How Business Travel Show's Launchpad helped to launch Taptrip

Taptrip exhibited in the 2019 Business Travel Show Launchpad and is returning as an exhibitor in 2020 with a stand on the main show floor. Co-founder Neil Ruth tells us more about the decision behind exhibiting, and how the company has enjoyed meteoric success since.

Why did you apply for a Launchpad stand at Business Travel Show 2019?

Launchpad offers a unique platform for disruptive start-ups to showcase products, directly to the travel industry sectors that they are looking to target. This supports innovation and the evolution of the industry.

What stage had you reached, as a business?

We were pre-launch. As a result, we wanted to use Launchpad to drive more sign-ups to our waiting list. The social media polling stage of last year’s Disrupt competition was an excellent tool in this regard.

Tell us a bit about your business.

Taptrip is a new approach to business travel. The solution caters primarily to the under-served SME market. The platform supports businesses with structure and insight into their travel spend and customers see typical savings of over 30%.

We want travellers to love Taptrip and the ‘traveller-first’ approach. The goal is to bring the personalisation and user experience of a service such as Spotify or Netflix, to business travel.  This has resulted in compliance levels of over 95%.

How did being at the show help?

The platform was validated by respected experts within the industry. Subsequently it not only elevated the Taptrip profile but also provided the base for a lot of new connections.

Since the show, Taptrip has won best UK start up, been accepted onto the Barclays powered by Techstars accelerator in New York and launched in the US.

Tell us about the process of entering the start-up awards at Business Travel Show.

The process was detailed, as expected, but not arduous. The questions are tailored in a way that they give entrants an opportunity to assess their current situation. This inevitably yields a lot of insight into next steps.

And what did it mean to you to win?

It was sincerely unexpected given our infancy, but incredibly flattering to be voted winners by those who have so much insight into the business travel industry.

How have things progressed - product and business wise - since you were at the show in February?

Taptrip launched in August 2018 as a team of three and now employs 10, including the user experience (UX) lead from PlayStation. Growth has been exponential, and the feedback has been incredible.

Taptrip now has strategic partnerships with the likes of WeWork and Barclays and many more areas soon to go live. The company remains intent on making business travel booking ‘more buzz and less bore’.

And how do you see the future of Taptrip?

2020 will a big year. We have a massive announcement to make at the 2020 Business Travel Show.  We are working on some innovative partnerships, particularly across FinTech and the first will go live in Q2 next year. We have just launched a closed beta in the US.  We had our first booking late November and have a waiting list of hundreds of users.

Most of all, Taptrip will break the traditional routes to market, through more creative alliances and make managing business travel even more accessible to SMEs.

What advice would you give to other travel start-ups?

Enjoy the early moments. Diaries and photographs are a great opportunity to show progress and the journey to success.

Avoid burnout. Take time out because it reaps much better longer-term productivity.

And finally get used to hearing ‘no’ from investors, but don’t be afraid to say it yourself.  Start-up owners know their business best.

Why should they apply for a Launchpad stand?

There is no reason that a start-up should not apply. None.

What will it mean to you to come back to the show in 2020 and be on the main show floor with the other big suppliers?

Taptrip will be there to show the progression and evolution of not only our vision but the latest technology inside of a working product. Taptrip is a clear example that the travel industry still innovates, and that innovation is encouraged and welcomed.

We will also be celebrating the fact that platform is used and loved by thousands of business travellers.

What does the future of corporate travel technology look like?

Frictionless. Automated. Simple. Gamified. Enjoyable. Compliant.

Climate change awareness is at a peak, how do you think this will affect travel over the next 2-3 years?

It is not just travellers. All humans have a responsibility to be eco-friendly and live as sustainably as possible.

There’s a plethora of innovation to support this.  Adoption of alternatives and making smarter choices, will become even more prominent.

At Taptrip, we are a paper free business, we have ditched the business cards, pool ride with each other when that’s an option and are always conscious and considerate of environmental choices.

How would you define conscious travel/travel management?

It’s highly relative but acknowledging that there is an issue that needs to be addressed, is a good start. 

In practice it comes down to business choices, not just in travel, but even to something as granular as a cleaning product.

Does Taptrip make it easier for bookers to choose sustainable suppliers and make more environmentally friendly choices?

Yes – and we continue to increase the scale of these options where possible.

For example, the Taptrip loyalty programme allows for travellers to donate their rewards to a charity that offsets carbon footprint. Further developments may include an option to put these rewards into sustainable investments and the ability to filter flight searches by emissions.

Taptrip is exhibiting at Business Travel Show 2020, which takes place from 26-27 February at Olympia London. Register now for free at www.businesstravelshow.com/register

GUEST BLOG: Harbour84 on…being well at work

In today’s hyper-competitive market, where we are ‘always on’ and connected and the demands of work often stretch beyond the traditional ‘9-5’, workplace stress is ever more prevalent. As Jeffrey Pfeffer wrote recently in an article for McKinsey “workplace stress…costs US employers $200 billion a year”. Given this figure we cannot help but be surprised that there is any question at all about the return on investment (ROI) in having a happy and healthy workforce. After all, happy people are more engaged, more productive and both mentally and physically healthier.

Looking at the statistics for the business travel community and the picture gets even starker. Business Traveller online reported the results of a survey in 2017 in which 36% of individuals surveyed felt that work-related travel makes them more stressed than normal. A World Bank study referenced by Harvard Business Review in 2018 found that 75% of World Bank staff and consultants surveyed reported high or very high stress related to business travel. Inability to exercise, eating unhealthily, loneliness, and long hours were amongst the factors contributing to a deterioration in mental and physical health ‘on the road’.

It is no wonder then that to counterbalance the rising costs of an unhappy workforce there is a growing trend toward ‘workplace wellness’ in many organisations.  Attention is not only being given to how to better design jobs, but also how to provide workspaces that offer an engaging employee experience and positively contribute to employees being happy and healthy at work. But often these policies can only extend to the physical boundaries of the organisation – overlooking business travellers, who are often left to fend for themselves when away from HQ.

Increasingly however, there are solutions. From workplace wellness training programs specifically tailored to business travellers, to workspaces and facilities accessible on demand to enable mobile corporate employees to find some balance between their personal needs, and the demands of the road, organisations are waking up to the fact that a large tranche of their workforce have health, wellness and workspace needs beyond HQ.  

When it comes to innovating with workspace, the coworking and ‘space as a service’ industry is leaps and bounds ahead of many corporate organisations.  This is perhaps not surprising given the space itself IS the product and to attract and retain members they need to do more than just provide a desk and some coffee. Given that these spaces are often designed with the more transient and flexible worker in mind, it is only logical they they can and should provide the business travel community a welcome respite from the hotel lobby and crowded coffeeshop!

At a recent coworking conference in the UK, much was said about the research being conducted by organisations like The International WELL Building Institute showing that productivity and happiness in a space can be positively impacted through things like air quality, noise, kinetics (simply the ability to get up and move around) and having plants nearby or access to nature (known as biophilia). Coworking and ‘space as a service’ providers are taking this new understanding of how we interact with the space around us and running with it!

For example, Kwerk, a Paris based coworking centre has coined the term ‘wellworking’ with its therapeutic workstations with ergonomically designed desks and chairs, a specially designed wellness programme with an on-site psychologist, and an immersive design that ‘awakens the senses’. Uncommon, a London based coworking company has wall to wall plants in its spaces, with biophilia a core tenet of its ethos and ‘vibe’. Both of these spaces, and many more, cater not just to the need for a place to work, but also for the physical and emotional wellbeing of the individual while he or she is working there.

The appearance of these spaces and the broader debate on workplace wellness coincides with a mindset shift in how we work, where we work and when we work. Not only are employees placing more importance on their physical and mental wellbeing, but as they are exposed to more different environments in their personal and working lives, they become more attuned to what they need on the road in order to be productive, healthy, and happy.

With greater opportunity than ever to personalise our lifestyle choices, it is natural we wish to extend this freedom of choice to our working lives. If we can better understand and capture the subjective value of workplace wellness to the mobile employee this could herald the start of a new relationship between worker and workspace. A more bespoke relationship with happiness and wellbeing at its core, and one that supports all individuals to do their best work, anytime, anywhere.

Harbour84 is an online platform to connect business travellers and mobile corporate workers with workspaces that can help them be their best. Curation is key to our success. We carefully select spaces that offer connectivity, community and comfort based on the belief that workplace wellbeing and productivity go hand in hand. We then enable our customers to discover the workspaces they are looking for in a quick, simple and easy way.

WHY THINKING 12 MONTHS AHEAD MAY NOT BE ENOUGH

The Business Travel Show runs an annual buyer survey. We must have been doing it for nearly 10 years, now. Each year we ask buyers what the biggest challenges they’re expecting to face over the next 12 months are, how budgets will change, if they’ll book more or fewer trips, flights, hotel rooms… It gives the industry an interesting snap shot into how the industry changes from year to year and the issues we need to be aware of over the coming months.

At the show, we also curate conference sessions that focus on the next 12 months. Our Forecasting Forum, which looks at the cost of business travel among other things, is always incredibly popular.

Getting access to insight like this – especially data that’s practical – is valuable and genuinely useful to buyers. And that’s why they come to the show from all over Europe – because they want to spot trends and be inspired by innovation

But is it enough to only look 12 months ahead? Given how long it takes for technology, for example, to really bed in and prove itself on a day to day basis, shouldn’t we look a little further ahead and help buyers to visualise how these innovations can be slotted into the travel programme of the future?

With that in mind, this year’s theme for Business Travel Show is Travel 2022 and we’re launching a host of new features to complement it that are designed to ramp up the visitor experience and prepare buyers for the future of business travel. It will focus on introducing travel buyers and managers to the technology, techniques and topics that will/could dominate the industry over the next three years.

Keep an eye out for WonderLAB. It’s a fun interactive tech showcase where buyers can get hands on with the innovations that will impact travelling and travel management in the future. Think driverless cars, drones, robots and mixed reality experiences.

Then there’s the Future Forum: a new multipurpose theatre and communal space on the show floor where visitors will be able to take part in brand-new Huddles (brilliantly informal educational and networking opportunities) and watch the fourth annual Disrupt Awards final led by head judge Nick Easen.

Talking of the Disrupt Launchpad and Awards, they are back for the fourth year running in 2019. It’s home to the next generation of business travel start-ups and the winner of the Disrupt Awards will be back at the show in 2020 with a free bells and whistles stand.

Over in the conference theatres, there is tonnes of content planned to fit in with the Travel 2022 theme, including agile travel platforms, Brexit and the global risk outlook, using bots in travel programmes, and intro to ONEOrder and a fascinating session on AI, blockchain, bots and mixed reality and how they will transform travel management.

Join us. It’s going to be a fascinating journey.

And if you fancy exhibiting in the WonderLAB – it’s free – just send your entries before Christmas to adam.garside@centaurmedia.co.uk.

This post was written by Business Travel Show marketing manager Kye Blackett. The Business Travel Show is the leading event for corporate travel in Europe attracting over 9,000 professionals and 260 exhibitors. Taking place from 20-21 February 2019 at Olympia London, the show is celebrating its 25^th anniversary.