Fifteen years after the website she co-founded first went live, internet pioneer Baroness Martha Lane-Fox was honoured by Travolution at last night’s annual awards ceremony.
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Travolution honours lastminute.com co-founder
Click here to view the full list of winners.
Fifteen years after the website she co-founded first went live, internet pioneer Baroness Martha Lane-Fox was honoured by Travolution at last night’s annual awards ceremony.
The Lastminute.com co-founder is the first woman to be given the Travolution Outstanding Achievement award.
She joins other luminaries from the digital sector including fellow lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman, easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and Andy Phillips, founder of Active Hotels, last year’s winner.
The citation was read out by Simon Ferguson, UK and Ireland managing director of award sponsor Travelport, who highlighted Lane-Fox’s huge impact on the digital travel sector.
Earlier this year she became the youngest woman in the House of Lords having served as Britain’s first ‘digital commissioner’ since 2009, championing getting the country online.
Unable to be at the awards in person to collect the award, Lane-Fox sent her thanks via a pre-recorded video clip shown to the 350 guests at The Troxy, the Travolution Awards venue in east London.
On Tuesday lastminute.com celebrated its 15th birthday saying it is more relevant than ever today as mobile enables people to book more last-minute and search for deals while doing so.
Other big winners on the night included Glasgow-based flights metasearch site Skyscanner which took the prestigious Brand of the Year award having secured new funding earlier this year valuing it at £800 million.
The site also scooped the Best Use of SEO category, one of four ‘Marketing’ awards in which the shortlisted firms have to pitch to judges.
Another price comparison giant, Kayak, was also a multiple winner, taking the best mobile app and Best Metasearch gongs.
New awards headline sponsor Icelolly.com handed out consumer-voted awards with P&O Cruises, Thomas Cook, TripAdvisor and easyJet among the winners.
For the first time this year the awards put finalists in the Rising Star category through their paces in front of a judging panel.
Pete Campbell, SEO account manager at digital marketing agency iProspect, beat off stiff competition to claim the award.
Rising brand of the year went to hotel price comparison site Trivago following its partial sell-out to Expedia at the back end of 2012.
Winners in other categories included Affordable Car Hire, Carnival Cruise Lines, Attraction Tickets Direct, British Airways, Iglu Cruise and One Fine Stay.
Click here to view the full list of winners.
