First virtual national conference for Scotland’s tourism industry launches

Three years ago today, Team STA was stranded at the SEC in Glasgow, in minus degrees, minus 500 delegates with the worst snow that any of us had seen, frantically trying to rebook speakers/exhibition/delegates for our annual conference.

The Beast from the East beat us on that occasion, but we successfully rescheduled the event and hosted a fantastic two day conference in April.  We will always be determined to find a way!

Different conditions this year mean that we are unable to host an event ‘in real life’ until (hopefully!) later in the year but our team have worked hard, with the support from our good friends at Lux Events, to bring you the first STA virtual conference which will take place on 24th March, 1000 – 1300.

The conference this year is titled ‘Looking Forward…’ which we are all obviously desperately keen to be doing so we’ve structured the event around the ‘Outlook 2030’ tourism strategy themes to bring you the most relevant insights to be able to do that and move in the right direction towards recovery.

We’re so pleased to be welcoming back Caroline Bremner, Head of Travel Research at Euromonitor International who will present the latest forecasts and COVID-19 scenarios for global travel and tourism in Our Future Sustainability session, highlighting key consumer shifts in attitudes and behaviours one year on. Caroline will also share insights from Euromonitor’s Sustainable Travel Index, looking at best practice in sustainable tourism to create value for competitive advantage and power sustainable transformation.

Our Future Experiences session will follow, ‘What’s Cooking and What’s Brewing’, presented by Peter Martin, Vice President of CGA, who will join us again to explore innovation and new experiences within the world of food and drink and let us know where opportunities lie for Scotland.

Our Future People session, ‘Upskilling our Fantastic People’ will welcome David Cochrane, CEO HIT Scotland.  David will interview Jane Rennie, Founder of The Extraordinary Training Company to get the thoughts of some of the students who are currently taking part in the Tourism and Hospitality Talent Development Leadership Programme.

We’re also delighted to welcome back Travel Writer and Destination Development Advisor, Doug Lansky to deliver our keynote session, Our Future Place entitled ‘Future Destinations, totally connected!’.  Doug will share more details on a destination technology solution he’s been working on (since leaving the STA Social at the Radisson Red Sky Bar on 5 March last year..!) to help drive positive recovery and improve the experience for the customer, increase revenue for businesses and to help the destination become more competitive and  sustainable

There will be two opportunities throughout the event to switch your kettle on, (we really are going to miss these coffee and lunch breaks with you all this time round) before Our Future Business panel session kicks off just after midday.

Hosted by STA CEO, Marc Crothall, we’re bringing a panel of experts together to discuss how we can overcome the different challenges faced by a variety of our tourism sectors.  Panellists confirmed include Kate Nicholls – CEO UK Hospitality, Vicki Miller- Director Marketing VisitScotland, Paul Easto – COO Active Travel Group, Justin Reid – Director Destination Marketing Trip Advisor EMEA and Susan Fouquier – Regional Managing Director Royal Bank of Scotland Business Banking.

The event is free to attend – you can book your place here.

We are so looking forward to welcoming you on the 24th March and we have our fingers crossed that the BIG event we’re planning later in the year will bring you all together with us in Edinburgh for more insights, networking opportunities and very much needed fun.