Meet up with people from your LinkedIn network on your next trip

img_biophoto_gregg[Ed. note: Today's post features Gregg Brockway, co-founder of TripIt, who talks about the genesis of the MyTravel application on LinkedIn followed by some users sharing their experience of the app. The My Travel application on LinkedIn, along with the rest of the inApps on LinkedIn can be found here]

We started TripIt because we thought it should be easier for travelers to organize and share their trips. To this end, we built a technology that reads the data in your travel confirmation emails and uses it to create a master itinerary that’s easy to customize and share. Along the way, we also added support for over 500 travel booking sites worldwide.

As a startup, we were pretty excited when LinkedIn approached us about the MyTravel application last year. We immediately recognized this as a huge opportunity to deliver real benefits to business travelers.

When we designed the My Travel application, we wanted to deliver immediate value to LinkedIn users. Once the application is installed, you immediately see everyone in your LinkedIn network who will be close to you when you travel. We knew that this would not only become a great business resource, but will also provide some fun opportunities for people to get together socially.

Also, now more than ever, businesses are looking for ways to get the most out of the dollars they spend on travel. By making it easy for business travelers to set up productive meetings while they are on the road, the TripIt app is uniquely able to squeeze a little more value out of those dollars.

We get a lot of feedback from people who have connected with former colleagues, classmates and friends using the My Travel application on LinkedIn. I thought it would be fun to share a couple of real stories. Read on...

Susan Black, Travel Industry Consultant and Senior Marketing / eCommerce Executive:

Several industry contacts were attending the same conference in San Francisco. They saw that I was also traveling to San Francisco, via the TripIt application on LinkedIn, and sent me messages asking to meet while we were all there. I would say that these meetings were the best return on my investment for the two-day event! Had it not been for TripIt, it would have been unlikely that these meetings would have occurred - or had I just met up with the people at the conference with no forewarning, the meeting agendas would certainly not have been set in advance. Now, when I am going to events, I alert everyone using the TripIt application on LinkedIn.

Patrick Chanezon, Google Developer Advocate:

So, I'm at this conference about social networks for the education community in Montreal, and I meet up with Sylvain Carle at breakfast. I used to follow Sylvain’s blog years ago, and we had a web friendship, but had never met. Since we both use social networks heavily, we're connected on LinkedIn. And, without knowing it, we both use the TripIt app on LinkedIn. During a session, I sit down next to Sylvain and start preparing demos for my Open Social presentation, while tweeting about the session. I wanted to demo the TripIt app on LinkedIn, because it is one of the social apps that I find really useful. And then it happens- I open the app and see that someone in my network is also in Montreal today- Sylvain, who's sitting right next to me. That was so hilarious that I did a screenshot and tweeted it right away. To me this is a fun example of the power of a social application like TripIt, transforming business trips in social objects, and helping me meet old friends, or discover new ones.

If you want to join the fun and see where everyone is in your LinkedIn network, just add My Travel to your LinkedIn account. And be sure to contact us at feedback@tripit.com if TripIt helps you re-connect with someone or just helps your trips go a little more smoothly. Feel free to also leave a comment on this post.