CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

The Business Travel Innovation Faceoff showcases emerging products and services transforming corporate travel and meetings. Participants compete for two honours: the annual Business Travel Innovator award, selected by expert judges, and the People’s Choice award, voted on by the audience. Winners will be announced on 24 June at 11:00 a.m. in the Knowledge Arena.  

This session's presenting companies include:

Direct Travel is one of the world’s largest travel management companies, focused on delivering exceptional, groundbreaking solutions to every client and traveler. With a long history of proven market expertise, we blend advanced technology, superior service, and expert insights to drive tangible value and meaningful savings -offering solutions across Corporate Travel, Leisure Travel, Meetings & Events, and specialty travel businesses. Through Avenir, our next-generation platform developed with leading technology partners, we provide the industry’s broadest inventory and a modern, real-time shopping experience that empowers travelers and simplifies program management. What truly sets us apart is the human care behind the technology, delivered by an experienced, passionate team dedicated to anticipating needs and delivering exceptional service at every step.

Nowadays is an AI-powered meetings and events platform that automates venue sourcing, negotiations and event management for corporate teams. Using natural-language inputs, the platform structures RFPs, contacts venues by email and phone, gathers availability, manages negotiations and returns direct proposals within days. Powered by a proprietary database of more than 400,000 venues worldwide, Nowadays helps teams save more than 135 hours per meeting, bring unmanaged meetings spend under control and drive 20-30% savings at scale. Its AI can also negotiate in local languages during local business hours, supporting global programs for companies including Google, BlackRock and Amazon.

Thrust Carbon helps organisations reduce the cost and emissions of business travel by changing traveller behaviour. We combine market-leading emissions data with real-time decision support tools and specialist advisory services to help enterprises understand their travel impact and influence choices at key decision points. Trusted by organisations including Novartis, S&P Global and Toyota, our work supports more than $100b in travel spend and is recognised through multiple IATA and BTN industry awards.

Travel Code is an AI-powered corporate travel management platform built for mid-market companies. We automate the entire business travel lifecycle — from booking flights and hotels to expense management, policy compliance, and real-time traveler support — in one intuitive interface. Unlike legacy TMCs and enterprise tools built for Fortune 500s, Travel Code delivers enterprise-grade travel management without the enterprise price tag or complexity. Our AI assistant handles bookings, answers traveler questions, and proactively manages disruptions, saving finance teams time and reducing travel spend by up to 30%. Founded in 2022, we serve clients across North America and Europe.

Versa automates travel receipt collection and reconciliation, removing the manual work typically required from employees, travel managers and finance teams. By combining direct integrations with leading travel suppliers and AI-powered extraction from remaining sources, Versa delivers complete, structured, line-item invoice data into finance, duty-of-care and reporting systems. The platform replaces fragmented OCR and email workflows with a neutral infrastructure layer that improves documentation, compliance, audit readiness and data visibility. For travel programs, Versa reduces administrative follow-up, helps finance teams close books faster and gives organizations a scalable way to manage travel documentation without increasing operational overhead.