Innovative travel solutions with impact
Meet the change-makers shaping the future direction of corporate travel and events management at this year’s Business Travel Show Europe Innovation Faceoff Awards: Part One.
The future of corporate travel technology will take centre stage later this month at Business Travel Show Europe, returning to Excel London on 24-25th June.
Nine of the industry’s most ambitious gamechangers will go head-to-head in the event’s Innovation Faceoff Showcase, unveiling breakthrough solutions to redefine businesses travel. In this two-part series we meet each of the finalists.
THRUSTCARBON
ThrustCarbon’s goal is straightforward: make lower carbon travel the easiest choice. Kit Aspen, CEO and Founder comments: “EngageAI is our answer. It’s a predictive behaviour-change engine that learns why individual travellers make the choices they do – their loyalty habits, preferred routes, booking patterns – and nudges them toward lower-carbon, lower-cost options at exactly the right moment through the tools they already use: Teams, WhatsApp, email, booking platforms. Winning the Innovation Faceoff would mean the industry is ready to move. Not just to report on emissions and implement sustainable travel policies, but to actually get to the root of the problem.”
DIRECT TRAVEL
Travel management company Direct Travel will be presenting Avenir, its next-generation platform developed to provide the corporate travel industry’s broadest range of travel content. It brings travellers, travel managers, and travel advisors together on one global platform to deliver 24/7 support for organisations of every size offering a faster, more personalised booking experience. Designed to keeps travellers both happy and booking in line with policy to better support compliance. What truly sets it apart is the human care behind the technology, delivered by an experienced, passionate team dedicated to anticipating needs and delivering exceptional service at every step of the journey.
Director of Technology Solutions Jenny Thornton explains: “The managed travel industry is entering a major transition point. Our focus is on building a fundamentally different model for global travel management through Avenir with unified global servicing, shared data and a more connected traveller experience. Winning the Innovation Faceoff would be a real moment of validation – not just for Avenir as a platform, but for the thinking behind it.”
NOWADAYS
Winner of the Business Travel Innovator Award and People’s Choice at Business Travel Show APAC in April this year and both the Judge’s Choice and People’s Choice Innovation Faceoff Awards at Business Travel Show America last October, the AI-powered meetings and events platform that automates venue sourcing, negotiations, and event management for corporate teams will be hoping for similar success at Business Travel Show Europe. Using natural-language inputs, the platform structures RFPs, contacts venues by email and phone, gathers availability, manages negotiations, and returns direct proposals within days. Powered by a proprietary database of more than 400,000 venues worldwide, Nowadays helps teams save more than 135 hours per meeting, bring unmanaged meetings spend under control and drive 20-30% savings at scale.
Anna Sun, CEO & Co-Founder comments: “Our priority over the next year is continuing to deepen our AI capabilities and scale our enterprise customer base. Europe is central to our growth strategy. We were fortunate to win at Business Travel Show America 2025 and APAC 2026 and adding Europe to that would feel like real validation from the global business travel community that the industry is genuinely ready for an AI-native approach to meetings and events.”
TRAVEL CODE
Travel Code is an AI-powered corporate travel management platform built for mid-market companies. Its AI assistant manages bookings, answers traveller questions, and proactively manages disruptions to save finance teams time and reduce travel spend by up to 30%. Co-Founder Egor Karpovich comments: “Europe is central to our growth. Corporate travel here is more cross-border, more multi-supplier, and more policy-complex than almost anywhere – which is exactly where an AI agent layer creates the most value. Business Travel Show Europe puts us in front of the travel management companies, travel managers, and partners who define the European market, and it’s the natural launchpad for expanding our footprint on the continent.”
VERSA
Connecting travel management company booking data with expense data has never been easy. It has often meant relying on employee-submitted expenses, incomplete records and manual reconciliation where mistakes can often happen. Versa uses AI to close that loop, automating travel receipt collection and reconciliation, removing the manual work typically required from employees, travel managers and finance teams. Co-Founder Ted Power comments: “Business Travel Show Europe is one of the most important gatherings of travel managers and industry leaders. Winning the Innovation Faceoff would be a major launchpad moment for Versa – helping us introduce our technology to the companies that can benefit most from closing the gap between booked travel and actual spend.”
The winners, including the Business Travel Innovator and the People’s Choice award will be announced on Wednesday 24th June at 11am at the Business Travel Show Europe Knowledge Arena.
Business Travel Show Europe takes place 24-25th June 2026 at Excel London.
Anyone who buys or books travel for their business is invited to attend Business Travel Show Europe for free until 23rd June by registering at businesstravelshoweurope.com/register
