Presented by Jo Preston – Voyavo is a social trip planning platform that allows friends to collaborate and plan trips together. 

The trip planning process that Preston presented started with a search for a flight.  Next he added a baseball game and then finally a restaurant.  All the items are added to a primary itinerary.  The user can add contacts to the itinerary using the popular Plaxo address book import widget. 

The additional participants can then edit or add comments to the trip itinerary.

Voyavo claims that users stay on the site for an average of 30 minutes during the trip planning process.

Voyavo is  unveiling their "Add to Trip" widget button that allows the customer to add your item to their itinerary without having to commit to a booking. The "Add to Trip" button is very similar in nature to the DuffleUp, Travelmuse, and TripIt Clipper buttons.

How does Voyavo protect its innovation?  Preston claims that their underlying architecture allows them to constantly innovate in order to stay ahead of their competition.  Preston also adds that the architecture gives them the ability to connect to and use multiple APIs, increasing access to relevant content and opportunities for monetization.

T4 Breakdown – I'm not entirely sure this is different enough from the existing trip planning tools in the space already.  Will sites add a "Add to Trip" button to their websites and if so, how likely are consumers to click on these buttons and join another trip planning site? 

Although the execution is good, Voyavo has a tough road ahead competing with sites that already have marketshare.

Stephen A. Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2005 Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp., began development on Rezgo.com, a next generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking engine for SME travel suppliers and tour operators.

In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was officially released and now boasts a user base of 900+ companies. Stephen is also very active in fostering tourism technology and is co-chair of the Board of Directors of the OpenTravel Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to develop and foster messaging standards for travel e-distribution.

http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com