Program

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The showcase is open for business and abuzz with activity. Meet with innovators and exhibitors one-on-one!

Open to all attendees (men AND women).This is an essential session for women and men to explore what travel technology companies need to thrive in the future.Along with a review of Phocuswright's Gender Equity in Travel Study 2019 results, this session features Phocuswright LeadHER Mentors, advocates for internal initiatives who share what they are doing to connect and encourage female advancement into leadership in their own companies and throughout the industry. We will discuss how innovation, creative thinking and strong leadership can ensure that we are positioned to grow into the future with our best and brightest at the helm. Breakfast opens from 7:00 am and the program begins promptly at 7:30 am.

TripAdvisor forever changed hotel and destination selection when it elevated user-generated content to required pre-trip reading for millions of leisure travelers. In its 20 years of existence, the company has acquired platforms for tours and activities bookings, restaurant reservations, vacation home rentals and more. The company's founder and CEO joins us for an in-depth chat on where TripAdvisor is headed next.

We're in a new era of change with AI and machine learning. These technologies can help solve a range of problems from healthcare to agriculture and travel. In this tech talk, Oliver Heckmann shares his thoughts on the opportunities that AI and machine learning provide and how we can all innovate for the future.

The tours and activities segment is the darling of the travel VC investment community. Case in point: Earlier this year, in rapid succession, SoftBank Vision Fund pumped record-breaking sums into Klook and GetYourGuide. We sit down with the leaders of these two competitors to find out what’s in store for the experiences segment overall, and whether the most recent funding round by SoftBank could fuel cooperation, or increase valuations that lead to a merger or a public offering - or both.

The rise of short-term rentals has dramatically expanded traveler options and reshaped hospitality globally. Rentals are increasingly sold side-by-side with traditional hotel inventory, but this category is not simply disappearing into the mainstream. Learn how leaders in the sector are responding to the latest business dynamics, traveler preferences and competitors in the short-term rental space.

What originated as a virtual online brand aggregating independent budget hotels in India has evolved into a hospitality chain that leases and franchises properties in India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and - new this year - the U.S. Only six years since its founding, OYO reports growth that would make it one of the world’s biggest hospitality chains. Hear Ritesh Agarwal on how he has led this upstart unicorn, and how he plans to keep expanding its size and influence.

Digital walled gardens (think Google, Facebook, Apple, Alibaba) have risen to dominance due to their sheer popularity with consumers, now commanding nearly 70% of all internet usage. These closed systems allow providers to offer consumers a seamless experience, which they love. But as a marketer, working with closed ecosystems makes it difficult to get a total view of your marketing across different channels. It can limit data sharing, the cross-provider activity of your customers, and conversion tracking. In this talk, Sojern helps marketers navigate this complexity and provides ideas, strategies and options for bridging across walled gardens, which otherwise make multi-channel marketing such a challenge.

5G is coming soon and you can’t rely on your old strategy to guide you. Regardless of whether or not 5G is part of your core technology, in the new ultra-connected environment, you will need a documented strategy to maintain alignment across your business. 5G deployment will stress the limits of your apps and digital services, it will shift customers’ expectations of your product, create new alternatives to your product, force robust data privacy policies, and prompt questions we can’t predict. Learn how to identify the business planning and strategizing that is necessary to create a successful 5G game plan, enabling you to leverage the benefits and mitigate the risks of our 5G future.

For years, we have tried to optimize the payment experience, with invisible payments as the ultimate goal (e.g., Uber). But for some, this has gone too far. Regulators are keen to make payments “safer” and customers more aware of what they pay and when with regulations like PSD2 and Strong Customer Authentication. The challenge is: How do you, as travel providers, satisfy both with the best possible payment experience? Explore payment experience and learn how omni-channel solutions, tokenization and biometric authentication can help your company to enhance the user experience.

With more people traveling than ever before and an overwhelming amount of information at their fingertips, consumers are looking for a trusted advisor to help streamline the customer journey - from planning and booking to on-the-ground experiences. A recent study found 92% of leisure travelers feel overwhelmed by the number of travel options available to book, and more than half of all travelers say they’d pay extra for a personalized itinerary. Today's consumer expects more out of their travel experience, including unique, differentiated value and benefits from a travel provider and authentic, personalized experiences that can be shared with the people who matter most. With endless travel options, the perfect experience is proving harder to find. Learn how to win big and drive customer loyalty by harnessing the power of high-tech innovations with high-touch customer service.

For travel brands looking to better engage their customers and earn more revenue, the industry marketing landscape can often feel like an unfair fight. In an environment where a few key players control the customer conversation with huge budgets, how can other travel brands expect to grow valuable customer relationships? Thanks to the emergence of data-driven customer marketing solutions, brands can outsmart the competition by getting more intelligent about their customer data. These solutions empower travel marketers to build customer-centric strategies designed to maximize engagement and lifetime value. In this session, learn how travel marketers can harness the latest tech and strategies to compete against industry powerhouses - and go even further with AI-augmented customer marketing.

Every day, your competitors scrape your website and steal your pricing data, content and intellectual property to use to their advantage. The more successful your business, the more likely your website will be targeted and scraped. How can you stay ahead of your competition when they know the cards you hold and can predict your next move? The rules of the game have changed and you need a new strategy to win. Learn how to identify, outsmart and manage sophisticated scraping bots on your website, giving you the upper hand against your competition.

Technology has become an integral part of the business travel experience. From basics like online booking and automated expense, to the growing use of mobile apps and social media platforms, business travelers are turning to technology to simplify and elevate their experience across the entire trip lifecycle. Hear the results of new research from Phocuswright highlighting key trends driven by business traveler behavior. A discussion follows involving innovative companies in the space who are shaping the present and future of the business travel marketplace.

Explore trends in digital shopping for lodging in light of growth from Google travel and the vacation rental segment. Follow this deep dive into the digital strategies by marketing channels for some of the top brands in the travel industry. See how this data empowers marketers to observe digital behavior in a ways that other data sets cannot.

Achieving global reach in fragmented and changing local landscapes can be difficult. Explore the practical side of creating a frictionless payment experience for travelers. A virtual tour around the world will be followed by discussion on the importance of choice to succeed in the various geographies, and the critical factors impacting each region such as regulations, technology and payment modalities.

Traveler motivations, behaviors and priorities vary not only by geography, but across generations. Looking at the motives and emotions behind their considerations, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are all unique in how they search, discover, explore and book travel. Now, there’s a new group impacting and shaping the future of travel: Generation Alpha. The introduction of the youngest group (those born 2010 and after) is shifting how family travel decisions are made - from destination selection to activities and experiences. Research from Expedia Group Media Solutions examines the latest traveler trends and what influences travel decisions across generations around the world. Walk away with a deeper understanding of the mindsets and motivations of travelers across generations and geographies and learn how you can turn these insights into action to connect with these audiences.

In the last 10-15 years, the rise of short-term rentals has dramatically expanded traveler options and virtually redefined the greater lodging industry. Private accommodation gross bookings in the U.S. hit $32.5B in 2018, nearly 17% of the total lodging market, and travelers continue to reserve the accommodation type on digital channels in increasing numbers. New research from Phocuswright frames the session by highlighting key trends and transformations that are sweeping across this game-changing travel category. A discussion follows involving key players who are shaping the present and future of the short-term rental marketplace.

The better your payments work for you, the bigger and faster your business can grow. That’s why payment functionality should never be a compromise. Learn how to create a superior customer experience, provide clarity and support for both travelers and owners, and build trust for your customers so you can successfully process complex payments

In the hyper-competitive travel marketplace, brands are searching for innovative ways to transform their organization and customer experience using the myriad of digital tools available to them. While a digital-technology arms race has ensued, it’s important for brands to not overlook innovation and opportunity from within. Experimentation is a cornerstone of optimization, and, when done right, can significantly improve digital performance. An experimentation program can foster a more data-centric corporate culture where data-driven decisions reduce risk through failure and decision makers constantly test ways to improve and enhance the customer experience. Experimentation can drive significant value by increasing revenue and customer conversion rates, uncovering deep consumer pain points and enabling insights to promote new methods of customer engagement.

Find out the winners of the Summit and Launch People's Choice awards!

Disruptive technology is the holy grail of the travel industry, but where is true innovation to be found? Acclaimed tech journalist Kara Swisher has interviewed hundreds of tech execs, politicians, celebrities, social activists and other high-profile movers and shakers intent on changing the world. She examines the contours, impact and future of innovation.

Google owns the top of the funnel in much of the world, and its increasingly robust travel products compete directly with the industry's top OTAs and metasearch engines. But the company has been accused of crossing and blurring the line between a great search experience and a gatekeeper that gives preferential placement to its own vertical services. Chief counsel for a complainant in the EU's antitrust suit against Google lays out his case and gives further insights on what can be expected in Europe after the reappointment of Margrethe Vestager in an unprecedented role (commission executive vice president for digital and competition chief) to direct and enforce European digital policy.

Focused intermediaries remain a big part of online travel. Can they continue to rely solely on a single vertical, region, or stage of the funnel? Or does success in online travel require product diversification and full-funnel presence? Hear from some of online travel’s savviest leaders about how they stand out, how they reach consumers, and how they plan to keep growing in the land of the giants.

Some have said that Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital, will "change your opinion on everything," often in a style that is both controversial and provocative but also brilliant. Also recently appointed chairman of Richard Branson's space-age venture Virgin Galactic, Chamath takes the stage with Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, in this exclusive one-on-one session.

The leader of Booking Holdings has set his sights on integrating the company’s expanding portfolio of brands to facilitate a complete end-to-end 'experience' platform. Get the inside scoop on Glenn Fogel’s vision for the future of the tech giant, and its prospects for creating a frictionless platform that seamlessly covers every stage in the funnel from inspiration to payment.