - Sr. VP of Operations at The Venetian, Serkan Gecmen - Vice President of Innovation & Application DevelopmentAffinity Gaming, Leonard Yip - Chief People Officer, Chief Information Officer, (photo credit: Courtesy)
Las Vegas, for the first time, had a firsthand sample of the emerging vibrant Israeli travel-tech ecosystem. A travel-tech showcase, organized by Innovel, brought to the entertainment capital of the world a delegation of 15 Israeli start-ups with solutions for gaming and integrated resorts. Such a unique proposition was designed to generate opportunities for the gaming industry to meet the most creative minds in Israel’s travel-tech ecosystem.According to Innovel managing partner Rom Hendler, this kind of collaboration can generate breakthroughs for the travel industry, helping the travel companies stay on the cutting edge of technology.“Companies in the travel and gaming industry do not compete with each other for technologies, but rather with other industries,” he said. “Therefore, it is important to foster collaboration within the industry and have travel companies open their platforms to emerging technologies.”The Las Vegas chapter of Travel Tech Israel met at the International Gaming Institute at UNLV last week. Modeling its Israeli counterpart, TTI Las Vegas distinguished itself with its ability to bring together an outstanding cadre of senior gaming and hospitality executives for panel discussions and speed-dating events, allowing it to get to the core of the most pressing technology-related needs and challenges in travel, as well as new trends in gaming, operations, entertainment and marketing.Innovel is a new breed of innovation centers. With unmatched know-how in the industry, Innovel connects travel companies with the most cutting-edge start-ups, leading them through the implementation of solutions that address concrete pains and problems and focus on valuable features.Among the start-ups that participated in the recent TTI Las Vegas:Flybits is focused on the design and development of a scalable Context Aware Computing services.Trustifi is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company offering the only certified email solution on the market. Its patented postmarked email system is encrypted and trackable, and it is also the first federally accepted method of sending legal documents online. The solution provides any company dealing with highly sensitive information with absolute confidentiality, security and peace of mind.Bitemojo is the first app in the world that offer self-guided food experiences with nothing but a smartphone. In all bitemojo experiences, food is already included integrally as part the experience, allowing the customer to taste the best dishes and drinks at his own time and pace in a fun, exciting and affordable way with only his smartphone.It is already operating in Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and will launch soon in more destinations throughout Europe and Asia. Bitemojo is already implemented in hotel chains, tour operators and lifestyle brands, creating exceptional culinary experiences that are co-branded and tailored to the corporate requirements and goals.
Gamitee connects online shoppers with their friends when shopping online, while benefiting client sites with increased traffic, higher conversions and unique, actionable data. It does this with just one line of code that adds to the site a special in-site, real-time group messaging platform.Rad Travel is a B2B-focused platform empowering brands to drive engagement, loyalty and revenue through smart utilization of authentic, meaningful travel content. Founder Gilad Goren is a social entrepreneur born and raised in the travel industry. Through his projects, writing and speaking opportunities, he seeks to push the world’s largest industry to meet its potential for positive impact on a global scale.Splitty delivers unique hotel deals for more than 500,000 properties in 127 countries. By evaluating upwards of 1.5 million permutations of room type, cancellation policy, travel provider and other traits, its algorithms determine how to combine two rate plans or multiple travel providers to create unique deals for the consumer that offer significant savings when compared with those offered by traditional reservation systems. Splitty also creates new inventory, offering consumers options for hotels that would otherwise be listed as “sold out” and helps hotels to monetize their unsold inventory.ThemeGo is a leading source for reviews of theme-park vacations fans, families and “big kids.”VDROOM is the first hospitality platform combining virtual reality with all existing distribution channels.Splitit has a patented technology that is revolutionizing the travel-tech world by enabling seamless installment payments for businesses of all sizes and types. Its solution promotes growth for online travel and captures business regardless of location. The merchant does not assume any greater risk than they have with a regular card transaction, and the consumer can easily charge any purchase on their existing credit card and pay it back in monthly interest-free installments.Roomchecking is all-in-one solution for hotel operations. With beautiful engaging mobile apps for all the hotel staff, connected to the PMS, Roomchecking allows hotels to engage with the best experience for their clients.Galapro opens the curtains on a universal cultural experience by delivering multilingual subtitles, dubbing, audio describe and amplification to users’ own mobile device. Imagine traveling to Japan and dropping in at a last-minute kabuki performance – and actually being able to understand it. Or attending Madame Butterfly for the first time without having to read a recap online – and spoiling the ending – just to make sure you will be able to follow the story.Simgo has a patented, award-winning sim-management platform that moves the provisioning of mobile services from any cellular device to a cloud-based, centralized system with global reach.The Howazit Customer Care platform has a unique pro-active approach that allows businesses to communicate effectively with their customers. It results in higher retention rates, an increase in average purchase per customer and reduces customer support-center costs.If you run a young start-up, have developed an interesting app or have a question, please feel free to contact info@social-wisdom.com
