(April 20, 2018). The programme of the 1st HospitalityInside Think Tank (HITT) is complete! Travelling from Atlanta, Bryson Koehler, Chief Technology Officer of IBM Watson, will join us, putting the important trends within emerging technologies into perspective. In addition, renowned and future-oriented companies will be complementing the circle of sponsors.

After Sabre Hospitality and AccorHotels, HSDS, a software solutions specialist from London/Cluj, Drees & Sommer, an international project developer, and Expo Real, Europe’s leading real estate and investment fair, will be supporting HITT. Additional cooperation partners will be REIN, the Real Estate Innovation Network that celebrated its debut at Expo Real last year, and the Hotelschool The Hague from the Netherlands. “Emerging technologies – Friend or foe” is the title of the Think Tank taking place on a ship in Berlin on June 10/11 – in English. Book now – participation is limited due to the ship’s capacity and the HITT concept.

Customer behavior could blow up business models

The technologies that are currently being developed make enormous progress possible, even quantum leaps: they no longer just recognize the needs of travellers (customers), but they are even able to predict them. “The expectations of customers determine how companies will act,” says Bryson Koehler, head of technology at IBM Watson from the US. In other words, it is even more important for companies to know what kind of customer behaviour could blow up their own business model.

With Bryson Koehler, HITT gained a source of inspiration with IT and hotel experience. He was Senior VIP of Global Revenue and Guest Technology at InterContinental Hotels Group from 2002 to 2011 and responsible for new digital products within the chain. After evaluating the ongoing trends in the tech world, the remaining trendsetters will dig deeper into the different aspects: collaboration and confrontation between machines and humans, the facets of artificial intelligence and the tech-based market of China whose willingness to experiment and innovativeness drive the current developments ever faster.

In the afternoon, discussions will focus on various fields of hospitality – mainly on the influence digitisation has on hotel property and distribution of hotel operations. These main issues can already be derived from the applications of participants so far. At HITT – as opposed to conventional conferences – they will be able to join in and influence decisions. Therefore, the afternoon will be devoted to specifying issues, working in groups and individual talks.

Sponsors sharing their knowledge

The HITT sponsors and partners will and are meant to join in these discussions. These companies perform research themselves and belong to the leaders in IT, hospitality and hotel real estate. They drive innovation – through products, solutions and dealing with current trends and the market players with regards to content.

This is why HospitalityInside, the organiser of the Think Tank, is very happy to have won over further renowned companies as pillars of this exceptional concept which will also contribute through meetings, workshops, webinars, and other things during the post-event phase of HITT. How this actually works will emerge from the Think Tank itself – based on the preferences of its participants.

Such an unusual concept that does not fit into any pattern requires trust. The current sponsors share HospitalityInside’s vision: Sabre Hospitality has invested in its own lab and permanent studies on technology in hotel operations for decades. For many years, HSDS from Cluj in Romania – the Silicon Valley of Europe – has programmed hotel-specific IT solutions that are being used by hotels and hotel chains all over the world.

Hotel school engaged

Inspired by the lifestyle and millennial wave, AccorHotels founded a lab in Paris and exposes its own new brands to the rough world of competition in a test of survival. The Drees & Sommer project developer is among the pioneers of sustainable real estate worlds through its “smart buildings for a smart city” initiatives that went almost unnoticed by the public.

Europe’s leading real estate and investment trade fair, Expo Real Munich, which has been collaborating with HospitalityInside since 2008, has recorded an increasing interest in digital topics and, in 2017, belonged to the initiators of REIN, the Real Estate Innovation Network, which directs its focus on innovative start-ups.

Young generations and creativity also stand for another partner: Hotelschool The Hague. The Dutch have acquired solid expertise in the future areas of hospitality in terms of research and education, and they have supported the Think Tank project right from the start.

The HITT website at www.hitt.world provides everything for you up to date:

· all information and images regarding the event, speakers and sponsors,

· the programme in a concise version,

· the new interactive PDF including booking form and all event details summarized.

In case of further questions, please contact HospitalityInside via phone at +49 821 885880-10 or via eMail at office@hospitalityInside.com .