Global luxury and experiential travel network Virtuoso announced the return of its annual Travel Tech Summit this August.
Slated for 9th August as part of the 37th Virtuoso Travel Week, the fourth run of the Summit will be held at the Bellagio Resort & Casino and will, yet again, be dedicated to innovation within the luxury travel sector.
As such, the Summit is a one-of-a-kind event that focuses on using smart technology to elevate and enhance human connection, rather than replace it.
Due to high demand, Virtuoso has almost doubled the capacity of this year’s Tech Summit and is expecting 500 attendees.
Delving into ongoing evolution
The upcoming event will be led by tech entrepreneur, investor, and Virtuoso board member Gilad Berenstein who will open the discussion by showcasing key themes in travel technology he has been following over the past year, as well as the development of Virtuoso’s tech ecosystem.
Berenstein said: “One of the things that makes the Travel Tech Summit such a success and something people want to attend year after year is that we continuously evolve the format and topics. In previous years, we’ve focused on showcasing ideas and innovations from outside of Virtuoso for mutual learning, which has fueled an ecosystem of startups tailoring their systems and products for travel advisors. This year, we are highlighting technology developments from within Virtuoso. Thanks to the evolution of Virtuoso’s Tech Innovation Program, the level of tech sophistication in the network has grown exponentially.”
He added that this year’s Tech Summit aims to empower advisors and partners to dive further into the developments available to them through Virtuoso, celebrate in-house innovation and, most importantly, walk away with actionable steps and inspiration they can incorporate into their own businesses.
What to expect at this year’s summit
The tech summit format will range from presentations to panels, Q&A sessions and roundtable discussions, allowing attendees to engage with the innovators and with each other.
They will hear from a variety of Virtuoso advisors, partners and executives during the Travel Tech Summit, including:
- Betsy Grebinoski of Pique Travel, who will take the stage with Fernanda Barrence of The Trip Boutique – an AI-powered platform that assists advisors in delivering personalised recommendations. They will discuss what an “agency brain” is and why Pique is deploying one.
- Dianna Rom of Windstar Cruises and Jared Shalhoub of AmaWaterways will discuss how they are using virtual reality (VR) media to evolve from static virtual tours to dynamic, multimedia-rich immersive experiences.
- Kate Sullivan of Anthology Travel, an independent affiliate of Jetset World Travel, and David Shull of Tern will share how luxury travel is entering the operating system era with more unified systems to automate the ordinary and unlock the extraordinary.
- Vincent Shacks of Wilderness Destinations will talk about using tech to keep lions and livestock safe in Botswana’s wildlife-rich Okavango region, where conservation partners are using a real-time Lion Alert System powered by GPS collars and geofencing.
- Virtuoso Senior Vice President, Technology, Paul Kearney will share efforts to standardise and modernise a more collaborative travel tech environment where systems interoperate smoothly and securely.
Kearney remarked: “In technology, Virtuoso is focused on building systems that support the unique needs of each agency, advisor and partner. Our approach is rooted in the belief that no single solution fits every business, which is why we’re investing in a flexible, interoperable ecosystem that brings together the tools and platforms our network relies on.”
He added that, at this year’s Tech Summit, Virtuoso is gearing up to highlight in-house innovation and share how it’s making it easier for advisors to spend less time navigating technology whilst also creating space for innovation and new ways of doing business.
Deep-seated discussions
Virtuoso Senior Product Manager Barbara Joseph will also moderate a panel of Virtuoso advisors, in which they will get candid about technology transitions and share real-world lessons from navigating complex system changes.
Drawing from their firsthand experiences managing complex system changes, the panel will provide practical insights and key takeaways designed to help organisations successfully adapt, whether partnering with a startup or implementing a new company-wide platform.
Notable speakers from outside the Virtuoso network are set to take the stage, too, including Rafat Ali, CEO and founder of Skift.
In a fireside chat, Berenstein and Ali will explore the most pressing themes and emerging trends shaping the travel and tourism landscape.
Their conversation will dive into the intersection of travel technology and innovation, covering the impact of shifting geopolitics, evolving consumer behavior, workforce dynamics, demographic shifts and how these forces are influencing the travel ecosystem.
Also, Lisa Cain of Florida International University will discuss how AI supports high-touch service in luxury travel; while Cara Whitehall of Thayer Investment Partners and Michael Zeisser of FMZVentures will provide an investor’s perspective on what is driving the future of innovation across the travel, hospitality and real estate sectors.
Casting the spotlight on risk-takers
Lastly, the Startup Showcase will return with a handful of new businesses that are taking risks to help propel the industry forward.
It will provide a deep dive into what innovation looks like in real-time, allowing attendees to be early adopters and advocates of future technologies.
Participating startups include:
- Abra Hospitality: Real, lasting brand loyalty is earned by consistently delighting guests with hyper-personalised, one-size-fits-one service. Abra is the first platform that enables hotels to deliver this systematically, effortlessly and at-scale.
- BeCause: As customer demand for sustainability and certification pressure rise, fragmented systems are holding the industry back. BeCause — an ecosystem hub connecting travel supply, demand and solution providers — is turning sustainability from admin overhead into a commercial advantage.
- Bonafide: Bonafide addresses the critical issue of Large Language Models (LLMs) frequently misrepresenting travel brand information, which can lead to significant lost sales in the rapidly evolving and growing landscape of generative and agentic commerce. Bonafide solves this by acting as an alignment platform, providing a single, validated source of information to LLMs and generative AI applications, thereby ensuring brands are accurately represented and recommended.
- Bellboy Robotics: Every great guest experience is built on work no guest ever sees - the room is clean, the towels are fresh and everything is in its place. Bellboy Robotics applies robotics in a way that supports real hospitality, starting with a robot that learns from staff and quietly takes care of the work that makes a room feel ready, all with one goal: to give hotel teams back their time, without lowering standards.
- Levee: Levee represents the evolution of labor in the hospitality industry, using vision and voice AI to capture real-world operational data, enhance frontline worker performance and enable leaner, more agile hotel teams. It aims to reshape the future of work in hospitality by going beyond task tracking and automation.
