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On May 20, I’m excited to be participating in a rather unusual event, which may become the norm sooner than we think: the first-ever travel industry event in the metaverse.

The meetup is the brainchild of Simone Puorto, Founder of Travel Singularity, and is being presented with Olimaint, HFTP and Hospitality Net. You can read Simone’s take on travel and the metaverse here.

When I mentioned this event to my 79-year-old scientist mother, she emailed back, “Hmm… virtual reality, I have enough trouble with reality itself. What on earth are you talking about in the metaverse? Are you my son, Daniel Craig?”

All valid questions. But I’ve been fascinated by the concept of the metaverse for sometime now, and I believe it has the potential to disrupt the travel industry. So I’m now the proud owner of a set of Meta Quest 2 VR goggles. On Saturday I had some fun exploring the metaverse from the safety of my den. That night, I had a long, lucid dream about flying – because in some respects traveling in the metaverse feels like flying.

This event, however, will be far more grounded. We’ll address important topics like how the metaverse may transform hotel experiences, travel technology, remote working and education, as well as discussing related trends like crypto, blockchain and NFTs.

As for me, I’ll be speaking briefly about how the metaverse has the potential to disrupt the meetings and events business for hotels. The explosive popularity of video meetings has already had a big impact on demand for meeting space. Will the metaverse be another nail in the coffin? And no, the irony is not on me that I’ll be speaking about events in the metaverse at an event in the metaverse. You can’t get more meta than that.

Simone and the team have assembled an incredible line-up of thought leaders in the hospitality and the travel tech space. Here are a few of the “avatars” who will be speaking:

• Simone Puorto – Founder | CEO | Futurist (Moderator)
• Floor Bleeker – Chief Technology Officer at Accor
• Lennert de Jong – Commercial Director at citizenM
• Stephen Burke – Founder and CEO at Robosize ME
• Frank Wolfe – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at HFTP
• Pablo Delgado – Managing Partner & CEO America @ MIRAI
• Daniel E. Craig – Founder, Reknown
• Alexander Edström – CEO at Atomize
• Sébastien Felix – Founder at Influence Society
• Jan Hejny – CEO & Founder at HotelTime Solutions
• Paula Marie Kilgarriff – International Lecturer of Web3 Fashion Marketing, Branding & Retail Innovation
• Brendan May – Managing Director at Hotel Res Bot
• Antonio Picozzi – CEO & Founder at Takyon
• Michael Robinson – Product Marketing Manager at Chainlink Labs
• Juanjo Rodriguez – Founder, The Hotels Network
• Henri Roelings – Founder & CEO at Hospitality Net
• Rita Jusztina Varga – CEO RaizUp

The event will take place all day on Friday, May 20, 2022, in one of the world’s most iconic locations: the Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy, just above the Spanish Steps and the famous Piazza di Spagna.

There are three sessions to choose from. My talk takes place during the final session, at 18:00 Rome time, a friendly hour for those of us on Pacific time. And as excited as I am about this event, I’d much rather be attending in person in Rome. But oh well, I think we’d better get used to this trend.

Daniel Craig
Founder
Reknown