Collision, held in our hometown Toronto for the first time in its history, was a 3-day conference which brought together people and companies redefining the global tech industry.
The event kicked-off with talks from Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, actor Seth Rogan, and tech leaders including Cloudflare’s Michelle Zatlyn.
Betterez joined the ranks of other well-known industry players, CEO’s, Founders, Startups, Musicians, Actors, Investors and Journalists attending the conference, to speak in the High-Growth Startup Track. Here, our CEO Tal Shalit, laid out the current landscape in the bus industry and talked about technology’s impact on transforming travel.
What Is Collision Conference?
Now in its fifth year running, the annual Collision Conference took place in Toronto’s Enercare Centre between May 20 to 23, 2019. With over 25,000 attendees it is the fastest growing tech conference in North America.
Some of the world’s largest buyers and sellers of technology meet here every year to share ideas on the changing landscape, and to identify potential investment opportunities within the selected startups.
This year, speakers and investors included representatives from Shopify, Optibus, TransPod, Service Now, GE Ventures, Medium, Fast Company, Forbes, VICE, and Cloudflare, to name but a few.
Betterez’s Tal Shalit, A Keynote Speaker In The Growth Program
In recognition of Betterez’s high-growth potential, Tal was selected to be a speaker in the Startup Program.
Essentially, this program gives the spotlight to startups which show outstanding potential, usually in the software or connected hardware spaces, and connects them to some of the world’s most influential names in the tech industry.
Selected startups get access to investor meetings, mentor hours, pitching masterclasses, workshops, the exhibitor floor, etc. It is a space where the movers and shakers meet to network and create brand awareness.
In addition to speaking at Collision, Betterez hosted an exhibition booth as well. Here we got the chance to connect with attendees of the conference and chat to people in the industry about our thoughts on digital innovation in the bus sector.
Highlights From Tal’s Speech
Tal spoke at the Growth Summit, and in his speech, he discussed re-inventing the bus industry during a time when mobility is undergoing a tremendous change.
One of the points to hit home was just how underutilized mobile online reservations systems are in the industry, and as a result, just how far behind it is when it comes to digital innovation.
“The global intercity and shuttle bus travel market is a $74.7 billion industry. In Mexico alone, 2.8 billion intercity trips are made by bus each year and bus travel is an estimated $10 billion market in the country. Despite all this, 95 percent of all bus sales in Mexico are still offline and made at local bus terminals and paid for in cash.”
For bus operators, the absence of valuable data could be leaving so much of the market untapped. After all, millions of people travel by bus worldwide, and if your organization is not getting access to the benefits that a modern system can provide, you’re essentially losing out on the opportunity to grow your business.
“If you’re an enterprise bus operator, you’re probably operating a manual reservations system. You’ve got your finance team, your IT team, your Marketing Team. The left hand may not be talking to the right hand, you’re sitting on a mountain of data that you don’t know what to do with.
Tal went on to highlight how Betterez is driving change in the industry, bringing innovation to bus operators.
“Now imagine going into work, you can immediately access ridership info, capacity, customer intelligence, and have every important metric and tool at your fingertips. This is the advantage that will take your business further. Efficiency = more money in your pocket. So we developed the Betterez platform.”
Subsequently, our platform has caught the attention of some heavyweights in the travel industry, and we recently secured funding from various investors including the CEO of Porter Airlines, the past CEO of American Airlines, and Amadeus Ventures – the largest travel distribution system on the planet.
To end off, Tal left his audience with this thought.
We have to realize this isn’t a stagnant industry, it’s a bustling industry, but traditional bus companies need to rethink how they operate. Our platform has cut down the time it takes to purchase a bus ticket from 30 minutes to 30 seconds. My role here is to keep buses and people moving. I’m challenging you to experience it again. Buses are such an integral part of the way we move.”
Betterez’s Future In The Tech Industry
Following on from the recent investments in Betterez, further research and development is underway to support our global customer base. Our mission is to drive digital innovation in the bus industry and contribute to smarter intercity ground travel across the globe through our leading technology and platform.
Request a demo today to find out more about our innovative mobile ticketing and reservations platform, recognized for its outstanding potential.