- HGEF Series | London, 30 June 2026 ~ Agenda
08:00 – 08:50
AI-Powered Guest Welcome, Registration & Lucky Draw Coupon Collection
Meet BE-A, the AI assistant from Flae Robotics, who will welcome you this year at the 3rd Hotel Guest Experience Forum.
08:50 – 09:15
Opening Remarks
A House Welcome
Guy Hilton, General Manager of The Waldorf Hilton and Area General Manager
Welcome Address
Charles Thomas, CEO & Founder, Hotel Guest Experience Forum & Redd Media
How Every Guest Experience starts with a Life Changed
Bhavna Patel, Head of Business Development, Springboard
09:10 – 09:25
The AI Revolution Is Here. Is Your Hotel Ready?
Philip Hallam, Group Head of Technology, Ralph Trustees
Synopsis: As hotels move beyond siloed systems, the role of the PMS is rapidly evolving. This session explores how modern, cloud-native platforms are becoming the foundation for intelligent hotel operations connecting guest journeys, revenue decisions, workforce workflows and real-time data into a single operating layer. Drawing on real hotel use cases, this session will examine how automation, APIs and AI are reshaping hotel decision-making, freeing teams from administration and enabling a more personalised, profitable guest experience.
09:25 – 09:45
Connected Systems in Action: What the Guest Actually Experiences When Systems Work
Milena Kirandjiska, VP of Client Sales, MEWS
Synopsis: As hotels move beyond siloed systems, the role of the PMS is rapidly evolving. This session explores how modern, cloud-native platforms are becoming the foundation for intelligent hotel operations connecting guest journeys, revenue decisions, workforce workflows and real-time data into a single operating layer. Drawing on real hotel use cases, this session will examine how automation, APIs and AI are reshaping hotel decision-making, freeing teams from administration and enabling a more personalised, profitable guest experience.
To celebrate our 3rd year at The Waldorf Hilton, the first 100 registered and attending hoteliers will be entered into a prize draw, with two winners receiving a complimentary two-night stay at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Winners will be announced during the closing session alongside additional prizes.
Sponsored by THREATSPIKE
09:45 – 10:05
The SaaSpocalypse: What Happens When AI Kills Your Software Stack
Synopsis: Adam explores what happens when AI doesn’t just assist your software but replaces it. Drawing on the collapse of enterprise SaaS valuations and the rise of agentic AI, Adam argues that the per-seat licensing model is finished and that hotels still locked into sprawling vendor stacks are paying for a broken model.
Adam Blake, CEO, ThreatSpike
10:05 – 10:35
Designing the Guest Touchpoint: Who Really Owns the Experience?
Synopsis: Every hotel guest touchpoint is shaped by decisions happening across technology, operations, commercial, marketing and brand teams. From check-in and connectivity to in-room entertainment, mobile ordering and spa bookings, the guest experience may appear seamless on the surface, but behind each touchpoint sits a complex mix of systems, priorities and stakeholders.
This session explores one of hospitality’s most overlooked challenges: who truly owns the guest touchpoint, and what happens when accountability becomes fragmented across the business?
Moderator
Daniel Lister, Consultant
Panellists
Debbie Neate, Director of Brand & Marketing, Sutton Hotel Collection & The Athenaeum Hotel & Residences
Philip Hallam, Group Head of Technology, Ralph Trustees
Kendra Ingram, Business Manager, Professional TV, Philips
Stefanie Hardy, Regional Operations Director (South), Kingfisher Hospitality Group
Joseph Beaumont, Head of Hospitality, Exponential-e
10:50 – 11:10
Morning Coffee & Networking
Sponsored by Discover Network and Diners Club International
Want to share your success and innovation with UK & Ireland's leading hotel executives? Contact us about speaking opportunities.
11:10 – 11:20
Leadership Perspective
The Operational Reality of Technology: What Actually Works for Your Resort and Your Guests
Rebecca Rigby, Director of Operations, Bluestone Resorts Ltd
Claire Lewis, Head of Guest Experience, Bluestone Resorts Ltd
Synopsis: How guest room management systems deliver personalised comfort, energy savings, and operational efficiency.
11:20 – 11:45
The Intelligent Hotel: In-Room Experience, Wellness & Sustainability as a Guest Experience Standard
Synopsis: The guest room is the most intimate space a hotel owns. It is where the promise of the brand is either kept or broken, not in the lobby, not in the restaurant, but at 2am when the room is too warm, too loud or too bright to sleep.
Yet in-room experience remains one of the most underdiscussed and underinvested areas in hotel guest experience strategy. This session changes that.
We will move well past the technology spec sheet and into the real decisions hotel leaders face around comfort, wellbeing, sustainability, operational efficiency and the commercial opportunity that intelligent hotel design creates across the entire property.
Moderator
Dr. Renée Wagner, Corporate Director ESG & Quality, Orascom Hotels Management
Panellists
Lee Nunn, Head of Hospitality, Zennio UK
Jessica Black, Director of Purchasing, Firmdale Hotels PLC
Marek Jarzemski, Head of Engineering, Treehouse Hotel London
Rob McGlynn, Operations Director, Supercity Aparthotels
11:45 – 11:55
Who Answers First Wins: Rethinking the Guest Experience in the Age of AI
Synopsis: Hotels are losing guests not because of their product, but because of slow, fragmented communication. This session explores how BE-A is enabling leading hotel groups to:
• Reduce response times from hours to minutes
• Increase direct bookings and conversion rates
• Automate a significant share of routine communication
• Improve staff efficiency while maintaining control
• Enhance guest satisfaction through immediate, consistent interaction
Filip Linek, Founder & CEO, BE-A by FLAE ROBOTICS
MIDDAY
11:55 – 12:45
Curated 1-2-1 Meetings - Block A
Four pre-scheduled 15-minute sessions pairing hotel leaders with selected partners. Matched in advance via App and Event Admin.
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 1 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 2 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 3 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 4 (15 minutes)
13:00 – 13:40
Networking Lunch & Meeting Peers & Sponsors
Synopsis: Make new connections and explore solutions from leading sponsors and innovators during an interactive lunch.
13:40 – 13:50
The Continuity Gap: Why Guest Experience Breaks Between Systems, Teams and Touchpoints
A focused insight session on where and why guest experience fractures and the communication and data strategies that close the gap.
Mark Evans, Sales Director, Bookboost AB
13:50 – 15:00
Curated 1-2-1 Meetings - Block B
Four pre-scheduled 15-minute sessions pairing hotel leaders with selected partners. Matched in advance via App and Event Admin.
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 5 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 6 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 7 (15 minutes)
- 1-2-1 Meeting Slot 8 (15 minutes)
10:10 – 10:20
Leadership Perspective
The Revenue Experience Tension: Where Does Your Hotel Draw the Line?
Chiara Battifarano, Director of Revenue Management, InterGlobe Enterprises
Ammisha Bhardwaj, Director of Revenue & Distribution, Watergate Bay Hotel
Synopsis: How guest room management systems deliver personalised comfort, energy savings, and operational efficiency.
15:00 – 15:30
Panel: Revenue Marries Guest Experience: Profit Models Guests Can Actually Feel
Synopsis:
The most commercially successful hotels don’t just optimise for yield they build revenue models that guests can feel. This panel examines how pricing, procurement and ancillary design can reinforce the guest relationship.
- Real trade-offs between revenue targets and experience outcomes
- Where profit models create friction and where they create loyalty
- What it takes to align commercial and experience teams around the same decisions
Moderator
Jon Siberry, Head of Revenue, Sarova Hotels & Z Hotels
Panellists
Gillian McGraffin, Head of Spa, Stobo Castle Health Spa Hotel
Joonas Ahola, CEO & Founder, MEETINGPACKAGE
Rebecca Bozeat-Manzi, Group Director – Sales & Marketing, CASTLEBRIDGE HOSPITALITY
Austen Bushrod, Procurement Director, Splendid Hospitality Group
Dr. Renée Wagner, Corporate Director ESG & Quality, Orascom Hotels Management
To celebrate our 3rd year at The Waldorf Hilton, the first 100 registered and attending hoteliers will be entered into a prize draw, with two winners receiving a complimentary two-night stay at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Winners will be announced during the closing session alongside additional prizes.
Sponsored by THREATSPIKE
15:30 – 15:40
From Loyalty Programme to Guest Relationship: Using Loyalty Intelligence Across the Guest Journey
Synopsis: How hotels are using Smart TVs, casting, and digital signage to create a seamless, connected guest journey.
Martin Kongsvik, CCO, Loyco AS
15:40 – 15:50
Winning the Booking: Turning High-Value Guest Emails into Revenue
Synopsis: Hotels are losing revenue not because guests are unwilling to book, but because high-value inquiries often wait too long for a useful response. In this session, Altek AI will show how hotels can use AI to turn reservation requests, group requests, event inquiries, package questions, and other complex guest emails into faster and more consistent booking workflows.
The session will explore how AI can help hotel teams identify high-value emails, retrieve the right booking or property information, draft accurate responses, support human approval where needed, and move guests from inquiry to confirmed booking while reducing workload, costs and time spent handling emails.
Attendees will leave with a practical view of how AI can improve response speed, reduce manual workload, recover revenue lost to slow follow-ups, and create a foundation for broader guest operations over time.
Jon-Fredrik Hopland, Co-Founder, Altek AI
Kristoffer Pedersen, Co-Founder, Altek AI
Bring your cross-functional colleagues with you.
Guest Experience and profitable growth are delivered through collaboration across departments.
15:50 – 16:10
Afternoon Coffee & Networking
Sponsored by Discover Network and Diners Club International
16:10 – 16:20
Leadership Perspective
From OTA Dependency to Direct Confidence: The Future of Hotel Distribution
Synopsis: A joint perspective from E-Commerce, Revenue Management and Payments exploring how aligning distribution strategy, commercial thinking and payment experience is driving direct booking confidence and reducing OTA dependency.
Andrey Timoshin, E-Commerce Director – Northern Europe, ACCOR ( Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems)
Linus Lars Anders Fredberg, Regional Director of Revenue Management, ACCOR HOTELS (Sofitel & MGallery)
16:20 – 16:45
Winning Guests Without Losing Margin: Brand, Distribution & Loyalty in a Direct-Booking World
Synopsis: OTA dependency, brand perception and loyalty economics are three sides of the same strategic challenge. This session examines how marketing, revenue, loyalty and distribution leaders are rebuilding direct booking confidence.
- Direct booking confidence vs OTA relationship management
- Brand perception in a world where guests share everything
- Loyalty economics: what drives repeat visits
Moderator
Paula Frey, Commercial Hospitality Consultant, PAULA FREY CONSULTING
Panellists
Susan Nisbet, Senior Director, Loyalty & Partnerships, H WORLD INTERNATIONAL
Ryan Wiggins, Head of CRM & Loyalty, CHEVAL COLLECTION
Kimberly Ofrecio, Group Commercial Director, MACDONALD HOTELS & RESORTS
Marcel Stiller, VP EMEA, TRUSTYOU
16:45 – 17:15
C-LEVEL PANEL - Guest Experience as a Board-Level Mandate: Making the Case at the Top
Synopsis: Guest experience is increasingly a brand and boardroom conversation not just an operational one. This closing panel explores what it takes to elevate the guest agenda to a strategic priority.
- How leaders frame the commercial case for experience investment
- Building the organisational culture that sustains it
- What accountability for guest experience looks like at board level
Moderator
Daniel Lister, Consultant
Panellists
Kelly Morgan, Managing Director, WILDE APARTHOTELS
Paul Knightley FIH, Chief Operating Officer, CLERMONT HOTEL GROUP
Dagmar Jungbauer MIH, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), PROVIDENCE HOTELS
Imshan Jamal, Managing Director & Co-Founder, EQ GROUP
Ramesh Arora, CEO, SIGNATURE HOTELS GROUP
17:15 – 17:30
Closing Insights, Prize Distribution & Entertainment
Synopsis: Guest experience is increasingly a brand and boardroom conversation not just an operational one. This closing panel explores what it takes to elevate the guest agenda to a strategic priority.
- How leaders frame the commercial case for experience investment
- Building the organisational culture that sustains it
- What accountability for guest experience looks like at board level
17:30 – 19:30
Evening Networking Reception
17:05 – 17:30
Panel: Marketing & Brand Leadership – Winning Guests in a Digital Age
Synopsis: Strategies to differentiate brands, drive direct bookings, and optimise engagement.
Håvard Uglem Hovdahl, VP Loyalty, STRAWBERRY
17:30 – 17:55
Panel: Future-Ready Hotel Teams - Blending Tech & Talent
Synopsis: Upskilling hotel teams to deliver exceptional guest experience in a tech-driven world.
17:55 – 18:05
Closing Insights & Guest Recognition Awards
17:55 – 18:05
Closing Insights & Guest Recognition Awards
18:05 – 19:30
Farewell Networking Reception & Guest Departure
Want to share your success and innovation with UK & Ireland's senior hotel executives? Contact us about speaking opportunities.
09:20 – 09:40
Connected Systems in Action: What the Guest Actually Experiences When Systems Work
Synopsis: