IBTM World 2018 announces millennial tech entrepreneur as third keynote speaker

Multi-award-winning millennial tech entrepreneur Charlotte Pearce has been revealed as the third keynote speaker for IBTM World 2018, which will take place in Barcelona from 27-29 November. 26-year old Charlotte, who has been tipped as ‘one to watch’ by Richard Branson, will draw on her background as CEO and founder of innovative technology platform, Inkpact, to present her session. Titled ‘Humans of Business; why connection matters’, Charlotte will explore methods in which businesses can connect to their customers in more thoughtful and personal ways.

Named in Forbes’ 30 under 30 and The Maserati 100, Charlotte founded Inkpact three years ago to allow companies to embed thoughtfulness into their marketing strategies at scale. Inkpact recently created an app to bring humans and technology closer together by allowing email campaigns to be transcribed by hand into beautiful handwritten letters with the help of community freelance creatives ‘The Scribe Tribe.’

IBTM World 2018 is centred around the theme of technology and how it can enhance every aspect of producing great events, and Charlotte’s session will form a key part of this year’s ‘innovation, technology and creativity’ stream of the Knowledge Programme, kicking-off the schedule on Day one.

Shane Hannam, Portfolio Director, IBTM, comments: “We are delighted to announce Charlotte as part of our trio of exciting keynotes for IBTM World 2018. Charlotte is an inspirational role model with a strong message to share about prioritising authentic human connections in business; a message that is relevant to our clients and everyone in business today. We are hugely proud of our Knowledge Programme this year, which features an additional keynote speaker, as well as experts from both within as well as outside of our industry, all designed to keep our attendees at the cutting edge of developments within the industry.”

Charlotte will join IBTM World’s two other motivational keynote speakers: Duncan Wardle and Dex Torricke-Barton, and together they will head up the full programme of 55 sessions forming this year’s Knowledge Programme. The programme, in the ACS Knowledge Village, covers eight topical content themes all aimed at inspiring and educating on the latest industry issues and hot topics so that delegates leave motivated to apply learnings to their own events. As well as innovation, technology and creativity, content falls under the following streams; industry trends; engagement and experiences; safety and security; sustainability and CSR; professional development, recruitment and wellbeing; business development and strategy; and marketing and digital.

New exhibitors for IBTM World’s 2018 edition include Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Poland Convention Bureau, Regal Hotels International, San Francisco Travel Association, SIXT GmbH & Co., Global Passenger Network, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism, Development Hong Kong Tourism, Alternative Athens, Tourism New Zealand, Standard Hotels and creative technology company Codemodeon.

Returning exhibitors include Hyatt Hotel Group, Hilton, Kempinski Hotels, Germany Convention Bureau, Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau, Slovenia Meetings, Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau, VisitScotland and partners, Barcelona Convention Bureau, amongst many others.

With Hosted Buyer recruitment underway, the team is on track to secure a high-profile group of event planners and buyers from across Europe, Asia & Australasia, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and Africa. Buyers already confirmed to attend include Netflix, Bayer US, AXA Financial Inc., Diageo, Delta Air Lines – Worldwide Meetings and Events, HelmsBriscoe, InfoWatch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Procter & Gamble, Siemens Ltd., Viacom and SONY.

In 2017 IBTM World welcomed almost 3,000 exhibiting companies from over 150 countries, 3,463 buyers and thousands of visitors for a packed schedule of meetings, networking and educational sessions. Over 74,000 pre-scheduled meetings between exhibitors and buyers were arranged over the three days.