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A two-day agenda designed to tackle your top concerns around data and technology

Plenary Sessions
8:50 AM: Opening Remarks

EyeforTravel Leo Langford Event Director EyeforTravel

9:00 AM: The Holy Grail: Achieve Hyper Personalization to Drive Hyper Profits

2019 is the year for hyper-personalization. Customer expectations have changed, systems have caught up with ambitions and now relevancy is key. Whether you’re a die-hard data geek, a marketer or a revenue manager you need to embrace this change or face losing out to your competitors.

  • Make the age-old vision of 1-on-1 with the customer a reality for your company
  • Balance best data practices and robotics with the right human strategy to be truly predictive and transform into the travel company of the future
  • Seize the opportunity created by apps, white label products and do-it-yourself tools to create a personalization user experience and drive loyalty
  • Achieve the right level of granularity to execute highly relevant content and win direct bookings
  • Sink or Swim: Align analytics with marketing, sales and revenue to ensure you get hyper-personalization right first time

Wyndham Destinations Pj Abhishek SVP, Data, Analytics & Revenue Management Wyndham Destinations

Preferred Hotels & Resorts Kristie Goshow Chief Marketing Officer Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Chairman / Moderator: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

9:50 AM: Banish Data Fragmentation to Predict, Profit and Win Market Share

Is it really a surprise that your customer isn’t loyal? Data on booking patterns, supply and demand and who your customer have become dangerously fragmented. Hear use-cases on how to unify your data and take advantage of predictive analytics.

  • Standardize your tools, mandate one repository to connect the dots to provide a best in class offering
  • Bad data access is allowing your competitors to overtake you. Make access easy and every data-driven decision profitable
  • Burn the data silos down! Go beyond your own data source and understand other departments’ data for the bigger picture that gives you customer loyalty

Hilton Jess Petitt VP Analytics Hilton

Lufthansa Systems Americas, Inc., Airline Passenger Experience Association Michael Childers Chief Consultant, Content and Media Strategy Lufthansa Systems Americas, Inc., Airline Passenger Experience Association

10:40 AM: How Analytics Empower AI: Adopt a Data-First Approach to Personalization for a Cutting-Edge Brand Experiences
  • Use data to enhance your personalization strategy and create high-converting customer experiences
  • Leverage the full power of AI technology with strategic segmentation
  • Achieve ongoing, continuous conversion rate optimization through “smart” personalization with an analytics-first approach

Multiplica US Danielle Schwolow Senior Growth Strategist Multiplica US

Monetate Andrew Koperwas Director, Product Marketing Monetate

11:05 AM: Networking Coffee Break
11:35 AM: Execute Customer-Centric Machine Learning and AI for Predictive Profit

The travel market is saturated with an immense number of players. Machine learning and AI must be predictive at the golden moment to win you the booking and see your retention rates boom.

  • Make ML and data work hand-in-hand to predict faster than your competition and guarantee customer loyalty
  • Use ML capabilities for the perfect offering, price and a frictionless customer experience
  • Invest in chatbots with a human touch to hook in customers, generate loyalty, cut costs and grow

Carlson Wagonlit Travel Shuo Wang Principal Data Scientist Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Formation AI Christian Selchau-Hansen CEO Formation AI

United Airlines Hillary Grey Slater Senior Manager, Digital Personalization United Airlines

Formation AI Robert Fagnani Head of Business Development & Operations Formation AI

12:25 PM: Panel: Integrate RM with Marketing and eCommerce: Leverage Consumer Data to Fine Tune Pricing

To optimise profits, RM must be embraced by sales, marketing, technology, and go all the way to the top of the corporate ladder. Banish the silos and align your revenue strategy with your marketing buddies.

  • Ensure your eCommerce team supports your decisions, share data effectively and become part of the marketing decision-making process
  • Hit your KPIs and increase your ADR with help from marketing
  • Deploy the right technology and tools to aligning strategies and products across RM and Marketing
  • With every hotel building loyalty programs and working on retention, explore the role of RM to drive loyalty and profit

Carlson Wagonlit Travel Utpal Kaul Head of Innovation & Incubation Strategy Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Danielle Alviano Director, Retailing and Promotions Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

1:10 PM: Networking Lunch Break

Purchase the post-conference materials

Get the full recordings, all slides and the post event report here!

Analytics, AI and Pricing
Digital Marketing
2:40 PM: Dynamic and Personalized Pricing – Conquer New Levels of Granularity

The shift to real-time pricing on an individual level is full of peril, here’s the use cases that show you can overcome the roadblocks and supercharge sales.

  • Grasp the machine learning requirements for a dynamic approach that increases your revenue
  • The reactive approach vs. long term goals – get the pricing balance right so you don’t leave money on the table
  • Feeling the fuel crunch? Go individual with prices to get the losses back

1859 Historic Hotels Josh Henegar Corp. Revenue Director 1859 Historic Hotels

Moderator: NEC Mike Gray Senior Vertical Practice Manager - Hospitality NEC

2:40 PM: Know your Customer in a Multi-Channel World

A huge array of opportunities slip through your fingers when trying to capture the multi-channel customer – learn from the brightest and best in travel that are still growing

  • Grasp state-of-the-art practices in data cleaning and glean golden customer insights across all channels on all devices to fuel direct sales
  • In a world of millions of resell channels own the customer
  • Attribution methodology – know what your SEO spend and Google Analytics is actually doing for you

Caesars Entertainment Henry Kim Senior Director, Digital Audience Strategy Caesars Entertainment

Moderator: Margaritaville Claudia Infante Director of Revenue Strategy Margaritaville

3.05 PM: Master AI & Machine Learning for Internal Company Success

There’s no doubt about it. The travel company that wins will have fully grasped AI and ML – and not in the future – but right now! In this session, you’ll identify where the ROI is coming from in your use of AI and ML

  • Benchmark with the best of the industry to know where you’re ahead and where you lag in AI and ML practices
  • Use AI like a boss to explain trends to management and really understand performance levels
  • Deliver better data collection for machines to continue to learn, and your profits to skyrocket

Vacasa Tim Goodwin CTO Vacasa

Vacasa Travis Green Director of Product Management – Growth & Revenue Vacasa

3.05 PM: The Power of Leveraging Customer Feedback Data for Loyalty

Highest impact feedback data is at our fingertips: What are our customers telling us every day and how do we harness that data to capture the loyal customer?

  • Hear about WestJet’s Juliet chatbot to grasp customer pain points and how you can upsell in the user journey
  • Harness rich customer data and speech analytics to suggest a next best customer action that makes profit
  • Validate through user and A/B testing so every decision is qualified and delivers growth

west_jet Natalie Farand Head of Performance & Analytics WestJet

Request to Speak on this Session

3:30 PM: Networking Coffee Break
4:00 PM: Using Open Permissionless Blockchains to Gain Greater Customer Insight and Intimacy

Winding Tree has spent the last year creating a platform for permissionless distribution of travel content. Understand the Winding Tree platform and discuss how travel suppliers can use it to gain greater insight into customer data and enable the delivery of more personalized offers to travelers based on this insight.

Winding Tree Norm Rose Advisor and Board Member Winding Tree

4.00 PM: Panel: Drive Voice-Enabled Personalization

Google recently announced 30-40% of their searches were voice activated, but is voice narrowing down search to a lucky few, or enhancing it? Understand the true business case for voice and how it can turn you a profit.

  • Use voice to recognize repeat customers and offer customized information to guests
  • Hear the case for in-room voice and a truly personal CX that inspires loyalty
  • Know the privacy roadblocks with voice that stand in your way and get ahead of your competitors

Expedia Brandon Ehrhardt Head of Platform - Loyalty Expedia

CruiseBe Marina Shumaieva CTO and Co-Founder CruiseBe

4.25 PM: The Analytics Purge – Achieve Killer Methodologies and Repositories that Convert

In today’s world, a high data volume is nothing new. But, having effective access to that data is worth its weight in gold. Get past quality over quantity and see your profitability boom

  • SQL vs No SQL? Nail down the repository that makes you big bucks
  • Data hygiene – lessons in clean methodologies that show obvious profits
  • Know when to look beyond the data and turn that eureka moment into direct bookings

Mozio Emre Mangir President & Co-Founder Mozio

Macy's Lucy Yang Manager, Experimentation Analytics Macy’s

4.45 PM: Digital case-study: How the Rich and Famous can make your Brand Fly

In the digital marketing game, the warmth and personality that sells can trickle away from your brand. Claw this back with real influencers who are invested in you and your customers

  • Break up the traditional and harness celebrities to breathe life into your brand
  • Bring your social media strategy to the next level with real personalities that convert
  • Introduce stars to your digital marketing game to win the booking

Diamond Resorts Stevi Wara Senior Vice President, Creative Services and Brand Management Diamond Resorts

5:05 PM: End of Day 1
5:10 PM: Networking Drinks Reception
Plenary Sessions
9:00 AM: Fulfilling Consumer Needs, Win-Win Partnerships, and Database Expansion – Play them Right and Drive Huge Profits

Consumers today are looking for a convenient way to utilize their most trusted brands to fulfill as many of their needs and wants as possible – learn from the best in how to strategically target, identify and use technology with partners to expand your business portfolio.

  • Help make your partners work for you- how to use API’s to provide content and booking feeds that can alleviate additional resources needed when onboarding and maintaining partnerships
  • Utilize proprietary data to identify customers and prospects and unify addressable identities across all devices and channels
  • Consumer loyalty through partnership agreements: how to stay ahead of your competition while leveraging partnerships to build brand loyalty. Does your customer feel you are continuously providing value?

Collette Vacations Erik Aiple VP - US Partnership Development Collette Vacations

Chairman / Moderator: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

Request to Speak on this Session

9.25 AM: Panel: Tap into Customer Lifestyle Data and Couple with AI to Turn New Profits

With a fragmented booking landscape, “owning” the customer is defined by how well you can serve them. The more you know them, the more you own them. Deploy a variety of data-fuelled tools, AI and ML to rev up lifetime loyalty now.

  • Master social media, e-marketing and integrate online and traditional communication to effectively profile customers and create lifetime value
  • Wield your diverse cache of data to be less sales oriented, and more lifestyle oriented to drive real growth
  • Leverage technology to personalize the guest experience: when loyalty programs lose their luster create differentiation in service and dominate market share
  • Use AI for superb customer profiling, capitalize on past purchase rewards and ensure a constant stream of lifestyle date to win loyalty

TripAdvisor Robert Wagstaff Vice President, Sales Analytics and Operations TripAdvisor

Trafalgar Tours Wolf Paunic President Trafalgar Tours

Luxoft Alex Tilcock Director – Digital Solutions Luxoft

Request to Speak on this Session

10.10 AM: Networking Coffee Break
10:40 AM: Right Product, Right Message, Right Time: Excel at Total RM and Master Ancillary Sales

It’s been hailed as the next incarnation of RM for years, but implementation has slowed. In this session you’ll go beyond the guestroom and understand the challenges and opportunities of a truly holistic approach to RM.

  • MICE, F&B, spa, ancillary sales...where do you start? Be operationally realistic and drive a revenue boom in all segments
  • Build the right infrastructure to optimize ancillary revenues from both direct sales and external channels
  • Identify the best data for total RM and scale it to make your business thrive

Rosewood Hotel Group Nicole Young Corporate Director of Revenue Management Rosewood Hotel Group

11:05 AM: Why you’re failing at Personalization (and what to do about it!)

If you’re struggling with Personalization, you’re not alone. Join Brooks Bell’s Director of Analytics Brian Shampnois and Sr. Data Scientist Aaron Baker as they walk you through where you’re going wrong with Personalization, and how to course-correct now.

  • Discover why it’s not your model that’s wrong, it’s the data that you’re putting into the model.
  • Learn about how to create a personalization strategy that actually helps your customers.
  • Hear tangible examples of how companies have created successful personalization programs.

Brooks Bell Brian Shampnois Director of Analytics Brooks Bell

Brooks Bell Aaron Baker Senior Data Scientist Brooks Bell

11.30 AM: Reconcile Legacy Systems with your Digital and Data Ambitions to Make Better Decisions

Ray Kroc of McDonald’s once declared, ‘we are in the real estate business, not the hamburger business.’ Should travel suppliers realign to be first and foremost in the technology business to thrive?

  • Fragmented systems reduce efficiency and impact revenue - Ensure all your systems (PMS, RMS, guest messaging etc.) are flexible and ready to integrate before you optimize
  • Hear from the airlines and hotels investing in new data repositories and platforms to predict in real-time and deliver huge results
  • Compensate for legacy systems: embrace APIs and Open Source Software, unlock new data and go the extra mile to know your customer
  • Open up to tech partnerships and blockchain-based solutions that transition your brand into the future

IHG Philippe Garnier VP in Third Party Distribution IHG

11.55 AM: Mobile Business Messaging: Interact with Consumers Wherever They Are
  • Discover the future of messaging to drive loyal behaviour in your customer
  • Learn of the major travel brands already using mobile messaging technology to reach their customers
  • Translate mobile interaction with your customer into real revenue growth

Google Todd Parker Head of Business Development – Carrier Messaging Google

SeatAssignMate Li Shi CEO SeatAssignMate

12:20 PM: Networking Lunch Break

Purchase the post-conference materials

Get the full recordings, all slides and the post event report here!

Analytics, AI and Pricing
Digital Product
1.50 PM: Adapting to the Evolving Customer Center of Gravity

Tie together customer personalization and efficient operations for the highest customer satisfaction.

  • An efficient balance between the passenger, flight and fleet requires nested processes and machine learning ensembles to reinforce decision-making
  • Make your data science organizational structure resemble communication channels between the AI ecosystem
  • Combine customer expectations and metrics from all nested layers to set your sights on the customer center of gravity

Allegiant Air Sai Ravuru Operations Data Science Manager Allegiant Air

Unisys Dheeraj Kohli Vice President & Global Head for Travel and Transportation Unisys

Moderator: Margaritaville Claudia Infante Director of Revenue Strategy Margaritaville

1.50 PM: UI Equals Loyalty – Dominate in Mobile to Win the Race

2018 has seen record levels of conversions and traffic through mobile, don’t stand by while your competitors make their highest ever profits from the mobile wave

  • The medium matters! From SMS to push notifications, pin down the best medium for customer segments to drive direct sales
  • Master app wizardry and mobile UC to sidestep the intermediaries that suck your revenues dry
  • Replace low performing loyalty programs with mobile innovation to empower your brand recognition and market share

Hopper Scott Brodows VP - Business Development Hopper

Moderator: Natasa Christodoulidou Director The Hospitality Technology Research Institute

2.25 PM: How AI can help unleash growth through automated conversation?

We’ve entered the conversational era - customers expect to reach brands 24/7 and immediate answers.

Moreover travel companies are facing many issues, such as: volume of requests to handle, overloaded customer services, increasing revenues in a very competitive environment.

Automated conversations can help companies overcome those challenges by :

  • Offering customers a 24/7 solution to avoid frustration
  • Automating up to 80% of the most common customer requests
  • Increasing sales revenues with smart virtual sales assistants

Destygo Guillaume Laporte Co-Founder & CEO Destygo

2:10 PM The Rise of Online Travel Fraud

As airlines, hotels, car rentals and train services aim to optimize for customer experience, they face challenges when it comes to fraud prevention. An ideal customer experience means removing some of the traditional barriers like requiring proof of identity. This provides fraudsters with an opportunity. Join this session to explore the state of the travel fraud ecosystem, and how the right mix of AI and human intelligence can combat fraud.

Forter Ata Gokyildirim GM APAC Forter

2.45 PM: Workshop Session: Hospitality Forecasting that Drives Market Share

A lot of variables lead to that Eureka moment in forecasting. Discover the factors you’re missing out on to know when your customer wants to book and optimize the sale

  • Factor in changing demographics and economics in your plan to master the bigger picture
  • Understand long term lodging trends better than your competitors
  • Enable the highest accuracy in forecasting and increase your market share

Solid Rock Asset Management Sam Makani Vice President, Portfolio Strategy & Reporting Solid Rock Asset Management

2:30 PM: AI-fueled Mobile Product that Drives Direct Sales

There is a perfect itinerary for every single customer and more mobile mediums than ever to offer it. Big up your products at every touch point and use your mobile arsenal to fuel ancillary profit, market share and direct sales.

  • Action keyless entry, advance check-in and real-time responses to customer issues across multiple mobile channels for a product that wins you loyalty
  • Deliver millions of homepage variations for an ultra-personalized mobile experience that secures customer trust and direct bookings
  • Master preference-learning algorithms on mobile to surprise and delight your customer and extract more profit than ever from the customer journey.

The Guild Chris Herndon Co-Founder The Guild

3:05 PM: Closing Remarks and Future Predictions
(Red Room/Track 1)

Chairman: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

3:00 PM: Closing Networking Coffee
Plenary Sessions
8:50 AM: Opening Remarks

EyeforTravel Leo Langford Event Director EyeforTravel

9:00 AM: The Holy Grail: Achieve Hyper Personalization to Drive Hyper Profits

2019 is the year for hyper-personalization. Customer expectations have changed, systems have caught up with ambitions and now relevancy is key. Whether you’re a die-hard data geek, a marketer or a revenue manager you need to embrace this change or face losing out to your competitors.

  • Make the age-old vision of 1-on-1 with the customer a reality for your company
  • Balance best data practices and robotics with the right human strategy to be truly predictive and transform into the travel company of the future
  • Seize the opportunity created by apps, white label products and do-it-yourself tools to create a personalization user experience and drive loyalty
  • Achieve the right level of granularity to execute highly relevant content and win direct bookings
  • Sink or Swim: Align analytics with marketing, sales and revenue to ensure you get hyper-personalization right first time

Wyndham Destinations Pj Abhishek SVP, Data, Analytics & Revenue Management Wyndham Destinations

Preferred Hotels & Resorts Kristie Goshow Chief Marketing Officer Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Chairman / Moderator: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

9:50 AM: Banish Data Fragmentation to Predict, Profit and Win Market Share

Is it really a surprise that your customer isn’t loyal? Data on booking patterns, supply and demand and who your customer have become dangerously fragmented. Hear use-cases on how to unify your data and take advantage of predictive analytics.

  • Standardize your tools, mandate one repository to connect the dots to provide a best in class offering
  • Bad data access is allowing your competitors to overtake you. Make access easy and every data-driven decision profitable
  • Burn the data silos down! Go beyond your own data source and understand other departments’ data for the bigger picture that gives you customer loyalty

Hilton Jess Petitt VP Analytics Hilton

Lufthansa Systems Americas, Inc., Airline Passenger Experience Association Michael Childers Chief Consultant, Content and Media Strategy Lufthansa Systems Americas, Inc., Airline Passenger Experience Association

10:40 AM: How Analytics Empower AI: Adopt a Data-First Approach to Personalization for a Cutting-Edge Brand Experiences
  • Use data to enhance your personalization strategy and create high-converting customer experiences
  • Leverage the full power of AI technology with strategic segmentation
  • Achieve ongoing, continuous conversion rate optimization through “smart” personalization with an analytics-first approach

Multiplica US Danielle Schwolow Senior Growth Strategist Multiplica US

Monetate Andrew Koperwas Director, Product Marketing Monetate

11:05 AM: Networking Coffee Break
11:35 AM: Execute Customer-Centric Machine Learning and AI for Predictive Profit

The travel market is saturated with an immense number of players. Machine learning and AI must be predictive at the golden moment to win you the booking and see your retention rates boom.

  • Make ML and data work hand-in-hand to predict faster than your competition and guarantee customer loyalty
  • Use ML capabilities for the perfect offering, price and a frictionless customer experience
  • Invest in chatbots with a human touch to hook in customers, generate loyalty, cut costs and grow

Carlson Wagonlit Travel Shuo Wang Principal Data Scientist Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Formation AI Christian Selchau-Hansen CEO Formation AI

United Airlines Hillary Grey Slater Senior Manager, Digital Personalization United Airlines

Formation AI Robert Fagnani Head of Business Development & Operations Formation AI

12:25 PM: Panel: Integrate RM with Marketing and eCommerce: Leverage Consumer Data to Fine Tune Pricing

To optimise profits, RM must be embraced by sales, marketing, technology, and go all the way to the top of the corporate ladder. Banish the silos and align your revenue strategy with your marketing buddies.

  • Ensure your eCommerce team supports your decisions, share data effectively and become part of the marketing decision-making process
  • Hit your KPIs and increase your ADR with help from marketing
  • Deploy the right technology and tools to aligning strategies and products across RM and Marketing
  • With every hotel building loyalty programs and working on retention, explore the role of RM to drive loyalty and profit

Carlson Wagonlit Travel Utpal Kaul Head of Innovation & Incubation Strategy Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Danielle Alviano Director, Retailing and Promotions Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

1:10 PM: Networking Lunch Break

Purchase the post-conference materials

Get the full recordings, all slides and the post event report here!

Analytics, AI and Pricing
Digital Marketing
2:40 PM: Dynamic and Personalized Pricing – Conquer New Levels of Granularity

The shift to real-time pricing on an individual level is full of peril, here’s the use cases that show you can overcome the roadblocks and supercharge sales.

  • Grasp the machine learning requirements for a dynamic approach that increases your revenue
  • The reactive approach vs. long term goals – get the pricing balance right so you don’t leave money on the table
  • Feeling the fuel crunch? Go individual with prices to get the losses back

1859 Historic Hotels Josh Henegar Corp. Revenue Director 1859 Historic Hotels

Moderator: NEC Mike Gray Senior Vertical Practice Manager - Hospitality NEC

2:40 PM: Know your Customer in a Multi-Channel World

A huge array of opportunities slip through your fingers when trying to capture the multi-channel customer – learn from the brightest and best in travel that are still growing

  • Grasp state-of-the-art practices in data cleaning and glean golden customer insights across all channels on all devices to fuel direct sales
  • In a world of millions of resell channels own the customer
  • Attribution methodology – know what your SEO spend and Google Analytics is actually doing for you

Caesars Entertainment Henry Kim Senior Director, Digital Audience Strategy Caesars Entertainment

Moderator: Margaritaville Claudia Infante Director of Revenue Strategy Margaritaville

3.05 PM: Master AI & Machine Learning for Internal Company Success

There’s no doubt about it. The travel company that wins will have fully grasped AI and ML – and not in the future – but right now! In this session, you’ll identify where the ROI is coming from in your use of AI and ML

  • Benchmark with the best of the industry to know where you’re ahead and where you lag in AI and ML practices
  • Use AI like a boss to explain trends to management and really understand performance levels
  • Deliver better data collection for machines to continue to learn, and your profits to skyrocket

Vacasa Tim Goodwin CTO Vacasa

Vacasa Travis Green Director of Product Management – Growth & Revenue Vacasa

3.05 PM: The Power of Leveraging Customer Feedback Data for Loyalty

Highest impact feedback data is at our fingertips: What are our customers telling us every day and how do we harness that data to capture the loyal customer?

  • Hear about WestJet’s Juliet chatbot to grasp customer pain points and how you can upsell in the user journey
  • Harness rich customer data and speech analytics to suggest a next best customer action that makes profit
  • Validate through user and A/B testing so every decision is qualified and delivers growth

west_jet Natalie Farand Head of Performance & Analytics WestJet

Request to Speak on this Session

3:30 PM: Networking Coffee Break
4:00 PM: Using Open Permissionless Blockchains to Gain Greater Customer Insight and Intimacy

Winding Tree has spent the last year creating a platform for permissionless distribution of travel content. Understand the Winding Tree platform and discuss how travel suppliers can use it to gain greater insight into customer data and enable the delivery of more personalized offers to travelers based on this insight.

Winding Tree Norm Rose Advisor and Board Member Winding Tree

4.00 PM: Panel: Drive Voice-Enabled Personalization

Google recently announced 30-40% of their searches were voice activated, but is voice narrowing down search to a lucky few, or enhancing it? Understand the true business case for voice and how it can turn you a profit.

  • Use voice to recognize repeat customers and offer customized information to guests
  • Hear the case for in-room voice and a truly personal CX that inspires loyalty
  • Know the privacy roadblocks with voice that stand in your way and get ahead of your competitors

Expedia Brandon Ehrhardt Head of Platform - Loyalty Expedia

CruiseBe Marina Shumaieva CTO and Co-Founder CruiseBe

4.25 PM: The Analytics Purge – Achieve Killer Methodologies and Repositories that Convert

In today’s world, a high data volume is nothing new. But, having effective access to that data is worth its weight in gold. Get past quality over quantity and see your profitability boom

  • SQL vs No SQL? Nail down the repository that makes you big bucks
  • Data hygiene – lessons in clean methodologies that show obvious profits
  • Know when to look beyond the data and turn that eureka moment into direct bookings

Mozio Emre Mangir President & Co-Founder Mozio

Macy's Lucy Yang Manager, Experimentation Analytics Macy’s

4.45 PM: Digital case-study: How the Rich and Famous can make your Brand Fly

In the digital marketing game, the warmth and personality that sells can trickle away from your brand. Claw this back with real influencers who are invested in you and your customers

  • Break up the traditional and harness celebrities to breathe life into your brand
  • Bring your social media strategy to the next level with real personalities that convert
  • Introduce stars to your digital marketing game to win the booking

Diamond Resorts Stevi Wara Senior Vice President, Creative Services and Brand Management Diamond Resorts

5:05 PM: End of Day 1
5:10 PM: Networking Drinks Reception

Purchase the post-conference materials

Get the full recordings, all slides and the post event report here!

Plenary Sessions
9:00 AM: Fulfilling Consumer Needs, Win-Win Partnerships, and Database Expansion – Play them Right and Drive Huge Profits

Consumers today are looking for a convenient way to utilize their most trusted brands to fulfill as many of their needs and wants as possible – learn from the best in how to strategically target, identify and use technology with partners to expand your business portfolio.

  • Help make your partners work for you- how to use API’s to provide content and booking feeds that can alleviate additional resources needed when onboarding and maintaining partnerships
  • Utilize proprietary data to identify customers and prospects and unify addressable identities across all devices and channels
  • Consumer loyalty through partnership agreements: how to stay ahead of your competition while leveraging partnerships to build brand loyalty. Does your customer feel you are continuously providing value?

Collette Vacations Erik Aiple VP - US Partnership Development Collette Vacations

Chairman / Moderator: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

Request to Speak on this Session

9.25 AM: Panel: Tap into Customer Lifestyle Data and Couple with AI to Turn New Profits

With a fragmented booking landscape, “owning” the customer is defined by how well you can serve them. The more you know them, the more you own them. Deploy a variety of data-fuelled tools, AI and ML to rev up lifetime loyalty now.

  • Master social media, e-marketing and integrate online and traditional communication to effectively profile customers and create lifetime value
  • Wield your diverse cache of data to be less sales oriented, and more lifestyle oriented to drive real growth
  • Leverage technology to personalize the guest experience: when loyalty programs lose their luster create differentiation in service and dominate market share
  • Use AI for superb customer profiling, capitalize on past purchase rewards and ensure a constant stream of lifestyle date to win loyalty

TripAdvisor Robert Wagstaff Vice President, Sales Analytics and Operations TripAdvisor

Trafalgar Tours Wolf Paunic President Trafalgar Tours

Luxoft Alex Tilcock Director – Digital Solutions Luxoft

Request to Speak on this Session

10.10 AM: Networking Coffee Break
10:40 AM: Right Product, Right Message, Right Time: Excel at Total RM and Master Ancillary Sales

It’s been hailed as the next incarnation of RM for years, but implementation has slowed. In this session you’ll go beyond the guestroom and understand the challenges and opportunities of a truly holistic approach to RM.

  • MICE, F&B, spa, ancillary sales...where do you start? Be operationally realistic and drive a revenue boom in all segments
  • Build the right infrastructure to optimize ancillary revenues from both direct sales and external channels
  • Identify the best data for total RM and scale it to make your business thrive

Rosewood Hotel Group Nicole Young Corporate Director of Revenue Management Rosewood Hotel Group

11:05 AM: Why you’re failing at Personalization (and what to do about it!)

If you’re struggling with Personalization, you’re not alone. Join Brooks Bell’s Director of Analytics Brian Shampnois and Sr. Data Scientist Aaron Baker as they walk you through where you’re going wrong with Personalization, and how to course-correct now.

  • Discover why it’s not your model that’s wrong, it’s the data that you’re putting into the model.
  • Learn about how to create a personalization strategy that actually helps your customers.
  • Hear tangible examples of how companies have created successful personalization programs.

Brooks Bell Brian Shampnois Director of Analytics Brooks Bell

Brooks Bell Aaron Baker Senior Data Scientist Brooks Bell

11.30 AM: Reconcile Legacy Systems with your Digital and Data Ambitions to Make Better Decisions

Ray Kroc of McDonald’s once declared, ‘we are in the real estate business, not the hamburger business.’ Should travel suppliers realign to be first and foremost in the technology business to thrive?

  • Fragmented systems reduce efficiency and impact revenue - Ensure all your systems (PMS, RMS, guest messaging etc.) are flexible and ready to integrate before you optimize
  • Hear from the airlines and hotels investing in new data repositories and platforms to predict in real-time and deliver huge results
  • Compensate for legacy systems: embrace APIs and Open Source Software, unlock new data and go the extra mile to know your customer
  • Open up to tech partnerships and blockchain-based solutions that transition your brand into the future

IHG Philippe Garnier VP in Third Party Distribution IHG

11.55 AM: Mobile Business Messaging: Interact with Consumers Wherever They Are
  • Discover the future of messaging to drive loyal behaviour in your customer
  • Learn of the major travel brands already using mobile messaging technology to reach their customers
  • Translate mobile interaction with your customer into real revenue growth

Google Todd Parker Head of Business Development – Carrier Messaging Google

SeatAssignMate Li Shi CEO SeatAssignMate

12:20 PM: Networking Lunch Break

Purchase the post-conference materials

Get the full recordings, all slides and the post event report here!

Analytics, AI and Pricing
Digital Product
1.50 PM: Adapting to the Evolving Customer Center of Gravity

Tie together customer personalization and efficient operations for the highest customer satisfaction.

  • An efficient balance between the passenger, flight and fleet requires nested processes and machine learning ensembles to reinforce decision-making
  • Make your data science organizational structure resemble communication channels between the AI ecosystem
  • Combine customer expectations and metrics from all nested layers to set your sights on the customer center of gravity

Allegiant Air Sai Ravuru Operations Data Science Manager Allegiant Air

Unisys Dheeraj Kohli Vice President & Global Head for Travel and Transportation Unisys

Moderator: Margaritaville Claudia Infante Director of Revenue Strategy Margaritaville

1.50 PM: UI Equals Loyalty – Dominate in Mobile to Win the Race

2018 has seen record levels of conversions and traffic through mobile, don’t stand by while your competitors make their highest ever profits from the mobile wave

  • The medium matters! From SMS to push notifications, pin down the best medium for customer segments to drive direct sales
  • Master app wizardry and mobile UC to sidestep the intermediaries that suck your revenues dry
  • Replace low performing loyalty programs with mobile innovation to empower your brand recognition and market share

Hopper Scott Brodows VP - Business Development Hopper

Moderator: Natasa Christodoulidou Director The Hospitality Technology Research Institute

2.25 PM: How AI can help unleash growth through automated conversation?

We’ve entered the conversational era - customers expect to reach brands 24/7 and immediate answers.

Moreover travel companies are facing many issues, such as: volume of requests to handle, overloaded customer services, increasing revenues in a very competitive environment.

Automated conversations can help companies overcome those challenges by :

  • Offering customers a 24/7 solution to avoid frustration
  • Automating up to 80% of the most common customer requests
  • Increasing sales revenues with smart virtual sales assistants

Destygo Guillaume Laporte Co-Founder & CEO Destygo

2:10 PM The Rise of Online Travel Fraud

As airlines, hotels, car rentals and train services aim to optimize for customer experience, they face challenges when it comes to fraud prevention. An ideal customer experience means removing some of the traditional barriers like requiring proof of identity. This provides fraudsters with an opportunity. Join this session to explore the state of the travel fraud ecosystem, and how the right mix of AI and human intelligence can combat fraud.

Forter Ata Gokyildirim GM APAC Forter

2.45 PM: Workshop Session: Hospitality Forecasting that Drives Market Share

A lot of variables lead to that Eureka moment in forecasting. Discover the factors you’re missing out on to know when your customer wants to book and optimize the sale

  • Factor in changing demographics and economics in your plan to master the bigger picture
  • Understand long term lodging trends better than your competitors
  • Enable the highest accuracy in forecasting and increase your market share

Solid Rock Asset Management Sam Makani Vice President, Portfolio Strategy & Reporting Solid Rock Asset Management

2:30 PM: AI-fueled Mobile Product that Drives Direct Sales

There is a perfect itinerary for every single customer and more mobile mediums than ever to offer it. Big up your products at every touch point and use your mobile arsenal to fuel ancillary profit, market share and direct sales.

  • Action keyless entry, advance check-in and real-time responses to customer issues across multiple mobile channels for a product that wins you loyalty
  • Deliver millions of homepage variations for an ultra-personalized mobile experience that secures customer trust and direct bookings
  • Master preference-learning algorithms on mobile to surprise and delight your customer and extract more profit than ever from the customer journey.

The Guild Chris Herndon Co-Founder The Guild

3:05 PM: Closing Remarks and Future Predictions
(Red Room/Track 1)

Chairman: Xenia Hospitality Advisors Gregoire Poirier President Xenia Hospitality Advisors

3:00 PM: Closing Networking Coffee

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