TravelScrum Global Hackathon launches to find innovation inside a crisis

TravelScrum is organizing a Global Travel Ideation Hackathon on 11-14 June to find implementable solutions, projects and prototypes that can help the recovery of the tourism industry.

We talk with Florian Mesny, founder of TravelScrum, a non-profit movement fusing all layers and skill sets in the travel and tourism industries, to learn more about the Hackathon. Florian has over 20 years of experience in hospitality and global online travel distribution. Currently, he’s interested in the entrepreneurship ecosystems, advising travel startups worldwide. Florian was Travel Massive’s Paris chapter leader and is now helping with Travel Massive Montreal.

👉 Apply for TravelScrum Travel Hackathon as a participant or join as a mentor – deadline is 11 June. 

What is Travelscrum and what motivated you to start it now?

TravelScrum is a non-profit movement fusing all layers and skill sets in the travel and tourism industries to harness a current of talent and technology driven solutions to light the path to a better tomorrow.

There’s a couple of reasons for founding TravelScrum now: First, I was directly impacted by the crisis professionally and then saw how hard and fast the travel industry was hot by the crisis with huge numbers of people being furloughed and put at risk as well as many businesses closing down, All this brought us to thinking on what could be done to help the industry in these uncertain times. And most particularly – how to help the industry recover.

We quickly identified that we had to create a supporting movement, non-profit and 100% volunteer-drivem to give to the people and businesses, helping them rethink, rebuild and reinvent their models, concepts, products and technologies from ideation to prototyping.

Hence we decided to create the non-profit organization, <Trave/scrum>, with the launch of a Global Travel Hackathon, to start a series of events, in order to impact, bring positivity, and implementable solutions to the market.

Who is the team behind TravelScrum and why are you involved?

There are three people behind the idea: Gene Quinn, previously Chairman of Tnooz, Sean Arena, CEO of Limo Anywhere and previously Sabre, and myself.

We had the chance of meeting one another through similar projects a few years ago, organizing hackathons and startup events around the world.

When the pandemic started, it took us two seconds to connect and agree on the mission, the purpose and the structure of the <Trave/scrum> movement, which we built to give, help and bring onboard like-minded people willing to do the same.

In fact, we started just three weeks ago and now there is a team of 22 passionate people scattered around the world and giving to make the Hack a success. And more people are joining on a daily basis.

Having said that, we still need more help in APAC, EMEA and the Americas, so if you want to join us, we’re still looking for partners, volunteers, hackers, or mentors.

What are the three key challenges and why did you choose them?

The three challenges we are asking people to tackle are:

• Hygiene and Health: Providing solutions that address new sanitary protocols, norms and processes worldwide, securing people as well as businesses.
• Travel and Experiences: What experiences can arise through the use of new technologies and the emergence of new types of travel behaviors?
• Sustainability and Relief: How to secure the livelihoods of the workforce and bring sustainable models forward for businesses locally, regionally or globally?

The participating teams will need to address at least one of these challenges and come up with creative solutions answering a problem from any player or process in the industry, or bring a new paradigm.

Who should sign up and participate? Do you need technical knowledge?

Everyone is welcome.

We encourage anyone to join. Be it operational people and experts from within or outside the industry who have ideas to promote and test, as well as people with technical profiles such as developers. We are looking for field people, designers, marketers, experts and developers to join forces.

On another note, if you want to be a mentor and give your time and expertise in helping the teams refine their projects, you are more than welcome and it will be highly appreciated.

How can the Travel Massive community get involved?

We already have a great amount of Travel Massive members who are involved as mentors and judges, including Mark Lenahan (Travelport), Taru Aalto (Wowanders), Beth Santos (Wanderful), Andrew Lockhead (Stay22), and more. Our co-founder Gene Quinn is also part of the community.

I’m very happy to partner with Travel Massive and to see that what we gave to the community over the last few years is generating constructive feedback loops.

Members can join the Global Travel Hackathon as participants or mentors. Of course, we’re always looking for partners to support our mission.

Watch the video to learn more about the Hackathon:

👉 Apply for TravelScrum Global Travel Hackathon as a participant or mentor – deadline is 11 June. 

Follow Florian Mesny on Travel Massive to connect with him and learn more about TravelScrum.