XDW 2026 · Brussels · 2–4 June

The Programme

Four topics across two days, followed by a focused Implementation Lab. Every session follows the same five-block rhythm so you always know what is next.

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01
Day one · Internal Transformation

AI Inside your Organisation

2 June 2026 Tuesday
Morning · 10:00–13:00

AI Readiness, Workflow & Knowledge Systems

Most organisations are experimenting with AI, but few have truly embedded it into workflows. This session moves past the tactical phase and examines what AI readiness actually looks like across tools, skills, workflows and structure.

At a glance
10:10
Keynote
10:30
Talks & Panels
11:15
Coffee
11:45
Breakouts
12:30
De-Brief
09:30
30 minutes
Break
Breakfast and Networking
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10:00
10 minutes
Welcome
Welcome to XDW 2026
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
10:10
20 minutes
Keynote
How Fast Should We Move with AI
Two years into widespread AI adoption, most destinations are still in the tactical phase: experimenting with individual tools, running small pilots and finding workflow shortcuts. This opening keynote sets out what AI-readiness actually looks like when tools, skills, workflows and structure are treated as one connected idea, and why the tactical phase has a ceiling that most organisations are closer to than they realise.
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
10:30
45 minutes
Talks & Panels
Integrating AI Into Workflows
Discover what DMOs have built, how they have shifted perspectives on training and skills development and how they are restructuring teams and workflows. The session focuses on the issue of speed versus quality. How do destinations move at the pace of AI development without losing strategic alignment, and how do you flip your working format when the tools fundamentally change what is possible?
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11:15
30 minutes
Coffee and Networking
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11:45
45 minutes
Breakouts
Pick your Zone
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Strategy Room
Becoming AI-Ready
Most organisations are waiting for clarity before committing. This session works in the opposite direction: identifying the one or two moves that unlock everything else, the foundations that need to be in place before anything can scale, and how to build internal momentum without a perfect strategy. The conversation centres on getting early wins that create confidence and bringing employees along with you while the picture is still forming.
The Lab
Building a Working Knowledge Base
A live working session where participants learn what project knowledge is, what you can put into it and what it enables. The session demonstrates the logic of MCP connections through a clear illustration. By the end, participants leave with a functional knowledge structure they can replicate immediately.
Debating Room
AI's Impact on Teams & Content
Is the real barrier to AI in destinations people, not technology? Is AI just producing more content, but of low quality? These questions will be argued from both sides through a devil's advocate style questioning to drive deeper thinking. The format pushes participants to consider whether a training day actually changes anything, if and how AI slop is harming destinations and what it says about your brand if your AI content is indistinguishable from everyone else's.
Advisory Clinic
Submitted Cases on AI-Readiness
A focused advisory session built around cases submitted in advance by participants. Facilitators identify common patterns across the submissions, typical failure points and what good looks like in practice. The format is structured and designed to give participants concrete next steps for their specific situation.
12:30
30 minutes
De-Brief
Facilitators Report Back
A facilitator from each zone shares the outcomes, tensions and unresolved questions surfaced in their session. The de-brief brings the room back together before lunch with a shared sense of where the conversation has reached.
Afternoon · 14:00–17:00

AI Governance & Strategy

Governance is the most misunderstood word in AI — moving from compliance fear to strategic clarity. The same five-block rhythm as the morning, applied to a different challenge.

At a glance
14:10
Keynote
14:30
Talks & Panels
15:15
Coffee
15:45
Breakouts
16:30
De-Brief
14:10
20 minutes
Keynote
Governance is the Most Misunderstood Word in AI
Governance has been framed as compliance, oversight, friction. A destination without a clear AI governance position is one operating without a strategic anchor. This keynote sets out what governance actually contains in practice — policy, accountability, transparency, data standards and procurement — and why August 2026's EU AI Act enforcement makes this an urgent strategic issue, not just a legal one. The DTTT AI Transparency Framework frames the discussion as a starting point to decide what AI means for your organisation, which decisions stay human and how you build a disclosure culture.
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
14:30
45 minutes
Talks & Panels
Building an AI Governance Strategy
Discover the process of building an AI governance strategy from a destination’s perspective. The conversation focuses on the process of building an AI governance strategy and why it is necessary in the first place. DMOs will share how they have established clear processes across teams, creating processes for defining what AI can be used for, and crucially, where its use must be avoided. They'll also delve into how governance becomes the enabler that ensures coherent operations that are trusted to be both ethical, accurate and reliable.
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15:15
30 minutes
Break
Coffee and Networking
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15:45
45 minutes
Breakouts
Pick your Zone
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Strategy Room
Building Your Governance Framework
A working session on how destinations move from individuals using AI tools to an organisation with clear rules and standards. Participants work through the accountability question — who owns AI-generated content, who approves it, how this changes team structure — and map where their own organisation sits between phase one (using AI for efficiency) and phase two (using AI to reinvent what the organisation actually does). Output is a clear sense of the single biggest thing stopping the move from one to the other.
The Lab
Stress-Testing Your AI Policy
A practical session structured around the DTTT AI Transparency Framework. Participants use the Framework on a real piece of work to generate a disclosure card, then stress-test a draft governance document through structured ethical review using the DTTT Ethics Tool. The session closes by drafting a one-page AI policy covering approved tools, accountability for outputs, data handling and disclosure. Participants leave with a working draft they can take back and implement.
Debating Room
Innovation or Protection
Does governance slow AI adoption or make it sustainable? Do AI Governance Committees need ‘AI sceptics’ as a check against the ‘AI champions’? Arguments from both sides, with a devil's advocate pushing harder questions — does your audience actually read disclosure labels, should AI guidelines be shared openly with destination partners and communities or does transparency about reliance on AI create more problems than it solves?
Advisory Clinic
Submitted Cases on Governance
A focused advisory session built around governance documents, AI policies and framework drafts submitted in advance by participants. Facilitators identify the most urgent gap between each organisation's current AI use and a responsible, disclosed approach, and help participants understand which of the four DTTT models and 3 organisational instruments matter most for their context.
16:30
30 minutes
De-Brief
Facilitators Report Back
A facilitator from each zone shares the outcomes, tensions and unresolved questions surfaced in their session. The de-brief brings the room back together at the end of Day 1 with a shared sense of where the conversation has reached.
02
Day two · Competitive Positioning

How your Organisation Faces Outward

3 June 2026 Wednesday
Morning · 10:00–13:00

AI Discoverability & Presence

Shifts in consumer and search behaviour, AI overviews, and how content is surfaced.

At a glance
10:00
Keynote
10:30
Talks & Panels
11:15
Coffee
11:45
Breakouts
12:30
De-Brief
09:30
30 minutes
Break
Day 2 Breakfast and Networking
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10:00
10 minutes
Welcome
Welcome to Day 2
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
10:10
20 minutes
Keynote
Evaluating the AI Visibility Question
Search behaviour is changing fundamentally. AI Overviews and conversational interfaces are reshaping how people find, evaluate and choose destinations. This keynote opens with a clear-headed demystification of the terminology (GEO, AEO, AI Overviews, schema mark-up) and walks through the shifts in consumer and search behaviour driving them. The session sets out the strategic principles that matter — content depth, speed, social authority — and why the destinations preparing now will define the visibility landscape for the next decade.
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
10:30
45 minutes
Talks & Panels
The Impact of AI on Destination Discoverability
How are destinations actively rethinking content and presence for AI-driven discovery? DMOs share deep data analysis of AI traffic and what it means for destination performance, how preparing content for AI tools drives organic search performance at the same time and unconventional channel strategies that are boosting visibility. The conversation closes with the harder questions about brand voice, attribution and trust when AI becomes the intermediary.
Johannes Auer
Digital Strategy
Oberösterreich Tourismus GmbH
Aleksandra Jerebic Topolovec
Web Manager
Slovenian Tourist Board
Stewart Howe
Co-founder
Discover Peterborough
11:15
30 minutes
Break
Coffee and Networking
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11:45
45 minutes
Breakouts
Pick your Zone
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Strategy Room
Going Further on GEO and AEO
A strategic working session on how to take GEO and AEO further. The conversation covers cross-platform and multi-author content approaches, the choice between depth and volume, and the harder strategic question of when to set the narrative versus respond to demand. Participants leave with a clearer view of where their destination sits between accessible and commanding brand authority and what to do next.
The Lab
Putting GEO and AEO Tools to Work
A hands-on session in two halves. The first puts leading GEO and AEO tools to a specific destination challenge, with participants evaluating and sharing findings. The second uses Claude in Chrome or ChatGPT in agentic mode to log into analytics, benchmark competitors, run technical checks and come back with detailed strategic recommendations.
Debating Room
Being Tactical with AI Visibility
Should destinations align AI visibility with strategy or with demand? Strategy means setting bold objectives and increasing awareness in new markets. Demand means showing up when visitors are searching. Arguments from both sides, with a devil's advocate pushing through a series of important questions. Does writing 'hidden gems' content help or harm the destination? Does GEO make overtourism worse?
Advisory Clinic
Submitted Cases on AI Presence
A focused advisory session built around discoverability cases submitted in advance by participants. Facilitators identify common patterns across the submissions, where destinations are getting tripped up, and what good looks like in practice.
12:30
30 minutes
Breakouts
Facilitators Report Back
A facilitator from each zone shares the outcomes, tensions and unresolved questions surfaced in their session. The de-brief brings the room back together before lunch with a shared sense of where the conversation has reached.
Afternoon · 14:00–17:00

AI Interfaces & User Experience

How AI is changing the way people interact with destinations. From conversational interfaces to predictive personalisation.

At a glance
14:00
Keynote
14:30
Talks & Panels
15:15
Coffee
15:45
Breakouts
16:30
De-Brief
14:10
20 minutes
Keynote
Designing Functional AI Interfaces
AI is increasingly the functional layer between inspiration and booking. This keynote walks through how AI interfaces are evolving across websites, social, apps and in-destination experiences, the global variation in AI acceptance shaping where this matters most and the harder strategic choices destinations face: native integration versus plug-and-play, text vs voice and the essential brand safety question.
Nick Hall
Founder & CEO
Digital Tourism Think Tank
14:30
45 minutes
Talks & Panels
Building AI-Mediated Destination Experiences
What is the role of the DMO in building genuinely useful AI experiences for visitors? The conversation centres on creating a connected system for combining a DMO’s deep knowledge with partner content, industry data and real-time inputs to create something significantly more valuable than the generic content produced by LLMs. Destinations share how they are designing the integration layer between destination, industry and visitor, and the role DMOs play in feeding AI with detailed knowledge and trusted local context.
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15:15
30 minutes
Break
Coffee and Networking
No items found.
15:45
45 minutes
Breakouts
Pick your Zone
No items found.
Strategy Room
Investing in AI Interfaces with Longevity
A strategic working session on how destinations should be investing in AI interfaces given how quickly the technology evolves and becomes outdated. The conversation works through the harder questions: what KPIs actually matter for AI interfaces, how to measure ROI when an AI platform doesn't connect directly to visits, when to pull the plug, and how to balance AI with traditional interfaces when AI deters certain audiences. Participants leave with a framework for evaluating their own digital experience investment against AI-aware design principles.
The Lab
Vibe Design or Vibe Code
A hands-on session comparing two approaches to building AI experiences: vibe design on Stitch versus vibe coding on Claude. Participants work through both methods on a real destination challenge, then debate the skills implications. Does AI replace the need for designers and UX managers, or does it make those skills more important than ever? The conversation closes on the strategic question of whether treating AI as a digital assistant will change the traditional balance between in-house development and working with external agencies.
Debating Room
Deciding What to Build
Should destinations build AI platforms and interfaces themselves, or focus on providing high-quality data for others to build on? The conversation moves through real examples and surfaces the harder strategic questions. What is the desired set of solutions? How to avoid hyper-fragmentation if every destination builds the same thing separately?
Advisory Clinic
Submitted Cases on AI Interfaces
A focused advisory session built around interface and experience cases submitted in advance by participants. Facilitators identify common patterns across the submissions, where destinations are over-engineering, under-investing, or missing the point, and what good looks like in practice.
16:30
30 minutes
De-Brief
Facilitators Report Back
A facilitator from each zone shares the outcomes, tensions and unresolved questions surfaced in their session. The de-brief closes Day 2 with a shared sense of where the conversation has reached.
03
Day three · Policy & Frameworks

A Focused, Intimate Working Day

4 June 2026 Thursday

A focused Roundtable Day examining the policy implications shaping AI use across destinations. The day opens with a dedicated policy session and continues with a Workstream on the DTTT AI Transparency Framework.

Capped at 40 participants
Morning

DMO Policy Implications of AI

An opening session bringing the policy questions raised across Days 1 and 2 into focus. What regulations are already shaping AI use? What is on the horizon? How should destinations be preparing?

View workstream →
Afternoon

AI Transparency Framework Workstream

A working session and committee meeting on the DTTT AI Transparency Framework. Strategic conversations on what can be added, improved and operationalised.

View workstream →