PANEL – THE TRAVEL TECH PANEL
The Travel Tech Panel at the Extraordinary Travel Festival explores the tools, platforms, and innovations shaping the future of global exploration. Bringing together founders, builders, and power users, the discussion highlights how technology is transforming the way people discover, plan, and document travel. From apps and data to mapping, content distribution, and community building, panelists share how they leverage tech to go further and travel smarter. The conversation also examines how technology enables extreme travelers to reach remote destinations and connect with global audiences. This panel offers insight into the intersection of innovation and exploration in the modern travel landscape. Feel free to join in on the Q&A.
BIO
Ian Cumming is the founder and developer of Travel Massive — the global professional network that connects thousands of innovators, executives and creators who are creating the future of travel. Ian is also a founding partner of Social Entrepreneurs in Tourism which provides industry support and recognition for social entrepreneurs to develop sustainable tourism projects in their local destinations.
🌎 Built the world’s first search engine for ocean research datasets (2005)
✈️ Developed Airlines of Tasmania’s first online reservation system (2006)
💬 Launched World Nomads’ “Ask A Nomad” Q&A Community (2009-2011)
🤑 Launched Australia’s first flight deals website “GetFlight” (2011-2012)
👶 Investor in TinyBeans.com family photo sharing app which floated on ASX (2014)
🇨🇳 Built Jambo — a crowdsourced interpreter network, trialed MVP in China (2014)
🔥 Investor in Firechat (mesh chat app) — until the CEO disappeared! 🙃 (2019)
📱 Investor in SkyHi — the world’s first subscription flight service (2019-2021)
💡 Founding team of the Social Entrepreneurship in Tourism Competition (2019-now)
🥾 CTO of MappyHour.org — a community for outdoor enthusiasts in the US (2016-2025)