Compelling Topics at Upcoming HTNG European Conference

HTNG announces session information and speakers for next month's 2017 European Conference on 7-9 November in Prague.

The first two days of the conference will be filled with general sessions and concurrent breakout sessions. On the third day, the agenda will conclude with hoteliers-only sessions. HTNG conferences deliver programs that keep attendees up-to-date on emerging technology issues and trends in hospitality. This conference will provide knowledge, collaboration, networking and business development opportunities to a wide range of industry professionals.

Keynote Speaker: Ben Ryan, Coach, Fiji Rugby Sevens

Attaining Optimal Performance Through People and Technology: Ben Ryan has been hailed as a national hero after leading the Fiji Rugby 7s team to the country's first Olympic championship. He pioneered use of GPS technology in team sports, but was challenged when he went to the Fiji programme and had no technology to work with. This session will explain how using the proper tools in coaching teams can be the difference between success and failure. Ben will share with the audience his stories and experiences to illustrate how to use innovation successfully rather than simply innovating for the sake of it.

Session Topics:

• The AI Age: How Will Machine Learning and Intelligence Impact Travel and Hospitality? In this age of AI, computing power has caught up with our vision and is now becoming reality. Kanishka Agiwal, IBM Corporation, will give the audience a glimpse into the new future and how it will affect our industry.
• All Systems Go: Hotel Systems Dashboards: Graeme Powell, Veridicum, will teach valuable insights of dashboards that could be integrated into a product roadmap today.
• Are You Ready for GDPR? Charles-Albert Helleputte, Mayer-Brown Europe, will provide a high-level overview of the new regulation and the later session GDPR: Discussion and Drill Down will answer questions and dig deeper into the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Blockchain and Hospitality: This session will cover the basics of blockchain technology at a strategic level, with guidance on key variations and the applications where they make sense.
• Blockchain Use Cases Deep Dive: In this session, speakers will explore blockchain use cases being addressed by Winding Tree (distribution) and Currency Alliance (loyalty).
• Enhancing the Guest Experience with Central Authentication: Chris Headings, Sunray, will explain how to deploy centralized authentication to hotels, while maintaining security best practices and leveraging the infrastructure already owned.
• How to Get Started with Blockchain: This session is targeted at front-line leaders of development organizations to provide tips and tricks for key decisions to make, what resources are available and common pitfalls.
• How Virtual and Augmented Reality Will Change Loyalty & Engagement for Hospitality: Chris Ruff, Glympse, will discuss how hotel brands can use AR and VR technologies to increase brand loyalty and why it's important to implement them to differentiate themselves.
• Innovation Through Accelerators: This session will discuss the trend of innovation, how it is considered a key factor of future success and how companies struggle with agility, risk taking and the frequent failures that are inevitable.
• IT Leadership Panel: Top-level hotel IT executives will share how they see technology evolving in hotels in the coming years.
• Know Thy Enemy: Utilizing Machine Learning for Adaptive Security: Dobias van Ingen, Aruba Networks, will teach the audience how continuous evaluation of threats against your hotel, brand and company through machine learning can keep your guests, staff and data safe.

Additional Conference Speakers:

• Denis Baranov, DataArt
• Floor Bleeker, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts
• Marco Correia, Belmond Hotels
• Charles Ehredt, Currency Alliance
• Ted Horner, E. Horner & Associates Pty Ltd
• Yves Lacheret, AccorHotels
• Jens Lapinski, Techstars
• Brian Lewis, OpenJaw Technologies Ltd
• Douglas Rice, Hospitality Technology Network, LLC
• Andrew Sanders, DataArt
• Finn Schulz, Schulz Consulting
• Jakub Vysoký, Winding Tree

For a full agenda and up-to-date list of speakers, please visit the HTNG European Conference page.

Conference registration is open to any full-time employee of a company who owns, manages or franchises a hotel or hospitality company. For all other industry participants, HTNG membership is required.

About Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG)

Part of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), HTNG the premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG serves members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 22 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsible for over 3 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups.

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