Tech Talk: Yalla! A few tools for the smart traveler
By ARIEL SHAPIRAROM HENDLER (right), founder and managing partner of InnoVel-Venture Capital, poses with American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson during a conference on tourism at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv last week(photo credit: ARIEL SHAPIRA)
Senior tourism sector leaders around the globe recently participated in a conference here in Israel during which they discussed collaborations and investment in Israeli startups active in the tourism and hotel industries.The conference was organized by Rom Hendler, who is now founder and managing partner of InnoVel- Venture Capital. InnoVel is a travel and tourism VC based in Tel Aviv that functions first and foremost as a new breed of innovation center, channeling resources, talent, and know-how into the industry. Formerly, Hendler was a senior vice-president at Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands. Adelson himself even took part in the conference.Travelyo is a white-labeled travel platform that utilizes the wisdom of the crowd and enables travelers to customize and book all elements of their vacation in one place. It bases its findings on the experience and knowledge of local destination experts. The Tavelyo platform can work with any brand or company, such as media groups, retail stores, airline companies or hotel chains.SnapShot is a new kind of analytics made specifically for the hospitality industry. Each day, hotels collect loads of data – from their property management and reservation systems, benchmarking and pricing resources, social media, and more – and each day, they’re left to sort through that mountain of data, searching for a nugget of actionable information. Well, it’s 2016. The age of “Big Data” and “The Internet of Everything.” It should be easy for hotels to understand their data and make intelligent decisions for their business, yet it’s not. Instead, hoteliers are left with unwieldy spreadsheets, information overload, and irrelevant, static data. SnapShot decided to do something about this and designed an easy to use analytics for hotels of any size, so they can make the most of their data.KOSHWHERE.COM is a onestop- shop where travelers can easily log onto the this website, look up kosher food suppliers in their desired destination, browse their menu, order meals, and pay in a few short minutes.Sidekix is a smart walking navigation app pioneering the concept of “interest-based routing.” It offers an immersive urban experience.Just say where you want to go, and it offers routes according to your passion, be it shopping, food, culture, nightlife and more. Available in over 100 cities, and used by locals and travelers alike, Sidekix has been voted a top app by The New York Times, Lifehacker, and others. Its goal is to become the world’s leading navigation platform for urban pedestrians, as well as a leading provider of urban foot traffic analytics.Aspectiva turns user-generated content into actionable insights and effective recommendations, serving e-commerce websites, brands and businesses. Aspectiva’s content analysis service is based on patent-pending, advanced Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning technologies and is applicable to various kinds of products and services through SaaS web application or API.Voyjer connects travelers with local experts for the best and easiest way to plan and book trips around the world. Its information comes from seasoned travelers and expert planners. It can plan down to the tiniest details of daily excursions, or it can map your travels more broadly.AdvertisementSo, now that you got the apps, where do you want to go? IBM and Teva Pharmaceuticals have announced a significant expansion of their existing global e-health alliance with a focus on two key healthcare challenges: the discovery of new treatment options and improving chronic disease management. Both projects will run on the IBM Watson Health Cloud.The expanded partnership features a new, three-year research collaboration to develop cognitive technologies that can enable a systematic approach to the emerging field of drug re-purposing and deliver unprecedented scale in the discovery of new uses for existing drugs. The companies also announced that respiratory and central nervous system diseases will be the first targets for their chronic disease management initiative, which will be the first project to integrate data from The Weather Company (an IBM Business) into the analysis.The joint work in chronic disease management emerges from Teva’s existing alliance with IBM as a Foundational Life Sciences Partner for the IBM Watson Health Cloud.The expanded partnership was made in conjunction with a presentation on the main stage at the World of Watson conference by Professor Yitzhak Peterburg, Teva’s chairman of the Board of Directors, alongside IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty. Peterburg said: “Teva’s products reach 200 million people every day with the world’s largest medicine cabinet.We have the opportunity to lead change in the pharmaceutical industry, innovating constantly to meet consumers’ evolving needs.By combining the skills of our partners, such as Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities with Teva’s pharmaceutical expertise, we can create novel solutions and deliver real value to people.”Information taken from: www.tevapharm.com If you run a young startup, have developed an interesting app or have a question, please feel free to contact info@social-wisdom.com.Translated by Hannah Hochner.
