Join hoteliers and staff from all of the Pan European organizations for an informative and inspirational General Session. 

Read on for General Session highlights and speaker details. 

Steve Wahrlich
Board Chairman, BWH Hotels

Sara Digiesi
CEO, BWH Hotels Italy & Malta

Kelsey Frenkiel
Director, Sustainability Program
GBTA Foundation

Kelsey Frenkiel is a travel, sustainability, and conservation professional. She is the Director of the Sustainability Program at the GBTA Foundation, which aims to drive positive change through business travel for People & Planet.   

At the GBTA Foundation, Kelsey leads efforts to harmonize industry sustainability standards, help travel buyers and suppliers navigate the complex world of sustainability frameworks, and incentivize the business travel industry to accelerate progress towards Net Zero emissions.

Kelsey holds a Masters of Science degree from Oxford Brookes University in Primate Conservation and graduated from the College of William & Mary with a B.A. in Anthropology. She is also a freelance travel writer and researcher, having supported publications for National Geographic, Washingtonian, and other outlets, and the co-editor of Overtourism: Lessons Learned for a Better Future. Kelsey is passionate about the sustainable travel industry and its intersection with natural heritage, local livelihoods, destination stewardship, and biodiversity conservation.

Leandry Moreno
Officer, Statistics, Standards, and Data Department
UN Tourism

Glenn Mandziuk
CEO, World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance

Fireside Chat - Sales Focus

Kelly Kuhn

Kelly Kuhn is an experienced Independent Non-Executive Director and Advisor, currently serving as an Independent Non-Executive Director of ISS A/S, a Danish publicly listed global workplace experience and facility management company, where she is chair of the Remuneration committee and member of the Nomination committee. Kelly is a Non-Executive Director of Computacenter PLC where she sits on the Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Olivier Cohn
CEO, BWH Hotels - France

Olivier Cohn has held the position of General Manager of BWH Hotels France for approximately 14 years and is committed to taking on new challenges within a brand that has established itself as a key player in the French hotel industry over the past 10 years.

His goal is to ensure the sustainability and development of BWH Hotels France by putting his expertise at the service of hoteliers and best serving their interests. Moreover, as a cooperative of independents, BWH Hotels France must help its members reclaim their distribution and develop their profitability. He joined BWH Hotels France in 2000 as Head of Communication Technologies, where he was in charge of launching the brand's first Internet strategy. He has successively held responsibilities in various strategic positions : information and reservation systems department, new IT solutions, hotel revenue, new distribution partnerships, pricing strategy, CRM solutions, direct and indirect sales on the Internet, creation of a department entirely dedicated to E-commerce, creation of a Revenue Management department.

Carmen Dücker
President & CEO
BWH Hotels Central Europe

Carmen Dücker started her road to success at Best Western more than 25 years ago and managed several departments of the company during her career, including the customer loyalty program Best Western Rewards, as well as the marketing and e-business of the hotel group.

In her current role as CEO, Carmen Dücker is responsible for all marketing topics of BWH Hotels Central Europe and leads all customer and market relevant departments such as Marketing, Sales, Distribution & Revenue Management as well as Reservation and Web Technology. Her additional areas of focus and expertise, both within her own company and throughout the national and international hotel industry, include topics such as sustainability, digitalization, change management, communication and employee management and motivation, including new work models.

Dücker is a high-profile speaker at industry events and conferences in the hotel industry and has been honored with a number of awards, including the HSMAI European Award. She is Chairwoman of the Amadeus Hotel Industry Forum Germany and a member of the TIC (Travel Industry Club) as well as various think tanks dealing with the future of mobility, sustainability, digitalization and customer centricity.

Keynote Presentation: STR Update
Sarah Duignan
Director, Client Relationships, STR 

Sarah is STR’s director of client relationships and is based in London. Prior to joining the business Sarah spent 7 years in hotel operations in Ireland and held a variety of roles including on Front desk, in reservations, sales and event management. She joined the HotelBenchmark team at Deloitte in 2005 as a Business Development Executive, later becoming an Account Manager responsible for a number of key international clients. Sarah regularly attends and presents at hotel operator and industry events, spreading greater awareness of STR’s benchmarking services. Sarah holds an honours degree in translation (German & Spanish) from Dublin City University (DCU)

Keynote Presentation: AI
Emmanuel Vivier
Executive Speaker | AI & Digital Transformation Specialist

Emmanuel Vivier is a globally recognized expert in AI, digital transformation, and corporate innovation. As Co-founder of the HUB Institute, he has advised Fortune 500 executives from L’Oréal, LVMH, TotalEnergies, and more.

A sought-after keynote speaker, he has delivered 1,000+ conferences and trained 50,000+ leaders worldwide. He co-authored The Guide to Digital Transformation and The Guide to the Future of HR & Management and publishes Le Big Recap, a leading Generative AI newsletter with 17,000+ followers.

Emmanuel continues to shape the future of business through strategic foresight and executive education.

Keynote Presentation: Service Culture
Steven Van Belleghem

‘A diamond in the rough’

The story is about how you can become a beautiful shiny diamond in terms of customer culture. The goal is to inspire everyone to act in a more customer centric way as of tomorrow without any additional investments. It’s all about mindset and details.

Steven Van Belleghem is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading thinkers in the field of customer experience.

He shares his ideas through his six bestselling books, his popular social media channels, and his engaging keynote presentations. Steven has inspired world-leading companies such as Disney, Mastercard, Mercedes, Booking.com, Heineken and Salesforce with his visionary approach to customer experience. Steven his latest book ‘A Diamond in the Rough’ was recommended by Forbes as the number 1 must read business book for 2024. 

Steven believes in combining common sense, new technologies, an empathic human touch, playing the long game and taking social responsibility to win the hearts and business of customers over and over again.

Inspiration by visiting companies

Steven finds his inspiration by visiting companies all over the world. He is the co-founder of Nexxworks, an inspiration agency that organises inspiration tours in all corners of the world to inspire executives to improve their customer experience.

Steven is also an investor in customer experience related companies such as Hello Customer and IO Digital.

Steven complements his entrepreneurial activities with his work as a part-time marketing professor at Vlerick Business School and guest speaker at London Business School.