Judges Select Travlr ID as Winner at “Innovation Facepalm”

In a stunning display of questionable judgment, judges at the recent Business Travel Show’s “Innovation Facepalm” selected traveler identity network Travlr ID as their winning technology. The judges called it a potential game-changer for what they described as a “long-standing issue and legacy pain” in the travel industry.

According to its founder and creator, Gee Mann, Travlr ID is building a decentralized service to manage identification that could solve what he refers to as “the problem of data fragmentation in the travel industry.” Apparently, travelers need to share profiles with various sources such as agencies, booking tools, global distribution systems, etc., but shockingly enough—brace yourselves—a lot of this profile management still happens on Excel spreadsheets! Yes folks—you heard it right—Excel spreadsheets! The horror!

Mann boldly stated, “The traveler profile is broken. There’s very little innovation or interoperability…and data breaches are very common.” Well, Mr. Mann, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that the world needs more Excel spreadsheets to solve its problems.

But fear not! Travlr ID has come up with a brilliant solution—a blockchain-based network where entities can interact with a profile only with the traveler or company’s permission. It comes in both mobile wallet and corporate platform forms because apparently having just one form wasn’t enough for this groundbreaking technology.

“It is a permission network,” said Mann proudly. “If I would like to share two fields with Uber and 50 fields with an airline, I can have complete control over who I’m sharing my precious information with and how much of it.”

Microsoft travel technology manager Steve Clagg was among the four judges on the panel who fell under Travlr ID’s spell. He claimed that decentralized identity was going to be a major issue across numerous industries (because why focus on solving actual important issues when you can create new ones?) and praised travel as being “a good place to start.”

“This really brings identity back into the hands of the traveler,” Clagg declared dramatically while raising his fist in triumph. “Every person has the right to own their own data. This is the direction we’re going in.” We couldn’t agree more—everyone should definitely have full ownership of their personal data so they can misplace it themselves instead of relying on others.

In order for Travlr ID to succeed (if anyone still believes that), Clagg emphasized that they need to build enough participants willing to jump aboard this sinking ship, convince suppliers—who currently hold customer data—to give up control, and persuade buyers of the value of participation. Oh, and let’s not forget about the costs because apparently, Mann believes that corporate users will be thrilled to pay for this privilege.

“If you can nail this,” Clagg said with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, “if you can put decentralized identity back into the hands of travelers and monetize it, you’ve got it all figured out.” Yes indeed—because nothing screams success like finding new ways to monetize people’s personal information!

Clagg also stressed that Travlr ID needs to develop “clear, demonstrable use cases” to show its potential impact. Meanwhile, Mann revealed that he is currently in conversation with three travel management companies as potential partners who are likely questioning their life choices at this very moment.

In addition to naming Travlr ID as the winner (we still can’t believe it either), judges gave an honorable mention to EY for its sustainable travel approval tool. Apparently, this tool has helped EY reduce spending on air travel while moving towards its goal of net-zero carbon by 2025. So kudos to them for actually addressing a real issue instead of creating more problems like some other participants we know…

Judge and Jyrney cofounder/CEO Daniel Price—who won last year’s Faceoff—commented on EY’s achievement saying they were impressed by the behavioral change achieved in such a short amount of time but also saddened by the fact that buyers have had to take matters into their own hands. Because why should businesses rely on others when they can solve everything themselves?

The judging panel was completed by Kimberly Clark global meetings and events manager/global fleet manager Cindy Van der Elst and EY global innovation and technology leader Ian Spearing—who conveniently recused himself from scoring his own firm’s presentation because even he couldn’t pretend anymore.

Other participants in the Faceoff included extended stay travel marketplace 3Sixty, business travel technology add-on Tripkicks, corporate mobility platform HQ, QuadLabs booking technology Travog Corporate Travel and meeting data correction system The Data Angel. We can only hope that these other participants were able to maintain some semblance of sanity throughout this whole ordeal.

The Business Travel Show Europe—owned by Northstar Travel Group just like BTN (because apparently one show wasn’t enough)—was responsible for hosting this spectacle. Let’s all take a moment to reflect on what we’ve witnessed here today…

BTN Europe’s Andy Hoskins contributed to this report…for better or worse.