Redesigning the travel experience of tomorrow.
Join a curated group of 150+ corporate innovators on the French Riviera, to explore innovation in the travel industry.
While traveling today is more affordable, accessible and convenient than ever before, the travel industry embraces disruptive technological advancements to meet the growing demand for a better, smoother and personalized travel experience.
Travel is and always will be about connections: connecting people to places, cultures, friends, family, business opportunities, and so on. To redesign the travel experience of tomorrow and address the industry fragmentation, collaborating among industry players to connect the ecosystem is essential.
Innov8rs and Amadeus are co-hosting a 1.5-day event on the French Riviera on 5-6 June 2025, bringing together innovation leaders from across the travel and tourism sectors and beyond, to explore inspiring examples of innovation, dive into best and next practices for innovation management, and foster new connections and possible partnerships.
Together, we’ll look at the trends and technology advancements that will disrupt travel including Gen AI and agentic, biometrics and social commerce.
If you have innovation in your title, this is your tribe.
Loved by participants, trusted by brands.
Bringing innovators together since 2011... We've hosted more than 35 conferences in global innovation hubs from San Francisco to Stockholm to Shanghai to Singapore to Sydney.
Looking back at Innov8rs SoCal 2024...
Beyond the high-quality sessions and diversity of speakers, past participants valued most meeting people in jobs like them, who operate in similar environments and speaking the same language. Many stay connected long after the conference, always just a phone call away.
To create the best possible experience for you, we curate the group of participants. You’ll meet corporate innovators of all trades, all chasing similar objectives and facing similar challenges, in roles like:
- Chief Innovation Officers, VP’s of Innovation, Innovation Leaders
- Intrapreneurs or Corporate Entrepreneurs
- Innovation (program) Directors
- Heads of Labs, Incubators and Accelerators
- Corporate Venturing, Strategy and Corporate Development Managers
- R&D and Product Development Professionals
- HR and Organizational Transformation Leaders
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You'll connect, collaborate and co-create with peers. That's how we design the event. That's why we limit the number of participants. And past participants loved it.
Here's what your peers said about their experience.
"That was a terrific event! Thank you for all of your hard work organizing + curating a terrific group of people to attend. I just kept having great conversations over both days."
"All the sessions I participated in were amazing. Honestly, it’s very rare to attend a conference with so much enthusiasm and also the fact that it’s truly peer 2 peer."
"Hands down the best conference I’ve had the luxury of attending. I have so many more great people in my world now and have a brain bursting with new ideas and concepts to explore."
Work with the best.
A first overview of innovation leaders and experts confirmed. More coming soon... stay tuned!
Tino Klähne
Director Strategic Innovation & Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub
Veronica Hull SQ
Former Head of Transformation at Vueling Airlines
Adèle de Montmarin
Head of Innovation - Mobility and In-hotel experiences - Group Innovation Lab at Accor
Carlos Bello
Innovation Director at Ilunion Hotels
Nichola Bates
Managing Director, Ventures & Innovation at Boeing Global
Suzanna Chiu
Head of Amadeus Ventures at Amadeus IT Group
Adi Kouadio
Former Director - Strategy & Product Partnership, Group CTO Office at Expedia Group
Amanda Mai Khuong-Duc
Head of Vision Hub at GHARAGE
Luciano Pollastri
Global Talent Director at Amadeus
Luis Monteiro & Giulia Rossi
Head of Travel and Hospitality industry in EMEA at Amazon Web Services | Head of Innovation & Transformation Programs - France & South Europe at Amazon Web Services
Eric Chaniot
General Manager AI Industry Solutions at Microsoft
Romain Zert
Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft
Itmar Medeiros
VP of Design Strategy at SAP
Jesus Checa Caballero
Strategy and Innovation Director at Bacardi
Julia Barry
Account Director - Scale-ups, ISVs, Gaming Studios - EMEA at Microsoft
Hector Enriquez
Former Product Strategy Leader- Platform Innovation, Externalization & Commercialization at Expedia Group
Steve Kopp
Director, Nexwave Business at Amadeus
Dee Waddell
Global Head of Consumer, Travel & Transportation Industries at IBM
Joel Bailey
Chief Technology Officer, North America at CTM
Dr. Jan-Rainer Lahmann
IBM Distinguished Engineer, SAP Customer Success and IBM Quantum TechSales Lead DACH at IBM
Siegfried Schallenmueller
Head of Innovation and Transformation Programs, France & South Europe at Amazon Web Services
Dr. Wolfgang Krips
Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy at Amadeus
Simone van Neerven
Founder at reBella
Steve_Armitage
Head of Innovation at Heathrow
Christian Palomino
Former CIO at Meliá Hotels International
Murat Can Demir
Entrepreneurship Programs and Ecosystem Team Leader at Turkish Airlines
Klaus Kohlmayr
Chief Evangelist & Development Officer at IDeaS Revenue Solutions
Frank Mattes
CEO at Lean Scaleup
The agenda.
You'll get a detailed agenda and instructions for RSVPing of the sessions of your choice after registration, in due time.
Thursday 5 June
9:30-11:30
Trending Topic Talks
Hear from subject matter experts about the tech trends disrupting travel, and how companies are riding the wave of change.
Dr. Wolfgang Krips
SVP Corporate Strategy at Amadeus
Bobby Demri
Founder & Managing Partner at ROCH Ventures
Steve Armitage
Head of Innovation at Heathrow
Julia Barry
Account Director - Scale-ups, ISVs, Gaming Studios - EMEA at Microsoft
Dee Waddell
Global Head of Consumer, Travel & Transportation Industries at IBM
More speakers coming soon...
12:00-14:00
Networking Lunch
Good food, great conversations… or maybe a short stroll outside?
14:00-16:00
Innovators Insights
Ready for some stories from the trenches? Hear first-hand from innovation leaders about their approach and lessons learned, so you can compare notes and benchmark your performance.
Of course, there’s ample time for Q&A and discussions so you can understand what you might consider tweaking in your approach.
Innovation in Travel: Insights from Lufthansa Innovation Hub's Decade of Experience
This session offers a comprehensive view of innovation in the travel industry through three distinct lenses.
Starting with a data-driven analysis of the current state of travel innovation across the sector, we’ll narrow our focus to share key lessons distilled from studying over 100 innovation units within aviation.
Finally, we’ll offer exclusive insights from Lufthansa Innovation Hub’s 10-year journey, highlighting our most valuable learnings and sharing our vision for the future of both LIH and the broader travel ecosystem.
Tino Klähne
Director Strategic Innovation & Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub
Navigating Turbulence: Innovation and Change in the Aviation Industry
This session dives into how innovation fuels effective change, drawing on 20+ years of leading transformation in the dynamic aviation sector. We’ll explore not just adapting to change, but actively driving it through innovative strategies.
From implementing Agile Delivery Models to developing future-focused loyalty programs and distribution strategies, we’ll see how fresh thinking reshapes the industry. Veronica will share how to build a culture that embraces new ideas, uses technology to its advantage, and ultimately, leads to tangible results like enhanced revenue and customer satisfaction.
You’ll gain practical insights on using innovation to navigate and spearhead change.
Veronica Hull
Former Head of Transformation at Vueling Airlines
Inside Accor's Innovation lab
More information coming soon…
Adèle de Montmarin
Innovation Lab Director at Accor
Effective Corporate-Startup Collaboration - Our Approach at Amadeus Ventures
More information coming soon…
Suzanna Chiu
Head of Amadeus Ventures at Amadeus IT Group
Talent Development to Foster Innovation Acumen in the Era of Gen/Agentic AI
More information coming soon…
Luciano Pollastri
Global Talent Director at Amadeus
How Fast Can You Partner?
More information coming soon…
Adi Kouadio
Former Director - Strategy & Product Partnership, Group CTO Office at Expedia Group
Hector Enriquez
Former Product Strategy Leader- Platform Innovation, Externalization & Commercialization at Expedia
Jesus Checa Caballero
Strategy and Innovation Director at Bacardi
Amanda Mai Khuong-Duc
Head of Strategic Foresight & Innovation at Gharage Vision and Ventures Hub of Gebr. Heinemann
Christian Palomino
Former CIO at Meliá Hotels International
Nichola Bates
Managing Director, Ventures & Innovation at Boeing Global
Klaus Kohlmayr
Chief Evangelist & Development Officer at IDeaS Revenue Solutions
More speakers coming soon...
16:30-17:30
Enlightening Exchanges
Pick from several un-conference style sessions. Prefer an in-depth discussion, more active co-creation session or an inspiring talk? You choose the topic and format for a energizing end of day 1.
Rebels in your Organization... a Nightmare or a Blessing?
Rebels make our lives impossible with their endless questions and crazy ideas. But are they really? What if they are actually your agents of change? The ones who see things differently, bring cretive solutions to long lasting problems, and are brave enough to commit themselves and get it done?
Rebels are the ones who get the ball rolling. Are you the one to stop them, or will you create the right context so that your rebels will move mountains for you?
In this session, we learn what makes a rebel, discover their superpowers, and explore which existing and non-existing roles would be perfect for rebels. By the end of the session, you have a handful of practical tips to empower the rebels in your organisation.
Simone van Neerven
Founder at reBella
Mastering Jobs to be Done (JTBD) for Strategic Product Decisions
In this session, you’ll learn how to apply the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework to make better product decisions.
From conducting interviews to synthesizing insights and prioritizing product ideas, you’ll gain practical experience in using JTBD to align teams, uncover real customer needs, and drive strategic focus.
Itmar Medeiros
VP of Design Strategy at SAP SuccessFactors
More speakers coming soon...
Friday 6 June
9:30-10:30
Enlightening Exchanges
Pick from several un-conference style sessions. Prefer an in-depth discussion, more active co-creation session or an inspiring talk? You choose the topic and format for a fresh start of day 2.
Quantum Computing and the path to Quantum Advantage
Quantum computing is associated with enormous expectations. It is expected to change the world and make new classes of problems accessible and computable. But the key questions are: for which problems and applications will it provide a practical advantage over classical computers and supercomputers? And when will we be able to fully utilize this advantage?
In this session, we will present the current state of the technology and the IBM Quantum Computing roadmap, with a particular focus on synergies of Quantum Computing and AI, the travel industry, and the progress being made toward achieving a practical quantum advantage.
Dr. Jan-Rainer Lahmann
IBM Distinguished Engineer at IBM
How Amazon build new Customer Experience on Customer service
Amazon builds on its mission to be the most customer-centric company in the world through a combination of culture, mechanisms, tenets, and technology.
Learn how Amazon empowers organizations to capture the voice of the customer in real time and use generative AI and the AWS extended customer experience (CX) solution portfolio to maximize the value of data.
We will also be exploring how Amazon build a cutomer service experience and how other travel enterprises are doing the same.
Siegfried Schallenmueller
Head of innovation and transformation programs EMEA at Amazon Web Services
Romain Zert
Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft
More speakers coming soon...
11:00-12:30
Workshops
Roll up your sleeves and get to work in these interactive sessions focused mostly on application and implementation. You pick the sessions covering the topic you’re keen to dive into.
Innovate like Amadeus Nexwave
Many see Amadeus, and in particular its business incubator Nexwave, as innovation driver in the Travel & Tourism Industry. Nexwave identifies and grows new businesses to shape the travel experience of tomorrow.
The Nexwave methodology is unique. With the support of Frank Mattes, they have developed a proprietary stage-gate process to create, incubate and accelerate businesses in a fast and bold way.
In this workshop session, you can take a look behind the scenes. Discover how Amadeus Nexwave innovates.
Frank Mattes
Founder & CEO at Lean Scaleup
How to Accelerate Digital Transformation like Amazon in Travel
Organizations of all sizes often ask how they can innovate like Amazon.
Since its humble beginnings as the “”world’s largest bookstore,”” Amazon has not only innovated across ecommerce and other adjacent segments, it has also introduced entirely new and unrelated businesses to the organization.
In this session, we discuss how Amazon views and leverages technology as a utility to increase the pace of innovation across the organization and discover how Amazon accelerated the journey to customer centricity at organizations across various industries, including travel, with customers like Melia, Amadeus, Accor, Ryanair.
Luis Monteiro & Giulia Rossi
Head of Travel and Hospitality industry in EMEA at Amazon Web Services | Head of Innovation & Transformation Programs - France & South Europe at Amazon Web Services
More speakers coming soon...
12:30-14:00
Closing & Networking Lunch
Some final conversations before we all travel back home (or stay for the weekend at the French riviera)
"What a great event! I learned as much from the attendees as I did from the speakers and hardly ever do speakers stay around to network after their session. I'm amazed by the format, how open, honest and authentic it was. You rarely ever get that with these types of events - well done!"
"This conference was the best in terms of content- carefully curated and very complimentary."
"It was the most useful conference/event that I’ve ever been to. I walked out of every single session having learned something useful."
"What a conference! It's now the 3rd time that I am attending an Innov8rs conference and as usual I have been amazed by the insights, the learning, the energy in the room and the amazing people I have met!"
"Innov8rs is unlike any conference. It’s the only place were corporate innovators and intrapreneurs get vulnerable and real about the challenges facing disruptors today and work together on creating breakthrough opportunities. I try to attend as many as possible. This is my tribe of lifelong learners and do-ers."
"I am blown away with learnings, reflections and new insights. Such an amazing crowd with a true sharing mentality. I have gathered so many cases for best practice on how to run innovation, how to measure it, how to fuel itrapreneurship etc. Further, most people I have met are really down to earth, pragmatic and no-bulshit kind of people that are creating real impact in the companies they work for."
"Connecting with so many other innovation professionals acted as a shot of adrenaline reigniting my drive to transform our organization. Sometimes working at the front-end of innovation can be a lonely place, especially in a large 100-year-old company. Last week was a refreshing reminder that we're not alone."
Apply to join
If you have innovation in your title, this is your tribe. Join Innov8rs + Amadeus for in-depth conversations, relevant connections and quality content.
Would you like to receive the event brochure to share internally? Need help in making the business case for attending this event? Any other questions?
As a first step, apply via the buttons below. In your application, just check the boxes for receiving the brochure, a 1-pager “convince my manager doc” or to schedule a call at your earliest convenience. We’re here to help you making an informed decision about joining.
Secure your seat at Early Birds discount until April 30th, EOD
What's included?
• Join 15+ sessions on a variety of themes and trends relevant for innovation in travel, with case study talks, workshops, discussions and tech showcases
• Access to session recordings and additional resources for three months
• Connect and network with other participants during the conference and several social events during the event, as well as via the event app
Member Pass
for current members of Innov8rs Community and up to 5 of their colleagues. Not a member yet? More info and apply via the button below.
€495
per seat / max 5 passes
The options above are available for corporate innovation leaders and professionals only.
We are not offering seats to consultants, coaches, software firms or otherwise service providers. Only Expert Partners and members of Innov8rs Community with an Expert Pass are eligible to join this event.
Are you a member of Innov8rs Community already?
As a member, you can register for this conference at a members-only discount of €495 per seat. Log in to the community platform or ask our team for further info and instructions.
Need some help?
If you’d like to understand better how participating in Innov8rs Phoenix would support you and your team in achieving your objectives, or if you have questions about registration, email hans@innov8rs.co
Venue Information
The morning of the first day is hosted at Amadeus R&D HQ Sophia Antipolis. The afternoon of the first day and the morning of the second day are hosted at Mouratoglou Hotel & Resort. It’s just a short walk between both venues.
Further information and instructions re the venues, available hotels and other logistics will be sent to you after registration.
If you have any questions, just email conference@innov8rs.co and we’ll get back to you asap.
