Skift Take

Skift's promise has always been to go deep into all of travel. Now we are going to take that a step further with four new sub-sector summits in 2020 to complement our broader global forums. We are taking the conversation to the next level.

As we start a new decade, we are scaling up on events as a way to bring the vast global audience of Skift together around all parts of travel. You already know us for our annual big-tent, big-picture forums: the Skift Global Forum in New York City, Skift Forum Europe, and Skift Forum Asia. These events are where big company CEOs come and talk about their vision for the future of travel, with cross-sector learnings and insights for everyone in the travel sector.

Now, we are ready to dive deeper into other sub-sectors of travel and bring the Skift live experience to a few businesses that we think need reinvigoration: with the Skift magic, if you will. This is the right time for expansion following the huge success of our first-ever Skift Short-Term Rental Summit earlier this month.

We are excited to announce today that we are adding three new summits for 2020 and, of course, bringing back the Short-Term Rental Summit as well. Each of these summits are based on original research put out by our Skift Research analysts and gives these conferences the analytical rigor and right framework around the discussions of the day.

Skift Loyalty Summit, New York City

The Skift Loyalty Summit will be the first modern loyalty conference to take the conversation out of the realm of loyalty programs and into the larger universe of how to improve and increase guest engagement and personalization, with all the loyalty and tech tools working in parallel to achieve a truly loyal guest. In an on-demand, instantaneous and experiential-first era, what does modern loyalty mean from a business and consumer habits perspective? It will bring together speakers and attendees from airlines, hotels, online travel players, startups, and the financial community, amongst others.

Do not expect a discussion on conversion rates, tiers, qualifying dollars, and blackout dates. Instead, this summit will introduce an expanded view of the loyalty and loyalty tech landscape, discussing the vendor landscape, highlighting the challenges and opportunities ahead, and how lodging companies, airlines, and intermediaries can learn from one another. This one-day summit will be held in New York City during the summer of 2020, exact date to be announced soon.

Sign up to be notified as soon as tickets are on sale.

Skift Family Travel Summit, New York City

Family travel has been a sleepy industry sector for decades now, even though family and multi-generational travel is becoming more and more prevalent and complex to plan for families. The definition of family itself has changed in our lifetime, and yet the sector still has no business conference dedicated to it.

The Skift Family Travel Summit will be the first look of its kind at the business of family travel, the projected growth areas in it, the major players, suppliers and intermediaries in it, modern family travel behaviors and the challenges for them, the digital disruption affecting the sector, and the path ahead for better family travel for all involved. This one-day summit will be held in New York City during the fall of 2020, exact date to be announced soon.

Sign up to be notified as soon as tickets are on sale.

Skift Tour Operator Summit, New York City

The vast and global packaged tour operator sector is one of the last travel sectors yet to be fully digitally transformed. Much like the intense tech and investor activity happening in the day-tours-and-activities sector, the multi-day packaged tour sector is potentially on the cusp of seeing the same set of forces hit it and transform it from inside-out, and could become the right balance of high-touch-high-tech business that everyone aspires to. From tour suppliers to destination management companies, destination marketing organizations, travel agents, to the new breed of online sellers and tech disruptors, to the changing consumer traveling and buying preferences, we will bring together all parts of this sprawling sector in an intense day of discussions and learnings.

The first Skift Tour Operator Summit will explore how forward-looking tour operators are marketing to and attracting younger audiences, and taking advantage of millennials’ penchant to consult travel and tour operator agents for their comprehensive and experiential trip-planning needs. This one-day summit will be held in New York City during the fall of 2020, on the day after the Skift Family Travel Summit. Exact date will be announced soon.

Sign up to be notified as soon as tickets are on sale.

Skift Short-Term Rental Summit, New York City

The second edition of our super-successful Skift Short Term Rental Summit will bring an expanded agenda in 2020 with speakers and an audience of founders and operators in the dynamic and rapidly expanding short-term rental ecosystem for a day of intense business conversations.

The short-term rental sector is a testing ground for new hospitality models and we will continue to take the pulse of how these experiments play out at our summit next year. Key flashpoints in the sector we will be addressing for 2020 include Airbnb’s much anticipated IPO, the rise of short-term rentals in Asia, Google’s growing prominence in the space, and traditional property management groups that suddenly find themselves in the spotlight. As always we will remain focused on key players, mapping the landscape and identifying growth potential, highlighting emerging technologies, and sharing new research. This one-day summit will be held in New York City in early December 2020, exact date to be announced soon.

Sign up to be notified as soon as tickets are on sale.

If you want to get involved with these summits, want to sponsor, or have any other feedback or questions on them, email us at [email protected].

Rafat Ali
Founder & CEO 
Skift

smartphone

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: skift summit, str summit 2020

Up Next

Loading next stories