In its eighth year at Destinations International’s Annual Convention, Global All-Stars brought together speakers from Condé Nast Traveler, Wonderful Copenhagen and Vibram to discuss the topical theme of trust, focusing on “Trust in the Future, Trust in Place and Trust in Brand”. In case you missed the presentation in St. Louis, or want to watch it again, check out the resources here. 

In this exciting session, we experienced a global storytelling journey with Airbnb, learning about the elements that drive their most compelling and buzzworthy content; heard from a world leading urban architect on the latest trends in “placemaking,” reimagining downtown and public spaces to benefit visitors, locals and businesses; and saw how Google Street View is bringing more advanced and compelling content to their platform and what this means for destinations.   

The 6th annual Global All-Stars session featured three world-leading innovators in travel, technology and marketing; Dylan Thuras of Atlas Obscura, Vanessa Sain-Dieguez of Hilton and Varune Harnarine of Google. The session highlighted how to empower locals and visitors to share the weird, hidden and wonderful gems in every destination, discussed best practices in combining “High Tech & High Touch” in customer service and took a look at the future of the Internet according to Google including the rise of voice, AI and machine learning.

Global All-Stars moved to the main stage at DMAI’s 2016 Annual Convention. This session discussed the power of user generated content and social media and the use of new technology, showcased the learnings and successes of new influencer and content programs and took an exciting, fresh look at new developments in the hotel sector, highlighting what they can teach destination marketers in targeting the affluent traveler, nurturing community, connectivity and a sense of place.