Knowledge Hub / TRAVEL EXECS: TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, NOT JUST SPREADSHEETS

TRAVEL EXECS: TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, NOT JUST SPREADSHEETS

The author: Frederic Kalinke

24/05/2016

Written by Frederic Kalinke

SilverRail Series – ‘Disruptive ideas in transportation’

Last week at SilverRail, we ran our second industry event of 2016 – a series of events which brings together a wide range of industry professionals.

The SilverRail series aims is to bring together the people in the industry that wouldn’t normally meet, whether that be from the transportation supplier side, from the innovative start-ups with big ideas or the travel retailers curious about how we get around when we’re not flying!

At SilverRail we are trying to convince a low tech space that technology, data and a sound digital infrastructure are things to be embraced, and so we love the new, disruptive ideas that these types of gatherings can generate, and ultimately help our mission.

The theme of our latest event was: ‘Disruptive ideas in Transportation’ where advertising guru, TED speaker and vice-chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, Rory Sutherland applied his interest in behavioural science to suggest different ways to approach business and travel problems. A chance for our guests to be inspired, and challenged to think differently.

During his lessons in behavioural economics, Rory claimed Uber’s success is a result of its map. He goes on to say that its success is not about convenience, price or scale – the metrics which make sense to Goldman Sachs – but the map on the app which shows how far away the ride is. He linked this to humankind’s inbuilt fear of uncertainty. Knowing your Uber is on its way and being able to see it in context is preferable to the void of doubt that exists if you book a cab by phone and are told to wait 10 or 15 minutes. Tnooz published a great summary of Rory’s ideas if you are keen to read more – Travel execs: consider the traveler’s “chimp mind”, not just your spreadsheets

A real highlight for us was the variety of companies that attended, we saw people from: TfL, Go-ahead, Cross Rail, McLaren, HS2, ATOC, OpenCapacity, Expedia, Virgin Trains, HackTrain, Chiltern Railways, Trip Advisor, Evolvi, Cox & Kings, London Midland, Hotels.com and many others. To us, this shows progress – that the industry is open to collaboration, networking and disruptive thinking.

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