Groovers and movers at Web in Travel

Up to 10 entrepreneurs will pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors and mentors during the WIT Bootcamp: Entrepreneurship & Innovation held on October 17, as part of the annual Web In Travel conference. 



The WIT Start-Up Gallery, supported by BANSEA (Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia), will surface a string of new start-ups in the digital travel space with entries from Australia, US, China and Singapore. 



The winner, “Grooviest Start-Up”, will be announced on October 19 during the main WIT Conference by a panel of judges which includes investors and business leaders from the US, Europe, China and South-east Asia. 



Other innovators will also be recognised at the WIT Conference which is launching its inaugural WITovation Awards 2011.
In line with its theme, “Find Your Groove”, winners will be announced in these categories – Social Groover, Mobile Mover, Groove Specialista, Customer Lover and Groovy Marketer of the Year. 



Presented by Amadeus Asia, the awards are by nominations only and a selected panel of experts does judging.

Apart from the Bootcamp, the WIT Conference, in its seventh edition, has expanded this year to include a new event – THack@WIT, Asia’s first open travel hackathon being organized in partnership with travel technology news website, Tnooz. 



The 24-hour hacking event for developers, sponsored by Abacus as the exclusive GDS and Expedia Affiliate Network, will take place at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa & Spa, Siloso 4, on Oct 16-17.

THack is Tnooz’s unique event which brings together travel industry APIs and the development community to brainstorm and create new digital travel products and web or mobile-based tools.



Developers from across the travel, tourism and hospitality industry are welcome to attend, as well as engineers and technicians from local academic institutions in the region. The event is free for developers to attend and participate.

Meanwhile, the main two-day conference on October 18-19 is on track to attract close to 500 travel and tourism leaders and up to 80 speakers.

Topics under discussion will include leading edge trends such as mobile, social media, group deals and how changing customer behaviour is impacting in markets such as China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan. 



“Disruption is taking place at all fronts – from the economy to natural disasters to technology and changing customer behaviour.

“WIT will be the place to focus thought leadership in how companies can navigate their way through this disruptive, confusing landscape,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder and editor of Web In Travel.

The WIT Conference takes place alongside ITB Asia at Suntec City 18-19 October.