Boyd Cohen, Co-founder of IoMob, joins Travel Tech Con 2018
Super excited to welcome Boyd to Travel Tech Con 2018! Smart cities, urban mobility and Blockchain have been our personal favorite topics for a while and we’re looking to learn a great deal from Boyd’s keynote on June 9th.
See Boyd’s keynote on June 9th. TTC18 Lineup is now LIVE: https://www.traveltechcon.com/ttc18-speakers/
If you’re a startup — save $200 and get your TTC18 startup pass till May 1 here.
Boyd, what in your opinion drives innovation and leaps forward in travel/urban mobility/smart cities industry today and how is it different from say 10 years ago?
I am mostly focused on urban mobility. There are major trends converging to create an explosion of innovation and opportunity in urban mobility markets. The growing urbanization of the world by itself is putting pressure on urban infrastructure and ecosystems, including mobility. Public transit systems can not by themselves meet all the needs of a growing and diverse population. Personal vehicles and taxis can not either, and they contribute to congestions and air contamination which affect quality of life and are being regulated in smart cities. The emergence of urbanpreneneurs who recognize business opportunities to introduce new solutions to solve urban mobility challenges has been significant in recent years (and was the subject of my 2016 book). Also the growth of the sharing economy and ubiquitous smart phones in cities make possible new forms of location based services.
What do startups building next generation travel/mobility tech products need to understand about the industry evolution and future opportunities?
One key lesson learned from Uber’s missteps is the importance of engaging with local regulators instead of avoiding them. Similarly mobility tech startups based in one city in one country need to realize that smart cities around the world (and the people that live and visit them) have different needs and expectations and that some level of localization may be required. Also, I would pay attention to the growing trends for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Mobility on Demand (MOD) and the need to find ways to interconnect mobility solutions to make seemless intermodal solutions accessible to users.
What are some of your favorite travel tech products, projects or innovation initiatives that the industry should be paying attention to?
Certainly MaaS and MOD are up there for me. I am less bullish on autonomous vehicles than many others. I believe they will have a role around the world for sure, but there are places, like many European cities for example, that aim to rid city centers of passenger vehicles, whether they are shared or even electric. I am hopeful we will see more ubiquitous access to wireless charging for EVs such as Electrek. Similarly I am a huge fan of projects that integrate multi-modal solutions and local distributed energy. Just yesterday I spoke at a smart cities conference in Istanbul where I learned of the amazing work being done by Florian Lennert and his team from the Intelligent City Forum to integrate distributed renewable energy solutions and electric mobility (electric bikes, shared electric vehicles, etc) whereby the batteries of these shared vehicles serve as storage for excess energy generation.
Looking forward to Boyd’s keynote — join us at Travel Tech Con 2018 to learn more on the intersection of urban mobility, transportation, smart cities and Blockchain.
