Thursday, November 19 - Program

Start your day with a refreshing run or walk alongside fellow attendees. Meet at Palm Court, 2nd Level (next to the Registration & Attendee Services Desk) before setting off. Choose your pace - running or walking - and enjoy a scenic start to the morning.

Reserve your spot via the conference app.

Begin your day with a refreshing yoga session for all levels. A water station and hotel towels will be provided. Mats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Come ready to relax, breathe, and reset before the day begins.

Reserve your spot via the conference app.

The tools are everywhere. The transformation isn’t. Access to AI has surged, budgets are increasing and confidence is high, yet most workers who have the tools barely use them and most companies are bolting AI onto old workflows instead of redesigning around it. The gap between what leaders say about AI and what’s happening on the ground has never been wider.

This working roundtable closes that gap through candid small-group conversation instead of another panel of success stories. Including fresh data from Phocuswright’s “Rebuilt or Bolted On: Travel's Agentic AI Divide” research and cross-industry benchmarks, this session will be run under Chatham House rules so leaders and participants can speak plainly. Each table takes on one dimension of the AI leadership challenge led by a mentor who provokes rather than presents.

The session opens with a leadership reality check that frames three tensions every leader is navigating including: confidence vs. candor, speed vs. trust, adoption vs. transformation , and puts one question to the room: what does AI require me to do differently as a leader? The room then reconvenes to surface where we disagree and what we’re doing differently come Monday.

Key areas of discussion:

Culture & the Say-Do Gap
ROI & Measurement
Governance & Accountability
Leading Human-AI Teams
Customer Experience & Trust
Talent & the Pipeline

This session is built for the executives, founders, operators and curious people ready for a real conversation about leading through the transformation.

We’re seeking experienced executives, founders, and industry innovators to serve as leaders and facilitators at small group tables. Click here to apply!

Check in at the Phocuswright Reception, grab your materials, and dive into a buzzing showcase packed with innovators and exhibitors ready to connect.
Then, meet with innovators and exhibitors one-on-one! The showcase is open for business and abuzz with activity.

AI agents are starting to search, compare and book on travelers' behalf. That puts pressure on every player that has spent years building a direct relationship with the customer. Airlines want their content visible and their loyalty programs relevant. TMCs are already being bypassed by corporate booking and expense tools. Tech providers are racing to decide which side they're on. Leaders from an airline, the managed travel world and the technology side will each stake out their role in an agent-driven market, then debate what loyalty, personalization and payments look like when the "customer" might be software. Bring your questions: this is an interactive roundtable.

Welcome back to Day 3! Let’s kick things off by celebrating the newest Hall of Fame inductees and their impact on the travel industry.

Some of travel’s fastest-growing sellers may not look like travel companies at all. Banks, loyalty programs, retailers and other brands are increasingly embedding travel into their own customer relationships, creating new opportunities and new competition across distribution. As Expedia Group expands the technology and supply behind those partnerships, Alfonso Paredes examines what these new sellers need, where embedded travel is gaining traction and how this shift could reshape who owns the traveler relationship.

Travel demand remains strong, but the forces shaping it are becoming harder to predict. International visitation, consumer confidence, government policy, operating costs and geopolitical uncertainty are all influencing where and how people travel. U.S. Travel Association CEO Geoff Freeman sits down with Carnival Corporation CEO Josh Weinstein for a candid discussion about the pressures facing travel businesses, the competitiveness of the U.S. market and what industry and policymakers need to get right in the years ahead.

Travel companies have moved well beyond asking whether they should use AI. The questions now are where to deploy it, how much to invest and what results to expect. Drawing on Phocuswright’s latest industry survey, this session examines how companies are using and budgeting for AI, where implementation is gaining traction and what obstacles remain. It also looks at how startups are approaching AI and what the latest travel funding data reveals about where investors are placing their bets.

Travel companies know their technology stacks need to evolve, but transformation rarely happens on a blank slate. Legacy systems still power critical operations while new platforms, modular architectures and AI capabilities are layered in around them. This session examines the choices behind modernization: what to replace versus integrate, how to prepare teams for new ways of working, where AI is ready for core operations and how to build a more flexible technology foundation without disrupting the business.

In a travel industry that's constantly being redefined, staying ahead requires a complete re-imagining of what's possible – and a fierce commitment to winning. Our Changemaker sessions shine a spotlight on the companies deploying cutting-edge technology to create transformative experiences and to challenge the status quo. Join us for a dynamic presentation and interview as these leaders share their insights into the strategies and opportunities shaping the next era of travel and setting the game’s new rules.

AI, new interfaces and changing distribution models are reshaping who controls demand, customer relationships and competitive advantage in travel. Drawing on more than two decades as a founder and industry leader, Fred Lalonde offers a candid perspective on where the next shifts are coming from, which assumptions established companies need to rethink and where newer players still have room to disrupt the market.

In a travel industry that's constantly being redefined, staying ahead requires a complete re-imagining of what's possible – and a fierce commitment to winning. Our Changemaker sessions shine a spotlight on the companies deploying cutting-edge technology to create transformative experiences and to challenge the status quo. Join us for a dynamic presentation and interview as these leaders share their insights into the strategies and opportunities shaping the next era of travel and setting the game’s new rules.

As AI agents move from inspiration and planning into booking and servicing, the infrastructure behind the transaction becomes increasingly important. This session examines what agents need to shop and sell travel reliably, how traditional marketplaces, newer API models and shared industry infrastructure may evolve and where power shifts when the consumer interface, transaction layer and supplier relationship are increasingly separated.

Search is moving beyond answers and recommendations toward action. As conversational planning, personalization and transactions converge, the lines between search engine, travel planner and booking channels are beginning to blur. James Byers shares the latest on how travelers are using Google’s AI-powered travel tools, then joins us to examine what this shift means for visibility, distribution and the battle to influence the traveler from inspiration through booking.