Virtuoso is hosting its first ever Travel Tech Summit on 14 August at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas during its annual Virtuoso Travel Week event.
Virtuoso’s summit will consist of three components: a Big Ideas Session featuring multiple speakers addressing tech strategies that are driving the industry forward; a VC Panel focused on the innovations and longer-term opportunities that investors are seeking and funding; and a Startup Showcase featuring companies that are addressing obstacles the travel industry is currently facing.
The summit will be led by tech entrepreneur and investor Gilad Berenstein, and Virtuoso SVP, digital & consumer products Travis McElfresh will feature among the Big Idea speakers.
“Innovating and pushing boundaries is something Virtuoso has always embraced,” Virtuoso chairman and CEO Matthew D. Upchurch said.
“Our Incubator program helped launch some of the travel tech players that are core to our business today.
“This Travel Tech Summit is just our next step in furthering innovation and ensuring that travel technology benefits our agencies, advisors and the partners who work with us.
“We believe in fostering technology that enhances the value of human connection. As I’ve been saying for more than 20 years, automate the predictable so that you can humanise the exceptional.”
Berenstein will kick off the sessions with a broad overview addressing five key themes: the optimisation of everything; financialisation of travel and how it leads to better consumer experiences; the role of creators and influencers; aggregation and super apps; and emerging technologies focused on the Metaverse and Web3.
This opening presentation tees up the four Big Ideas speakers, who will dive deeper into each category. Next, the venture capitalist panel will weigh in with their perspective as investors. Finally, the Startup Showcase will feature five new companies that are developing solutions to ease travel industry pain-points and are demonstrating real-world application.
“After attending so many industry events, both open and closed, it seemed to me there was no home for innovators focused on luxury travel and the advisor/agency model,” Berenstein said.
“The goal of this summit is to bring together some of the top minds in the industry, from the largest innovators, to those funding development, to the entrepreneurs and start-ups bringing these visions to life.”
Here are the speakers for each session:
Big Ideas Speakers:
- Khalid Meniri – CEO and Founder, Selfbook
- Ethan Hawkes – Head of Strategic Partnerships, Hopper
- Karen Bolda – Senior Vice President of Partner Products, Expedia Group
- Travis McElfresh – Senior Vice President of Product, Virtuoso
VC Panel:
- Gaurav Tuli – Managing Director, F-Prime Capital Partners
- Chris Hemmeter – Managing Director, Thayer Ventures
- Chantal Noble Haldorsen – Early Stage VC Lead, Certares
- Cara Whitehill – Founder and Managing Director, Unlock Advisors
Startup Showcase:
- Grace McBride – Founder and CEO, Lucia
- Gary Kohn – Co-Founder, Luxury Travel Hackers
- Alex Jara – CEO, Deal Engine
- West Askew – Founder and CEO, Thatch
- Irving Betesh – CEO and Co-Founder, Sion
