Evan is the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at American Express Global Business Travel. He is an innovator, technologist, and strategist in travel, currently working to leapfrog the experience available to the corporate traveler and rewrite the storyline for business travel. With his background as a start-up entrepreneur, Evan is uniquely skilled in bringing innovation to the corporate travel world. Being a travel industry expert, he has spent time working with companies in both corporate and leisure travel, from start-ups to multinationals, on topics such as corporate strategy, innovation, technology, social media, marketing, loyalty, and investing (M&A/Venture).
How a new generation of tech will rewrite the rules of travel management innovation, and what buyers can do to prepare.
I think it’s a lot more about contextualization than personalization. What I mean by that is understanding that you’re coming to Europe to [attend] this event is actually more important than who the person is. Or, when someone is trying to get a service, the idea that the flight was just canceled and the weather is bad is important to you. Context has to be in real time, updated on the fly, what’s going on with the person right now. It’s not going to live on the profile. Context is more powerful, and I’d like to see us spend more time on it as an industry.