Terry Jones

Terry Jones is the founder of Travelocity and founding chairman of Kayak.com, a pioneer who disrupted the travel industry by bringing booking directly to consumers online. He speaks on digital disruption, innovation, and entrepreneurship, sharing the lessons of building one of the first major e-commerce platforms and fundamentally changing how an entire industry operates. Terry’s experience transforming an idea into a brand that changed consumer behavior provides audiences with actionable insights on when and how to disrupt before someone else does it for you.

Building Travelocity From the Ground Up
Terry’s career in travel began in 1971 when he started as a travel agent in Chicago. He joined American Airlines in 1978 and rose through the ranks before founding Travelocity, which pioneered online travel booking and became one of the most recognized e-commerce brands in the world. He later served as founding chairman of Kayak.com, demonstrating that serial disruption is a mindset, not a one-time achievement.

A Disruptor’s Perspective on Business
Terry is a graduate of Denison University and brings decades of experience in technology, travel, and entrepreneurship to every presentation. His insights on recognizing when established companies must reinvent before competitors make them obsolete are especially relevant in today’s market. His keynotes deliver hard-won strategies for digital disruption, innovation leadership, and building the kind of entrepreneurial mindset that helps organizations recognize and seize transformative opportunities before their competitors do.

What does Terry Jones speak about?

Terry Jones founded Travelocity.com and led the company as President and CEO from its founding until 2002, after 24 years at Sabre Inc. where he served as Chief Information Officer, and now serves as Chairman of the Board of Kayak.com. He speaks on the business of innovation, drawing on his direct experience building two of the internet’s most recognizable travel brands to teach how to generate ideas, fail fast, and experiment effectively.

What is Terry Jones’s background?

Terry Jones is known for: Founder and former CEO of Travelocity.com, former Chief Information Officer at Sabre Inc., Chairman of the Board of Kayak.com, managing principal of Essential Ideas.

Who books Terry Jones to speak?

Meeting planners book Terry Jones for innovation and digital transformation conferences that want the actual founder of Travelocity, one of the internet’s original success stories, not an innovation speaker citing travel-tech disruption secondhand.

The Business of Innovation

The business of innovation explores the fundamentals of innovation…how to generate great ideas, how to ‘fail fast’, how to kill projects without killing people. how to experiment and ‘do more with less’. Terry provides real world examples drawn from his experience at Travelocity.com, the boards of seven startups and his consulting work with companies large and small. Many speakers talk about the future. Terry gives your audience step by step plans to create it.

Building Digital Relationships

How will your customer contact you today? In the store, via the phone, on your web site, read a tweet, friend you on Facebook? There is no way to know. Building Digital Relationships gives your audience the keys to unlock the mystery of how to connect with customers online. While face to face isn’t going away, businesses that don’t have an effective online relationship strategy are being left behind.Terry can educate your audience in all phases of the digital conversation from search to social media, using real world examples drawn from his long experience in the online world.