WIT announces "Start-Up" pitch challenge for 2009

Apr 28, 09 | 1:52 am

The organisers of Web In Travel (WIT) have announced that the WIT Start-Up Pitch will be conducted for the second time this year. The panel of investor judges will include two entrepreneurs/investors who've been through the school of hard knocks themselves.

Lim Kim Hai, Executive Chairman of Regional Express Airlines, Australia and Dennis Melka, of East Pacific Capital who is one of the co-founders of Tune Hotels, Malaysia, have confirmed their participation in the panel, that will once again be chaired by Bill Liu, chairman of Stream Global, an investment and consultancy company in the ICT and Digital Media space. Liu will help WIT organise the competition.

The WIT Start-Up Pitch is aimed at unearthing and discovering good ideas in the online travel space in Asia Pacific. Last year, three finalists, Conference Bay, Entrip and Tripfilms, pitched their ideas in five minutes each and the investor judges' choice was Tripfilms, a video social networking site.

Said Liu, "I hope we will have companies who are willing to use this platform to showcase their ideas and tell the world about them, even if they are wacky. Actually, often times the wacky ideas with a sound business plan are the ones that will ultimately win."

The WIT Start-Up Pitch is open to start-up companies, with less than three years from start-up, and who are looking to move their business to the next level.

"We hope to find some new ideas that will serve the needs of the industry - hopefully not just another portal but someone with the right application to address the pain points and using technology including the web to deliver it."

The winner will be given assistance by Stream Global to position themselves to receive a Singapore government grant worth S$50,000 in the Interactive Digital Media space. "The condition is that the company has to have operations in Singapore," said Liu.

Three finalists will be chosen to pitch in WIT, The Main Event. Entries that do not make the final three will be given another platform to pitch their ideas and get them "workshopped" by a panel of advisors in the WIT Ideas Lab on October 22-23, running alongside ITB Asia, the B2B tourism exhibition organised by Messe Berlin.

Those interested in entering the WIT Start-Up Pitch 2009 can email admin@webintravel.com. The deadline for submission is July 31, 2009. To learn more about WIT, visit www.webintravel.com.


ABOUT WEB IN TRAVEL

WIT-Web In Travel is Asia's leading travel distribution, marketing and technology conference. 2009 is the fifth year the conference will be run. It was started by journalist Yeoh Siew Hoon.

WIT is different to traditional conferences in terms of content, delivery and attitude. The content is deep, rich and meaningful. The delivery is varied, diverse and impactful. The conference has an attitude that challenges speakers to be at their best - no sales speeches and platitudes, but provoking and thinking - and delegates to question, discuss, debate and challenge. With each WIT, the conversation gets better and the discussion more interactive.

In 2007, WIT introduced questions by SMS and allowed audience voting by SMS as well for best debators, best speakers and best pitches. In 2009, we take our presence further. We are using Web 2.0 technology to reach out to an ever widening network of colleagues with similar passion, engaging them through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, newsletters and micro events, WIT*e - Inspiration & Mentoring networking forums, leading up to the main conference to be held on the 20 -23 October, 2009 at Suntec City in Singapore.

WIT won the Most Innovative Marketing Initiative in the 2008 Singapore Business Events Awards organised by the Singapore Tourism Board.

For more information, please visit http://www.webintravel.com.