This Is Not a Freakin’ Trade Conference: Europe Style

When we first started thinking about taking our signature Skift Global Forum conference to Europe, we weren’t sure the big picture magic that we had managed to capture in our New York conferences would translate over the Atlantic.

Six months on, with the speakers, sponsors, and partners we have lined up, and the attendees registered so far to come, we think we’re well on our way. The one-day Skift Forum Europe on April 4 at the Tobacco Docks in London promises to be the most exciting travel industry creative conference in Europe in 2017.

22 amazing speakers, 15 of them CEOs from major companies in travel, and other tech luminaries are speaking on April 4.

The original mission of our Forums, as I first wrote out in rough notes in March 2014, involved creating a Forum that inspires the attendees about the business and the creative potential of our sector. This is what I wrote:

We believe the business Future of Travel is at the intersection of technology and marketing. We believe the creative Future of Travel is at the intersection of user experience and design.

We are the world’s largest industry, high time we have a Global Forum that starts acting like it.

Buy a Ticket to Our Inaugural European Conference

Those few key phrases above that were meant for the Forum ended up changing our company positioning. It crystallized Skift’s audience: marketers, strategists, and technologists. It gave us the intersections at which Skift covers the future of travel: tech, marketing, user experience, and design. It gave us marching orders: show the larger world the creative promise of the world’s largest industry. And it gave us our biggest clarion call: “Travel is the world’s largest industry. Let’s start acting like it!”

The Forum isn’t a just a line of business for us. It is the distillation of everything we work for.

As we’re in the home stretch for our first annual Skift Forum Europe this year, we’ve come a long way. About 400 of the smartest people in travel will gather in London. Twenty-two of the biggest travel CEOs and leaders in Europe are speaking on stage about their vision for the future of travel on the continent and beyond.

And as I wrote last year, “Take a day or two out, come, sit back, and listen, and we will promise you the best creative brainfood for the year.” This is our promise to you.

This isn’t a freakin’ trade conference, as we gently say it.

And thanks to our generous sponsors:
Button, CenturyLink, ContentSquare,  London & Partners, Mastercard, Mileslife, OpenJaw, Sojern, Travelsify, UrLife, Visit Britain, VisitJordan, and Whalar.

Buy a ticket to Skift Forum Europe

P.S. If you are a journalist/reporter and want to get a press pass to cover it for your media organization, email us at [email protected].