Keynote Speaker
Lindsay Herbert
Author of Digital Transformation
Lindsay Herbert, has receved international praise for her book Digital Transformation. Its practical and direct approach to innovation dispels the myths behind the business world's most infamous buzzword.
Herbert is also an IBM Inventor and the Innovation Leader for IBM iX where she advises the leaders of major companies on how to further their innovation agendas, as well as creating breakthrough technologies for IBM itself.
Her most recent invention is the IBM Instant Checkout, a revolutionary innovation for retail. This ground-breaking technology has resulted in international media coverage, including BBC World News and a segment on BBC Click.
Wednesday, 22 April
12:00 -13:30
Mallorca Auditorium
Never Say "Digital Transformation" - How to Actually Innovate
Jargon gets dangerous when it is used to run companies, and sadly that is exactly what most "digital transformations" are all about. After a career leading real innovation for major companies globally, Lindsay Herbert is fed up with all the business buzzwords and tech hype.
In this talk, based on her internationally acclaimed book Digital Transformation, LIndsay is determined to set the record straight about what real transformation is, and how every company in the hospitality sector can achieve it.
Lindsay will reveal the three critical rules for achieving real innovation success. In each, she will share her own hard-won lessons, as well as from company leaders worldwide. You will leave with practical advice, inspiring examples, and the cautionary tales needed to turn your company into one that knows how to dodge the hype and adapt to change itself.
General Session
Thursday, 23 April
10:15 - 11:30
Mallorca Auditorium
Ecological Transformation
Following a decade of growth which brought jobs and fostered local and regional development, the tourism and hotel industry has repeatedly outperformed the global economy, However, tourism is also responsible for nearly one tenth of all carbon emissions globally, with the hotel sector accounting for almost a quarter of all tourism emissions. Under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the hotel sector must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions per room per year by 66 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 90 percent by 2050 compared to 2010 (ITP, 2017). The technology required to decarbonize the industry is available now. This session will try to address ways how the hospitality IT community can develop and promote an action plan in an effort to make its urgently required contribution to a responsible future in hospitality.