CWT and ZYTLYN Technologies forecast customer travel demand
The travel management platform , CWT , and an AI predictive analytics company , ZYTLYN Technologies , have embarked on a pilot initiative to predict forthcoming travel demand to and from specific routes .
Overlaying CWT historical booking patterns onto ZYTLYN ’ s AI-driven Prediction Platform , the pilot aims to provide micro and macro level demand forecasting insights , allowing CWT to make decisions about future supply requirements , capacity planning and resource management .
Patrice Simon , chief technology officer of data and analytics at CWT , said : “ Being able to accurately predict travel demand in near real-time , whilst complex , fluid contextual factors such as Covid are at play ,
Zuddl raises $ 13.35m to fund growth
Virtual events platform Zuddl has raised US $ 13.35m in a Series A funding round . The funding round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation , with participation from Qualcomm Ventures , GrowX Ventures and Waveform Ventures .
The San Francisco-based company has ambitions to develop a more intuitive platform for all internal , external , hybrid or virtual activity , according to Zuddl ’ s co-founder and enables CWT to be even more intuitive in its customer offer , ensuring a highly-customised product , service and experience mix relevant to the individual traveller ’ s current and near future needs .”
Houman Goudarzi , co-founder and CEO of ZYTLYN , commented : “ It is an ideal time to leverage new proven technologies that provide data driven predictability to uplift revenues , lower costs and build more resilience .”
CEO , Bharath Varma . He said : “ This new round of funding will enable us to continue building on the foundation we have built so far and help us achieve our next few goals . We are investing in data and integrations to enable data-driven post-event decisions .”
Zuddl was launched in May 2020 with customisation in mind . Planners can build a bespoke virtual venue by uploading images to various templates , adding stages , colour schemes and other drag and drop widgets as required .
Speakers have a back-stage studio where they can test their presentations and communicate with the organiser . While delegates can join smaller break-out sessions and still keep a live view of the main stage on their screen .
Hopin cuts staff to ‘ solve duplications ’
Left : Patrice Simon , Houman Goudarzi
UK-based event technology platform , Hopin has responded to Slack messages leaked to TechCrunch in which CEO Johnny Boufarhat discusses the platform ’ s reorganisation and staff redundancies .
The messages , in which Boufarhat states that layoffs have been made to ‘ solve overlaps and duplications ’ so that Hopin is ‘ more efficient while ensuring we have the required financial discipline and organisational rigour ’, were confirmed by Dutch blogger Gergely Orosz .
In a statement to TechCrunch , Hopin said : “ Following unprecedented growth and several acquisitions , we are reorganising to align with our goals for greater efficiency and sustainable growth . It ’ s not easy to part ways with teammates , and we ’ re deeply grateful for the impact they ’ ve had while at Hopin .”
Hopin was named Europe ’ s fastest-growing start-up ever in 2021 by Sifted . As a result , the platform has scaled from six to 1,150 employees since the beginning of 2020 . According to TechCrunch , 138 full-time employees , or 12 % of staff have been impacted by the redundancy round .
A Hopin spokesperson confirmed to
CMW that employees impacted by Hopin ’ s layoffs will receive three months of compensation , health benefits and their laptops .
ISSUE 117 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 41