WorldMate Live - The Birth

Well...

It's been almost 3 years since the "WorldMate Itinerary" vision started forming. Three years of what sometimes felt like a totally Sisyphean struggle - to get funding, co-operation, people, access to information, and much of the time - to stay afloat. 2006 has seen us transforming - from a bootstrap to a start-up, and the last 6 months look like one long sprint to get where we're going. Well - we're just starting, but it looks like we've just cleared the first hurdle - with the release of WorldMate Live's private beta.

This blog will record the story from now on - the story of a new, and if may say so myself highly innovative, product. We will try to tell the story of what was done, say what we can about what would be done in the future, and learn from you, the readers, what should be done.

What is WorldMate Live? Well, in a nut-shell, WorldMate Live is our attempt to take all the gizmo technologies we're carrying in our pockets and really put it to use for the aid of travelers. If you've ever done any serious business travel, you don't need to be told what a stressful and tiring chore this is. As if going through a string of meetings with complete strangers whom you have to convince to take a gamble on you within 90 minutes is not a challenge on its own, an obstacle course consisting of late aircraft, closed airports, lost taxi drivers, mile-long check-in queues, rude attendants and noisy hotels was devised to make sure the busy executive is never bored. Well , we believe that knowledge is power, and with the right information delivered at the right time and linked to the right actions, we are able to empower the business traveler - saving him time, money, effort, but, most importantly - stress. The stress of not knowing where you are, and how to get to where you want to be.

How many times have you asked yourself:

• What is my gate number? Which terminal is that at?
• Will I make it to my connecting flight? If I'm stuck, is there another flight later?
  
• Can I walk from the station to the hotel, or should I take a taxi?
  
• Where is the hotel, anyway?And do I have a valid reservation? Where's that confirmation number?

Or the proverbial - where the blazes can a bloke get a bite to eat round here?

If you've been there, done that and got the scars, we want to give you a better way to travel. One where you know what's going on around you, even if you didn't have time to do your homework. One where you're not limited by the time / patience / intelligence of your travel agent, nor have to find 10 minutes and a hotspot to log on and do it yourself. When everyone else is forming a queue, you already got what you need. When everyone is asking questions and exchanging rumors, you already know. Our way, you breeze through travel - because you have an automated aid that helps you, every step of the way. That's what WorldMate Live is really about.

So - WorldMate Live is this service, where your mobile device knows where you're going, what flight you're taking to get there, where you pick up your rental car and where you park it at night when you go to bed. It automatically gets this information from your calendar, from e-mails you get from your travel supplier, and from dozens of sources on the Internet. It then wakes up to remind you of your flight, tell you where you've landed and how to get to your car / hotel / meeting, and when to catch that flight home, at last. And, if we can help it, it does so with class. Cause there's no act like a class act...

Will this blog usually be this fluffy? I guarantee it won't. Mostly we'll be telling you highly technical things, like when the next release is expected and what will version 6.12.001 contain. But we hope that WorldMate Live will become a good part of your life - such that from time to time, if you want to know where we're taking it, and why, or tell us we're great, or good, or wrong - you'll come back here.

June 28 2007 marks the release of WorldMate Live's private beta. For now, we're keeping it to ourselves and a few of our close friends. Very soon, it will be yours. After all, it's not about navel-gazing, it's about giving people what they want and need. We're glad to be kicking this off at last. Lets see where it gets us.