Beyond ChatGPT: What Claude brings to hospitality, and why operators are paying attention

Most hospitality leaders have already spent time with tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. Now, Claude is generating a different kind of buzz — and for good reason.

In this session, we introduce Claude and explore the three ways it shows up inside a working hospitality operation:

1. The Familiar Conversation
The experience most people already know — refined for the kind of writing, analysis, and day-to-day thinking that knowledge workers rely on.

2. The Embedded Desktop Assistant
A practical, hands-on assistant that works alongside non-technical teams inside spreadsheets, documents, and inboxes — completing real tasks, not just responding to questions.

3. The Coding Companion
A powerful partner for technical teams, enabling them to build and maintain systems at a pace that simply wasn’t possible a year ago.

We then step back to look at what makes Claude different from the tools your team has already tried, where it fits within a hospitality operation, and what it means for how you plan capability, staffing, and vendor relationships over the next two years.

Michael J. Goldrich is the founder of Vivander Advisors and the author of Invisible: What to Do When AI Erases Your Business, The AI Literacy Playbook, and Too Many Hats, Too Little Time. He advises, trains, and speaks with executive teams on AI literacy, business visibility, and the future of work, helping leaders understand how AI-mediated discovery, automated workflows, and shifting organizational power are rewriting the rules of relevance. A featured writer for Hospitality Upgrade and frequent speaker at executive conferences, Goldrich describes his role as strategic interpreter: most leaders do not need more tools, they need clearer thinking about what is actually changing. Hospitality has been his living laboratory, and his work applies across any industry where visibility, trust, and human judgment still matter.

F&B Revenue Optimization: Driving performance when demand is under pressure

Demand across the region has become more unpredictable. F&B operations are feeling the pressure. And the difference between properties that thrive and those that struggle often comes down to the decisions being made daily — across menus, pricing, service, and team behavior.

In this free master class, Judith will show you how to:

➡️ Optimize your menu to protect margins — ensuring every item earns its place
➡️ Price strategically to balance value and profit — without over-discounting
➡️ Use data to identify revenue gaps quickly — and focus on what matters most
➡️ Increase guest spend through effective service — without being pushy
➡️ Build a commercially focused team — where revenue is everyone’s responsibility

Judith Cartwright CRME, CHBA, ISHC is the Founder & CEO of Black Coral Consulting and Advisory Board Member for HSMAI Middle East & Africa. With over 20 years advising global hospitality luxury brands, she shapes transformative guest experiences. Judith is a sought-after speaker, bringing future-focused insights at the intersection of wellness, loyalty, and hospitality.

Downtime to Upgrade: Discover how Google NotebookLM actually thinks with you.

Step into the world of smarter research with this concise, hands-on session on Google NotebookLM. In this session, we explore how NotebookLM goes beyond basic summarization to help you research, synthesize, and reason across complex information with ease.

Featuring a live demonstration, Michael J. Goldrich walks through real-world use cases that showcase how the tool can transform raw information into structured analysis, actionable insights, and stronger decision support. Whether you’re working with dense reports, strategic content, or multi-source research, this session shows how NotebookLM can become your thinking partner in turning complexity into clarity.

Michael J. Goldrich is the founder of Vivander Advisors and the author of Invisible: What to Do When AI Erases Your Business, The AI Literacy Playbook, and Too Many Hats, Too Little Time. He advises, trains, and speaks with executive teams on AI literacy, business visibility, and the future of work, helping leaders understand how AI-mediated discovery, automated workflows, and shifting organizational power are rewriting the rules of relevance. A featured writer for Hospitality Upgrade and frequent speaker at executive conferences, Goldrich describes his role as strategic interpreter: most leaders do not need more tools, they need clearer thinking about what is actually changing. Hospitality has been his living laboratory, and his work applies across any industry where visibility, trust, and human judgment still matter.

Yango Ads MEA Tracking Trends and Sentiment for Regional Travel

Malika Kennedy from Yango Ads has led a research, analyzing and summarizing key findings based on booking data, search trends, and traveler sentiment across the region.

The research covers:

⏩ How demand and booking behavior shifted in March
⏩ Key drivers behind cancellations and market volatility
⏩ How traveler sentiment evolved over time
⏩ Early signals of demand recovery and changing search patterns
⏩ Comparative analysis of trends across Russian-speaking web

The Performance Advantage: Why team health is your most underrated asset

Discover practical ways to restore focus, energy, and resilience in the workplace with Sophie Plato, a health speaker and movement educator. She helps individuals and organisations understand how stress, workload, and modern working patterns affect the body — and how small, intelligent resets can make a big difference.

In this masterclass, you’ll learn:
✅ The hidden ways stress and workload affect team performance
✅ Simple RESeT® tools to implement immediately with your team
✅ How to maintain sustainable energy without a complete lifestyle overhaul

Perfect for leaders, managers, and anyone looking to show up more fully and effectively at work.

Sophie Plato is a health speaker and movement educator specialising in proactive healthcare for real life. Her work helps individuals and organisations understand how stress, load and modern working patterns shape the body — and how small, intelligent resets can support focus, energy and long-term health.

Calm is Contagious – Leading Under Pressure

Leading Under Pressure with Mark Hardie MBE FRSA of Glion Institute of Higher Education shared an honest, practical, and genuinely impactful session that brought together hospitality leaders and professionals from across the Middle East and Africa with frameworks on leading through uncertainty.

In the session, Mark covers:

• The VUCA reality and how leaders respond
• Decision-making under uncertainty and feedback loops
• Crisis fundamentals — routines, culture, and communication

Mark Hardie MBE FRSA is a leadership and human and organisational performance expert with over 30 years of experience spanning elite military operations, organizational development, and executive coaching. He has led teams in the world’s most demanding environments, developing a deep expertise in decision-making under pressure, crisis leadership, and adaptive performance. Mark is the author of Think Like a Marine and co-creator of the RESeT® approach, which integrates ancient wisdom with neuroscience and psychology to help leaders sustain themselves and their teams in high-pressure environments.

As a Visiting Professor at Glion Institute of Higher Education, he teaches “Leadership in Uncertain Times” and Leadership Across Cultures specializing in how human factors and organizational context drive behaviour. His work focuses on building the “Presence of Capacity” shifting organizations away from the “blame trap” toward resilient systems that can absorb human variability. An EMCC Master Coach and certified breathwork trainer, Mark has delivered cultural transformation programs for multinational organizations across the hospitality, public and private equity sectors. He remains dedicated to helping teams turn their potential into consistent, high-quality performance by prioritizing people first, then ideas, then systems.