April 3, 2025 • 48 mins
Mark your calendars—Phocuswright Europe is heading to Barcelona from June 10-12, 2025, bringing the premier travel technology conference to the iconic Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, just steps away from the luxurious Gran Meliá hotel. With a new venue and an executive-driven agenda tailored specifically for the European market, this event promises to redefine the conversation on the future of travel.
Why is Phocuswright Europe a Must-Attend Event?
At the core of Phocuswright Europe is an intentional focus on senior leadership and decision-makers. “Our speakers are all CEOs and presidents,” shares Pete Comeau, Managing Director of Phocuswright. “The attendees are typically director-level and above.” This unique concentration of C-suite executives creates a high-impact environment for organic partnerships, quick deal-making, and live discussions that shape tomorrow’s travel landscape.
Key Highlights You Can’t Miss
- Dates & Venue: From June 10-12, 2025, connect with top travel leaders at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in vibrant Barcelona.
- Intimate Networking: With a select 600 attendees, this exclusive event offers unparalleled face time with C-level executives, compared to the larger 1,500-person U.S. event.
- Tailored Programming: Focused on European-specific challenges, including:
- Ground transportation innovations
- Sustainability-driven travel initiatives
- The evolving vacation rental market
- The rising demand for experiential travel from European consumers
- A-List Speakers: Hear from top executives at industry-leading companies such as Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Rail Europe, Accor, Airbnb, and Google.
- Global Startup Pitch Finals: For the first time, the Global Startup Pitch competition will hold its finals live at the event, spotlighting cutting-edge travel technology startups.
- Content Curated for Europe: Florence Kaci, Senior Director of Phocuswright Europe, brings over 14 years of experience curating content that addresses European-specific market needs, including real-world AI applications and case studies on travel distribution.
Exclusive Offers & Perks for Travel Trends Listeners
Listeners of Travel Trends receive an exclusive €100 discount with code TRAVELTRENDS25 when registering here. Better yet, using this code guarantees you a spot for a live interview on the Travel Trends podcast, recorded straight from the event stage.
Phocuswright Europe 2025 is where the future of European travel takes shape, fueled by trailblazing ideas, high-level connections, and actionable insights. Don’t miss your chance to be part of pivotal conversations and game-changing innovations.
Season 5 Launched Jan 15th. New Episodes Every Weds! Check out our first 4 Seasons.
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You know I think that's always been true to our
brand is try to really lean intosenior level executives.
You know the speakers are allCEOs and presidents.
The attendees are generallydirector level and above.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello everyone and welcome to a special event
spotlight episode of TravelTrends.
This is your host, danChristian, and today we're going
to be exploring the FocusriteEurope event that is happening
June 10th to 12th 2025 inbeautiful Barcelona.
I'm going to be there for thevery first time and I'm so
looking forward to it.
I've been to many Focusriteevents in the US over the years,
(00:40):
but this is the first Europeanevent that I'm going to have the
privilege to go to, and, givenmy enthusiasm and anticipation,
I wanted to create this specialspotlight episode and bring
together two extraordinaryindividuals Pete Como, the
managing director of Focusrite,who you've heard from on this
podcast before, and FlorenceCouchy, who is the senior
(01:01):
director of Focusrite Europe.
Now Pete and Florence combineto bring this event together,
but Florence leads us locally,since she's based in the
beautiful south of France, and Iwanted to have the opportunity
to speak to them both, which Ihad the privilege to do live at
ITB Berlin in the Focusritebooth, and so we're going to
talk to Pete first and thenwe're going to go over to
(01:23):
Florence and learn all of theinsights and the highlights of
what they're looking forward tothe speakers, the sessions, the
themes, all the things that weneed to be paying attention to
going into Focusrite Europe 2025to make the most out of that
conference before we start, isthey have kindly offered all of
(01:47):
our travel trends listeners aspecial 100 euro discount over
whatever the prevailing price isat the moment of a focus right
europe ticket.
All you have to do is go tofocus right europecom, click on
new registration and then addthe discount code travel trends
25.
We also have a live link on ourwebsite so that you can just
dynamically go through to bookyour ticket.
So you can check that out aswell on TravelTrendsPodcastcom,
(02:11):
but you should otherwise just beset to use the discount code
right on Focusrite Europe'swebsite.
The other thing I wanted tohighlight, too, is that, with us
being there, we're going tohave a booth and a great setup
to record podcasts at the event,just like we've done at
Focusrite USA the last two years, and we'll be back at Focusrite
San Diego in November 2025 aswell, for those of you who are
(02:33):
marking your calendars andmaking plans for that event.
But the one I wanted tohighlight to all of our
listeners headed to FocusriteEurope if you use that promo
code, my commitment is thatevery listener that books a
ticket using our Travel Trends25 discount code will be
guaranteed to be interviewed andincluded in our Focusrite
(02:53):
Spotlight edition from Europe.
I have already heard from a fewlisteners that have booked
their ticket and emailed me tolet me know, so I definitely
encourage any of those of youthat do feel free to drop me a
line, dan, at Travel TrendsPodcast, so we can schedule time
to record at Focusrite Europein Barcelona, and, for those of
you who won't be able to join us, we will have a highlight video
(03:16):
from the event itself.
So be sure to subscribe andlook out for that coming out in
a few months time.
Otherwise, I look forward toseeing many of you there and I'm
keen now to bring in Pete Comointo this conversation.
So one of the things I justwanted to start our conversation
with Pete is I wanted to pickup exactly where we left off in
San Diego.
Do you remember what you said tome when I came up to you on
(03:38):
that last night?
There was an after party and Icame up to thank you for
bringing travel trends, givingus the opportunity to record,
because you know I loveFocusrite.
It is literally my favorite, orone of my favorite, but it's
like the Oscars of travel for meand you know strongly I feel
about the Focusrite company andteam and yourself.
Do you remember what you saidto me that night?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I don't remember specifics, although I suspect it
was somewhere around.
You know how well you youreally amplify the messages of
our of our audience and andpeople love being on your
podcast.
It's a really important part ofthem coming to our event and I
think that's what makes ourpartnership partnership so
strong is they feel like they'regetting value out of being
(04:22):
there and also getting value outof the audience that you bring
to them.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That's lovely.
The exact comment you said tome that really warmed my heart
at the time was like you're partof the family now.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yes, that is true, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That is true as well.
So I was like, oh man, what anhonor to be invited into the
Focusrite family.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I may have said family.
We are using the word communitya lot more I may have said
family.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We are using the word community a lot more and I
think that's also something thatspeaks to our brand and also
speaks to what we try to do hereis bring people together around
travel tech and topics andreally embrace them as part of
the community.
You know, being here in Europetogether this is my first time
at ITV Obviously you're familiarwith this conference and you
have a presence in Europe withthe Focusrite Europe conference.
I literally want to dive rightinto that, because if people
want to learn more about you andmore about Focusrite, they can
obviously listen to thatfantastic interview that we did.
But what I wanted to dive rightinto is the fact that our
(05:19):
relationship has continued toevolve in advance.
So a big thanks to you and toJean and the team, because you
guys kindly invited me toFocusrite Europe in Barcelona
for the very first time.
So we're going to be at theevent for the first time.
We've actually just highlightedon our podcast that anyone
listening to our Travel Trendspodcast can actually get a
hundred euro discount.
(05:39):
It's a Travel Trends 25, butthere's a unique link on our
website, the dynamic link, and Ialso said at the very end of
that podcast on the AfricanSafari series.
I highlighted that.
Anyone who uses that link, Iwill guarantee them that I will
interview them at FocusriteEurope.
So there's an additionalincentive to book and to come
and I'll make sure that you geton the show.
But yeah, pete.
(05:59):
So thanks so much for thatopportunity.
Let's talk about FocusriteEurope.
So, thanks so much for thatopportunity.
Let's talk about FocusriteEurope.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
What I've heard already is that there's a new
venue for this year.
So tell us about the theme forFocusrite Europe, tell us about
the venue and what people canexpect Convention Center, palau
de Congressos de Catalunya.
That's right next to it and itallows us to bring people in,
keep them at a really niceresort-style hotel and also
(06:32):
provide amazing conferencefacilities and, more importantly
, amazing places to network.
And that's what we're all about, as you know, is bringing
together a community andproviding a platform for them to
meet others, to do business, todo partnerships, to learn
what's new in the ecosystem.
We're also bringing the finalsof our global startup pitch to
(06:57):
Europe this year Very cool, sothat's something that we used to
do virtually.
This is an event that we do incollaboration with wit, um, so
suhoon and the web and travelbrand.
So we go out and scour um allaround the world to find
interesting startups and we'rebringing them to barcelona this
year to to pitch um.
(07:18):
So that's something new.
That um, we think, will add areally nice element to the event
.
So we're going to produce thaton the Tuesday, you know, and
it's also.
It's really about providingthat space that allows for
people to connect, and that'swhat you know.
That's what our brand is allabout, and we're really looking
(07:39):
forward to that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, it's certainly one of the things that got
highlighted over and over again.
When I was at Focusrite in SanDiego and we had the opportunity
when I was at Focusrite inPhoenix, I had and you're going
to be at San Diego coming up and, um, but yeah, when I was at
Focusrite Phoenix, we produced atwo-part series, as many of our
listeners know, at the end ofseason four, and we literally
put it at the end of season fourbecause when you listen to the
(08:00):
conversation that I had withPete and many of our listeners
have followed our journey andwhat I highlighted to him is I
always saw Focusrite as kind ofthe New York Times on the Sunday
New York Times you could kindof get the sense of what the
industry was going to be, whatwas going to be happening in the
industry over the next sixmonths.
Pete kindly corrected me andsaid well, we're more like three
months because the world'schanging so quickly, but
(08:28):
nevertheless, the complimentremains the same is that when
you go to Focusrite you have anopportunity to see what is
really going to shape theindustry.
And the other thing that cameup in all those conversations
and I highly encourage people toactually listen to that
two-part series because we spoketo many CEOs and executives and
various people that cometogether for Focusrite.
It gives a pretty good overviewof the whole ecosystem, and one
of the things everyone kepttalking about is the fact that
you get access to decisionmakers.
So you know, you're not onlyjust networking, but you're
networking with the person thatcan actually make a decision on
(08:48):
whether there's going to be adeal or a partnership to be had.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So yeah, it is important and and you know I
think that's always been true toour brand is is try to to
really lean into senior levelexecutives.
You know the speakers are allCEOs and presidents.
The attendees are generallydirector level and above.
So that's always a reallyimportant part because we know
we, you know the price tag on aFocusrite conference is
(09:13):
relatively high and weunderstand that, although we are
, you know, offering a nicediscount to Travel Trends
members.
So we're excited about that aswell.
As far as content, this yearwe're bringing our theme from
our global event to our Europeanevent, but it's going to be a
very different conversationbecause, of course, we'll take
the content and localize it forthe most important trends and
(09:37):
topics that the European marketcares about no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Focusrite from USA to Europe, and given I haven't had
the chance to attend Europe yetand I'm so looking forward to
it, I'd love to also talk aboutsome of the things that are
different and unique, becausesome of the guests that I had a
chance to interview in Phoenixhad been to Focusrite Europe and
they were so impressed with itthat they couldn't wait to come
to the US event.
So let's talk about, I guess,the difference in the size and
scale, because Focusrite USA,the audience is what about 1,000
(10:52):
, 1,500 people?
1,500, yes, and then soobviously it's a large
conference.
How does Europe compare?
What is the numbers you'retypically looking at for that
conference?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So the Europe event is about a little less than half
the size, so about 600 people,which is, I mean, we love the
1500 people that we bringtogether to our global event.
But the Europe event is alittle more intimate.
You can talk to everybody thereon site if you want.
It's a really good mix oftechnology companies, hotel
(11:20):
suppliers you know smaller hotelchains that maybe we don't get
at our global event.
They come to Europe becausethey can get that a bit more
intimate experience Airlineexecutives, of course, online
travel companies like Bookingand Expedia and Tripcom, and the
big players in the market willbe there.
But you know the topics are.
(11:41):
There's a lot more raildiscussion, which obviously you
know is is very, is very timelyand specific for for Europe.
There is a lot of of discussionaround sustainability and how
do you build a sustainabledestination.
Digging deep into that, andwe're bringing together
(12:02):
destinations and distributors tothe same discussion to try to
figure out how can we, as anindustry, not just manage
tourism once the travelers getto destination, but also, you
know, educate them, and Mitrapresented some of this today at
ITB how do we educate travelerson what traveling more
sustainably means and how theydo it and I think that's a big
(12:25):
gap that we've seen in the uh inthe market.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, for sure it's interesting.
You mentioned rail travelbecause, uh, pete, kindly let me
record in their Focusrite boothto interview the CEO of
Railbookers, frank Marini.
Uh, which was a fascinatingconversation.
I definitely encourage you tolisten to that, and one of the
other topics that we're focusingon in season five is with the
Bjorn, the CEO of Rail Europe,and so Rail, absolutely.
Here we are in the heart ofEurope, in Berlin, and certainly
(12:50):
many people have actuallytraveled to this event on Rail,
and the questions I've beenasking them is around
sustainability.
So obviously this is where thecontent adjusts to the local
audience.
I know from the US experienceit is an international event.
It is, you know, it isobviously predominantly US based
.
However, there are people whotravel from around the world to
be there.
How does that compare to Europe?
(13:11):
And I guess I'm really excitedthat the idea of it being a
smaller, more intimate eventreally genuinely excites me,
especially when we'll see thecontrast from being here with
100,000 people in Berlin, whichis great as well, but it's also
a different experience.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Different experience.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, so I'm a little closer to get to each of your
next meetings when you're inBarcelona.
But, yeah, tell us a little bitmore about the audience that
comes together for that and ifit is, you know, very focused on
the European market.
I guess I'm highlighting thatbecause so many companies are
going to be focused on Europefor 2025 and 2026 for many, many
reasons that, with all thesegeopolitical events happening
(13:46):
around the world, that Europe isa very strong travel market,
inbound and outbound, so I thinkmany more people are going to
be interested in Europe thisyear.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know we certainly localize
the topics for a veryEurope-specific audience.
So you know, roughly 80% of theaudience at Focusrite Europe is
from Europe, although from acontent perspective.
So we have Matt Goldberg thisyear, the CEO of TripAdvisor,
who obviously you know leads abig, massive global company.
(14:22):
You know we'll talk about a lotof the topics from his business
that are specific to Europe,but there certainly is an
international element and, ofcourse, a lot of the biggest
travel companies are based inEurope, whether it's Bookingcom
or TUI or you know, some of thebig airlines that will be there
in attendance.
We run a WIT Europe session, soSuhoon will bring in some
speakers from Asia to talk aboutwhat the Asian markets mean for
(14:46):
Europeans, whether it's inboundor outbound.
So that's always a reallyunique session where you know
she runs about an hour's worthof content with speakers that
are from Asia, from emergingmarkets, and really kind of
helping the European-basedaudience understand what's going
on in different parts of theworld.
The European based audienceunderstands what's going on in
different parts of the world.
(15:07):
So while it is an event that wecurate and localize for Europe,
we also do cover other marketsand really look at what the
European context is as itrelates to the rest of the
industry.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's exciting, and we're actually going to have
your colleague, florence, joinus in a moment.
So for those of you that thisepisode is actually going to
have two amazing interviews withPete and Florence and Florence
is actually based in Europe,near Monaco, and she actually
runs the Barcelona event, and sowe'll get into some additional
detail but while we have Petehere with us, since he is the
managing director globally forFocusrite, I also wanted to take
(15:39):
the opportunity to talk a bitmore about all the exciting
things that are happening withFocusrite.
But just before we do, forthose people that are now
intrigued about joining us inFocusrite Europe, obviously they
can use the link on the TravelTrans website, but just would
you remind everyone, pete, thedates for the event and the
venue.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yes, so dates are June 10th through 12th.
Hotel venue is the Gran Miliaand it's by the university.
It's really a beautiful area ofBarcelona, so it will be.
It will feel like our globalconference, that we've really
put our stamp on a resort stylevenue, a conference center
(16:18):
that's really close.
We like to kind of lock peoplein, but it's a very good reason
so they, so they can cometogether, network, do business,
do deals, learn from each other.
So we're really excited tobring that sort of experience to
Focusrite Europe.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
I'm so looking forward to it.
But, given the number of thingsthat Focusrite has on, I also
wanted just to highlight theresearch that you do, because
obviously that's an importantpart of your practice.
I think you're so well knownfor the events, but part of our
previous conversation how Ireally got to know Focus right
and really benefit from thepartnership was getting access
to the research that I could usefor justifying business
(16:55):
investment.
And something that justrecently came to my attention
because you yourself and theteam and I've got to know many
of the team members that whichyou've got a terrific
organization, some amazing teammembers.
Mike Coletta, who's doing a lotof work on AI.
You kindly partnered with us onour AI summit in 2024, and
we'll have more details about2025, but you guys have really
started to focus on AI, which isfantastic.
(17:17):
But you also have expanded thisresearch, because whenever I
get ready for a podcast, Ialways look for Focusrite
Research or I reach out to youguys to say I'm about to do an
African safari series or a rivercruise series.
What is some of the data thatyou can share with me to set the
context?
But I recently discoveredyou've been producing more of
this content and making itavailable.
So tell us about this newapproach and where people can
(17:38):
find these new reports which areI couldn't believe it wasn't
behind a paywall.
I was like, oh my God, there'sso much great content here.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Well, there's still great content behind the paywall
, but we've recognized that.
You know it's important for usto get our research out, not
only from a marketingperspective, but also we get a
lot of people that come and askyou know how do I engage with
Focusrite, what does yourresearch look like?
And so we produced a piece lastDecember called Travel Forward,
(18:05):
which is kind of a you know, asummary of all of the different
types of work that we do, frommarket sizing to consumer
behavior, to technology andinnovation, social media.
So that's available for free.
You know Focusritecom.
Just Google Travel Forward,focusrite and it'll pop up.
So that's one piece.
(18:26):
Mike Coletta, who you mentioned,put together our travel,
innovation and tech trends pieceand we've also made that
available publicly.
So that's a piece.
Again, you can find it on ourhomepage.
A lot of the detail and depthwe will reserve for our research
subscribers.
A lot of the detail and depthwe will reserve for our research
(18:48):
subscribers.
But again, we want to make surethat we get our research out,
that people understand whattypes of topics that we're.
You know that we're researching.
So they can either purchase youknow deep, you know kind of
detail if they want, or they cancome to our conference and they
get to, you know, a bit more ofa flavor of what we're all
about to our conference and theyget to you know a bit more of a
flavor of of what we're, whatwe're all about.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, and I think that's where they're very
substantial appetizers to tryand get people into the entree,
which is absolutely worth theprice of admission.
I mean, I used to pay a realpremium for it.
I know the cost has come downconsiderably and you don't have
monthly and you have startuprates, so you've really adapted
to the market.
But I think this was an exampleto me where not only had I
discovered it, I then hadactually forwarded it to a
number of our acceleration teamclients and some of our team
members, because it's suchvaluable information.
(19:28):
So I love that you are gettingahead of the curve and making
that available.
So, obviously, research eventswhat are some of the other big
developments for Focusrite in2025?
And I want to finish off, too,by talking about San Diego.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, so of course, focus Wire is our media channel
that we continue to cover themost important topics.
You know it's it's freelyavailable daily basis.
We're we're looking atacquisitions, startup funding.
We cover the publicly tradedonline travel companies.
So Linda, linda Fox does agreat job of kind of curating
that daily news that we cover onFocusWire.
(20:05):
Mitra is spending a lot of timekind of you know, bringing
together our bodies of contentand making sure that we're
looking at the topics from adaily coverage, from an in-depth
research coverage and on thestage at our events.
So you'll see a little bit moreconsistency of topic coverages
across all of our differentbodies of work.
Uh, so those are the twoprobably biggest things that
(20:27):
we're we're working on right now.
Uh, san Diego you mentioned isa new venue for us, which we're
we're excited about.
Normally we're East coast, westcoast kind of alternating.
This year is kind of an oddyear for us because our East
coast venue was already booked.
So we decided, you know, let'sgo to San Diego.
(20:47):
I mean, what a better place tohost an event.
So we're at the Hyatt Manchesterin San Diego, which is a
fantastic venue, fairly recentlyrenovated.
It's right on the Marina.
It's a great property.
But you know it's whatFocusrite conference attendees
expect, with really high qualityAV.
You know, lots of choice ofrestaurants available, a really
(21:09):
nice bar.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Which is where most of the business deals get done,
where most of the business dealsget done.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So that's always a priority for us is having a nice
bar where people can gettogether, you know after hours
and have those conversationsthat are really meaningful.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And I just wanted to highlight, with the uh the
reports, that one of the statsthat I recently uh uncovered in
uh what some of Mike Coletta'swork, he was highlighting
startup funding in 2024.
And one of the Q4 was the veryfirst time that startup funding
to B2B travel companies outpacedB2C and I found that
fascinating.
I've I've mentioned on ourpodcast, I've mentioned some
(21:44):
speaking engagements.
Obviously I do a lot of work onthe B2B side and this is where
companies need to understandthat, because if you have a
captive audience, if you've gotan existing market, it's much
more easy to investors than ahigher risk B2C play.
And so these AI tools that manyof these companies are
introducing, the AI tools, themoney is flowing to B2B
companies that are creatinggreat technology for partners.
(22:05):
But it's a trend report likethat that actually really for me
, I can point to and say hand onheart, there's something
significant happening here.
This is the cutting to thesignal across the noise.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
But yeah, that's yeah , I mean for sure, and I think
we've always voiced a bit ofcaution for companies that are
trying to launch a B2C business,because they're competing
against $14 billion of marketingdollars that the OTAs are
spending Really challenging tobreak through.
However, there's a lot of greatapplications across B2B, so
(22:38):
we're seeing that shift, alsoseeing investors still being a
little bit cautious aboutinvesting.
Hopefully this year we'll startto see more money coming into
the travel startup ecosystem.
We've been dealing with a highinterest rate environment.
Certainly, inflation hasfactored in.
Valuations have, I think,finally come down to a place
(23:00):
where investors are starting tolook for opportunities.
Acquisitions we've actuallyseen pick up, especially in
Europe.
We've seen some pretty bigacquisitions, some other raises
that you know it's companiesthat are kind of following on
previous raises Series B, seriesC.
So yeah, I mean we'reoptimistic about the travel
startup ecosystem, especiallywith AI, and I think we'll start
(23:23):
to see some really impressivecompanies build out of, you know
, very small engineering teams.
Ai just allows these companiesto test ideas and get them out
to market without having tobuild a, you know, 100 person
engineering team.
So we're going to start to seesome really interesting things
come out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, it's something that I always loved about
attending a Focusrite conferenceand this has really been.
You know, in the last 10 yearsthat I've been going, there's
always been a focus on startupsand the pitch day, and it was
part of the reason I alwayslooked forward to attending,
especially in my role of being achief digital officer at a
large travel group where you'retrying to connect startups with
established travel brands togive them that agility, to give
them, you know, the opportunityto influence roadmap of a
(24:00):
smaller startup that you've gota smart team that is looking to
work with an established brandand to be able to build that
relationship.
And that's just something Ithink you guys have wisely
navigated, because some of thosestartups go on to become quite
successful businesses Likeyou're.
You're feeding the ecosystem,and so I'm I'm glad you
highlighted that and I'm glad tohear that's going to be part of
what I can look forward to inBarcelona.
(24:20):
Just to finish off, pete, andthen we'll bring Florence on to
give us some additionalhighlights about Barcelona.
We're here at ITB.
You mentioned Mitra'spresentation, obviously sharing
some of the Focusrite researchstats.
What else brings you to ITBthis year and what are some of
the benefits you find of beinghere?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, so it's a lot of our clients are here.
You know, itb has done a reallynice job of kind of building up
their tech presence, so we'remeeting with a lot of our
customers.
We're also hosting a dinnerwhere we're bringing together
some of our top customers andconstituents from across the
industry.
So that's an event that wealways love to kind of convene
our community, and ITB is agreat place to do it because
(25:02):
many of them are here, and ITBis a great place to do it
because many of them are here.
So it's kind of a captiveaudience of, you know, members
of our community, whether it'sinvestors or startups or, you
know, or executives from acrossthe category.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's exciting.
Well, it's a real pleasure tosee you here, pete.
I always look forward tocatching up with you.
I'm certainly really lookingforward to seeing you again in a
few months in Barcelona for thefirst time.
Thanks again for theopportunity, the partnership and
our friendship, and obviouslyyou know I'm a huge fan of
Focusrite, so I look forward toany all of our listeners does
you know checking out Focusrite,checking out Focuswire and
(25:37):
staying tuned to all of yourresearch and and certainly
definitely come and see us inBarcelona and if, for any reason
, you're not able to meet us inBarcelona, please Be there in
San.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Diego Indeed.
Thank you so much, Dan.
Thanks a lot, Pete.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I now have the privilege to sit down live here
at the ITB conference in Berlinwith Florence Cassie, who is the
Senior Director of FocusriteEurope, and we actually just had
the pleasure to meet last weekat Forbes Travel Guide the
summit in Monaco.
Charlotte, our common friend,introduced us and I was like no
way, florence.
I'm coming to Focusrite Europefor the first time, so I was so
(26:11):
thrilled to meet you, delightedthat I get a chance to sit down
with you here and talk about theevent.
So, florence, welcome to TravelTrends.
Thank you so much.
Likewise, tell everybody whereyou get to live, because you
live in one of the mostbeautiful parts of the world.
I have to say let's start withthat, because you, I'm not
actually traveling here, I livenear here.
So tell everyone where you'rebased.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
So I'm based out of France, on the French Riviera
Beautiful.
I usually don't mention it toomuch not to make people jealous
about the weather.
I live close to Antibes, in thesouth of France, outside of
Nice.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Stunning, stunning, stunning.
So my family.
So I was born in England and myfamily went in different
directions and my aunt and theirkids moved to the south of
France and they live nearRocquebrune-sur-Argent.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
And I used to travel to the south of France when I
was a kid and obviously it'sstunningly beautiful, but I had
yet to explore it as an adult.
It's been many, many yearssince I went back and I had this
weekend exploring the south ofFrance before I do my Hidden
Gems presentation here, and Iwas asking friends and
colleagues tell me what are theHidden Gems?
And Antibes was one of theHidden Gems, and I went to
(27:16):
Antibes in the afternoon.
Oh my God, that town isbeautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yes, the town is beautiful.
It's actually a British town aswell.
It's full of British and IrishBecause it's very close to Sofia
, antipolis, where you have alot of big multinational
companies with a lot of expats.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, the other thing that my aunt highlighted, which
I'm sure that she was likethere's only a few places in the
world to get 300 days ofsunshine a year.
California is one of them, inthe south of France, that's
right, and there we were inFebruary and it was beautiful
every day.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Well, yeah, you saw that in Monaco and, yes,
currently it's like around 18degrees Celsius.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So we'll stop making people jealous of where you're
based.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, yes, because we are in Berlin right now.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
We're in Berlin, yeah , which is also a great city.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Great city Not exactly the same temperature,
but tell us your background intourism and how you actually
ended up with this amazing teamat Focusrite.
With Focusrite?
Yes, well, I've always workedin travel.
So I actually did a businessschool in the south of France,
in Aix-en-Provence, esquette,and did an MBA in travel and
(28:24):
tourism Amazing, so that wasreally going to be the destiny.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
You knew that this is what you wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to do.
I started working on the traveltech side.
I was with Pegasus Solutions inLondon at the European
headquarters for around 10, 11years before joining Focusrite,
and I've been with Focusrite nowfor around 14 years.
(28:51):
So I was on a mission to buildthe European market, to build
the European audience, initiallyfor Focusrite research and then
obviously bringing moreEuropeans to our events in the
US.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
That's why I was so delighted to meet you, and now,
obviously, I have so delightedto meet you and now obviously, I
have the privilege to sit downwith you, especially after
having just spoken to Pete, asour listeners would have heard,
because Pete is definitely knownto our listeners, obviously
having been on the show before,and we were just diving into
Focusrite Europe.
But having you here, I mean, hegave a number of fantastic
highlights, but having you hereto really dive into what our
(29:30):
listeners can expect.
I was highlighting Florence,that we do have this special
partnership, travel Trends andFocusrite, so any of our
listeners that want to attendthis year can get a 100 euro
discount.
There's a Travel Trends 25 code, but it's actually there's a
dynamic link on our website.
So I strongly encourage anyonethat is considering it to make
it.
This is your year.
It going to be my first year atfocus right europe, but
(29:52):
florence, let's talk about focusright europe from your
perspective.
So you've been building this up, because focus right obviously
started in the us, yes, andthat's how I've always known
focus right, and so I asked petea number of questions.
But again, I want to get yourperspective here because you're
the one that has actually builtup this conference over the last
10, 14, 14 years.
So tell us what's special aboutFocusrite Europe?
(30:13):
And I guess what I wanted toknow from Pete, and I'm keen to
know it from you, is what's thesame and what's different.
Yes so what are some of thethings that are consistent about
the Focusrite experience?
And then what is really uniqueto the European market.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Yes, so obviously, when we launched Focusrite
Europe a couple of years ago, weinitially launched it in
Ireland.
The idea was to move aroundEurope, so maybe not every year,
but every couple of years.
So we launched the event inIreland, in Dublin, then we
moved to Amsterdam, then,obviously, covid hit all of us.
(30:47):
We didn't have the conferencefor two years and then decided
to move to Southern Europe andBarcelona was top of the list.
So Focusrite Europe has a lotof similarities with Focusrite
US, which is our global event,our signature event, in regards
(31:07):
to the format, in regards to thestage, in regards to the stage,
the center stage program.
So we offer, through theprogram, very similar sessions
and sub programs, such as thelaunch competition for
innovative companies that weselect throughout the year.
(31:31):
We also have breakout sessions,we have industry roundtables.
We obviously have the centerstage sessions.
So everything is built around asimilar format.
It's just a smaller scale.
It's much more focused onEurope.
So the program and the themeare around Europe, only
opportunities and challenges,what's going on in Europe.
(31:54):
And the program is made 99% ofEuropean-based speakers.
And in regards to the audience,yes, it's mainly composed by
Europeans, but we also have alot of companies now coming from
Israel, from Turkey, and also alot of companies coming from
(32:15):
India or the US or other marketswho really want to develop
partnerships with Europeancompanies.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, and that's where I think there's just so
much potential for the Europeanconference this year.
I was mentioning to Pete thatclearly there's geopolitical
factors at play, for sure, andwhere Europe can be a, it's a
large travel market, bothinbound and outbound.
But if it's a more stable marketand there's so much growth
opportunity.
I think one of the things thatI had highlighted from our chat
was the fact that in Q4 2024,that most of the investment
(32:44):
flowed to B2B companies for thefirst time.
But what I didn't mention whenI was speaking to Pete that is
very relevant to ourconversation, florence is that
the majority of those companieswere European-based, and so this
is where the startup ecosystemand that travel tech hub you're
going to meet startups in Europethat wouldn't necessarily make
their way to San Diego.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yes, absolutely so.
It's not necessarily the sameaudience.
I mean, obviously somecompanies will always come to
both events.
But in Europe, don't forget,the market is extremely
fragmented.
It's a very different marketthan North America.
It's obviously more than 27markets.
(33:24):
We also include EasternEuropean markets.
In Europe, and some companieswill be pan-European companies,
but the majority of the playersthat are going to be at
Focusrite Europe and somecompanies will be pan-European
companies, but the majority ofthe players that are going to be
at Focusrite Europe tend towork on one or two or three
markets or region of Europe andthey want to extend and become a
(33:45):
bit more global within Europebefore attacking the US market,
for example, or Asia, asia-pac.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, well, the other thing that was interesting, and
this is where you're curatingthe content for this event, so
you have a unique lens as towhat content is going to appeal
most to the European audience.
That's coming to the event.
Pete talked a little bit aboutrail, that rail is more
predominant in Europe for allthe obvious reasons.
But tell us some of the otherthings.
When you're listening to yourglobal team or the US team and
(34:14):
some of their thoughts, what arethe things that you put on the
table to make sure that thecontent you're curating, the
sessions, the speakers speak toa European audience?
So take us through some ofthose things that you're paying
attention to.
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Well, because obviously we're having
conversations with playersthroughout the year, that we
meet at events like itb, likethe forbes travel event in
monaco, and through all thosediscussions we tend to identify,
obviously, challenges andopportunities that europeans may
have that can be completelydifferent than for companies in
(34:49):
the us or in other regions.
And in europe, for example,ground transportation is a very
important topic.
Obviously, there are a lot ofdiscussions around
sustainability, about removingsome routes for airlines that
are too short to and that can becovered by rail, by ground
(35:12):
transportation.
In Europe we also have a lot ofbig players for the car sharing
.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, exactly the car sharing space in the bus space.
Yes, Flixbus and some of these.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Flixbus exactly, Also ferries are important.
And that's obviously not asegment that we would
necessarily talk about in the us, for sure, um cruises as well,
and when I say cruise, it's notnecessarily big ships you know,
going for transatlantics, but uh, river cruises like um.
(35:50):
we also um work, um a lot lotwith travel and activities
providers.
Europeans are looking forexperiences and not just
traveling from point A to pointB, so it's important to
constantly reinforce theimportance of experiences for
(36:13):
the European travelers.
Sustainability is a big topic.
Yes, it's a topic that is broad, but it becomes more and more
top of the agenda and peoplewant to see really and what they
want to hear concrete casestudies and not just you know, a
hotel trying to be sustainableby, you know, delivering
(36:36):
cleaning services or things likethat.
So sustainability is definitelya big topic for OTAs, not just
for hotels.
The vacation rental space ishuge in Europe.
It's also big in the US, ofcourse, but there is a lot more
competition with the hospitalityindustry.
The US, of course, but there isa lot more competition with the
(36:57):
hospitality industry.
So there are so many topicsthat we might have in the US but
that we won't analyze and wewon't put in front of the
audience in the same way that wedo at the US event.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I think you've listed about 10 reasons right
there to be at Focusrite Europe,and this is where I'm so keen
to see it for myself up closefor all the reasons you just
outlined, because those are allthe things that are.
You know, europe is definitelyahead of North America in terms
of sustainability, payingattention to it and actually
customers choosing moresustainable options, as you
mentioned about, you know,getting even government
(37:28):
regulation.
I mean, obviously, eu is aheadof the curve on a lot of things
privacy and data control andthings that ahead of the curve
on a lot of things privacy anddata control and things that and
again.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
legacy is an important topic as well, just
because Europe is represented byso many different markets that
have their own legacy.
So you can't just assume thatyou go to Europe and have a
standard.
That can't work that way.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, and the other thing you guys all have the
beauty of speaking multiplelanguages, which is like you
know, unlike us.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Anglophiles or unilingual.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Anglophiles that come across and it's like one of the
things culturally, there's amuch more of an awareness of
different, unique elements todifferent markets within Europe.
So understanding how best tomarket to them and position to
them, absolutely.
One of the things I also wantto ask you, florence, is that,
given all of those topics you'vejust highlighted, what are some
of the trends, the Europeantrends, that you're paying
(38:20):
attention to, that you'rebuilding into the content, and
obviously they can relate tosome of those topics we just
talked about.
But, yeah, what are some of thethings that you've been
thinking through in terms of theprogramming that you want
speakers to talk about?
Or you know the types of panelsessions you want to run based
on the trends that you wantspeakers to talk about, or the
types of panel sessions you wantto run based on the trends that
you're seeing?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
that people really care about.
So obviously, focusrite Stampis really distribution tech
innovation.
So that's what we do.
That's what we do throughoutthe year.
We have a team of analystsbased around the world.
We watch trends, we watchchanges, we watch innovators.
We're always willing to meetwith startups.
So that's one of the reasons whythat we've moved the global
(39:01):
startup pitch at FocusriteEurope in Barcelona instead of
having it virtually like we'vedone in the past few years.
So one of the main topics,obviously this year and around
the theme that we've launchedthe new agents, is going to be
artificial intelligence.
So all the topics that Imentioned earlier, that
sustainability, that it'stransportation, like any topic
(39:25):
that's relating to any of thesegments composing the travel
industry is obviously going tohave an impact or it's going to
be related to what is beingdeveloped right now through AI.
So that's obviously going to beone of the main themes for most
of the sessions at FocusriteEurope Exciting and trying to
(39:46):
bring a new angle, fresh ideasand concrete case studies as to
who and how the industry isadapting and is changing, and
really concrete examples ofwhat's disrupting the
distribution and travelecosystem.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's fantastic.
I appreciate you sharing thatwith us, because I guess this is
where I always benefitimmensely from the content.
I know a lot of people attendconferences for networking, and
Pete referenced that, which isobviously very important as well
.
You get access to high-leveldecision makers, One of the
things he also mentioned.
He referenced WIT, which Irealized that when we were
discussing.
We didn't actually explain thatfor our listeners, so would you
mind giving an overview?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
of.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Web and Travel and how they fit into this.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Yes, well, wit Web and Travel is our sister company
.
Wit Web and Travel is oursister company, so we work hand
in hand and WIT is actuallydelivering a two-hour program
during the Focusrite Europeconference.
It's been the case every year,so Siu Hoon and her fantastic
team are also working on thatpart of the program and that
(40:50):
they deliver at Focusrite Europefor Europeans as well, to
understand the opportunities towork with partners and companies
in Asia-Pac.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's exciting.
Well, this is where I want toask you about some of the other
speakers, because I actually gotan email from Rod Cuthbert the
other day the founder of.
Viator and I guess he had justbeen on a call with Pete and
Mitra and he reminded him tofollow up with me because he was
keen.
We were keen to have him on theTravel Trends podcast.
We spoke at Focusrite inPhoenix and we hadn't scheduled
anything yet.
Anyway, he kindly sent me anote to say oh, my goodness, I
realized that I wanted to getthis sorted.
(41:22):
And he's like, just so you know, you came up on our
conversation, you've got bigfans over there and Pete and
Mitra at Focusrite.
And obviously, as our listenerswould have heard, we've got a
terrific relationship, afriendship and a collaboration
together.
So that was nice to hear, butit was also exciting for me to
know maybe Rod is speaking, andso one of the reasons that
people love traveling to aFocusrite event is the big
(41:43):
speakers and the big names thatyou have.
So tell us who have you linedup for Focusrite Barcelona
Europe this year?
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yes, with pleasure, because we're actually very
proud of the speakers that wehave already announced and the
program is not finalized yet.
So there will be more that willbe announced in the next couple
of weeks, but we'll have theprivilege to have Marnie Wilking
from Bookingcom.
We're also going to have theCEO of TripAdvisor, the CEO of
Rail Europe.
We're also going to havetickets.
(42:15):
We're going to have Accor onthe main stage, airbnb, google,
so obviously a lot of big namesthat are on the program this
year.
And I think the beauty ofFocusrite and everyone who's
attended the event will knowthat is that all that group is
always making the effort to makeit available to connect.
(42:37):
So we're very excited as wellbecause we're moving to a new
venue and maybe not everyoneknows that yet.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Let's talk about that too.
But I was just going tohighlight, too, the fact that
Airbnb is going to be there,because Airbnb doesn't attend a
lot of industry conferences.
They haven't typically engagedthe travel industry and clearly
this is an important year forAirbnb, not only because,
obviously, short-term rental youkindly highlighted that's a big
theme for Europe, butespecially in places like
Barcelona, where short-termrentals like some, but Airbnb is
obviously moving back into theexperience of space, and what
(43:06):
better way to convey that at anevent in Europe?
So that'll be great.
But yeah, tell us a little bitabout this extraordinary new
venue, because I saw the emailhighlight and I didn't realize
how significant it was.
Pete was talking about the newhotel, but tell us about how
this shift in the actual venueand the destination came about.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yes, absolutely.
Well, we really wanted to stayin Spain.
I mean, what a beautifulcountry and it's very easy to
travel to.
Barcelona was our first choice.
We've been super happy to be inBarcelona the last two years.
So we're moving to the newvenue, which is still obviously
in Barcelona the Palau deCongresso, which is next to an
(43:47):
amazing Milia property.
So what's exciting is thatwe're finally moving the event
to the next level.
So this year is actually thebest choice for you to attend
your first Focusrite Europeevent.
Amazing, Because we're veryexcited.
We're moving to a propertythat's offering a similar
(44:07):
surrounding and similar vibes asto what we do in the US.
Similar surrounding and similarvibes as to what we do in the
US and what people are comingfor when they come to a.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Focusrite event.
Well, and for those of you whohave not been to a Focusrite
event before that are in Europeor this is where, when Florence
says that I think I've had theprivilege to be to, I've been to
a number of Focusrite eventsand what that says to me is is
like the quality of the food,the accommodation, like the
whole experience is much morepremium, if not luxury.
Like it is um things that otherconferences, the attention to
(44:45):
detail, even just coffees andteas, Like it's just, it's
really well curated, like it'sum, it's Like it's you have the
who's who of the travel industryfor a reason.
And the tickets, even thoughthey can be more expensive, they
are absolutely worth it.
So if someone looks at theprice and says that seems like a
lot, it's like well, come toFocusrite for the first time and
you'll see why.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Yes, and I think the most important besides you know
the accommodation, the food,everything that we built into
Focusrite that is in Europe orin the US, and I will quote our
founder, philip Wolf it's thebuzz that is created and that
(45:26):
takes place at that conferencethe minute you walk into the
lobby on the first day.
And that this buzz that hemanaged to create and that he's
still there.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
It's sustained.
Yeah, no, that's his legacy.
You're absolutely right.
I mean, philip Roof was anamazing individual and he
started the business during thedot-com era, where he felt there
was a need to be able to tellthe story about how distribution
was going to change.
And here you are, 25 yearslater.
It's a remarkable story.
Well, I'm glad that we finallymet and we're part of the same
community now, because it's apleasure to speak to you,
florence.
(45:57):
Thank you very much for makingthe time for this, florence, and
I wish you great success at ITBin the next couple of days.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Most importantly, I look forward to seeing you in
Barcelona in a couple of monthstime.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
That's the most important stop.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
So just to finish off , so they hear it from you
rather than me where should theygo for more information and to
book their ticket?
They've got to go throughTravel Trends so they get their
100-euro discount.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yes, so they get their discount.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Absolutely, but where should they go for more
information?
Speaker 3 (46:23):
So for anyone who would like more information
about the show, the program orsponsorships, or how to support
the event or how to be part ofone of the side events that we
organize as well during FoxtrotEurope, People can come to me.
So Florence Cassie onLinkedIncom, or my email is
fcassie at foxtrotcom.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Awesome, that's great .
I appreciate putting those outthere and, yeah, I look forward
to seeing you in a couple ofmonths.
Good luck getting ready for theevent and enjoy the rest of the
time at ITV you too Good luck.
Barcelona will be intense.
Thanks so much for joining uson this special event spotlight
episode of Travel Trends.
I hope you enjoyed theconversation with both Pete and
Florence from Focusrite as weprepare for Focusrite Europe in
(47:05):
Barcelona, june 10th to 12th2025.
As you heard, I will be thererecording live from the event
and anyone that uses the promocode that they've kindly offered
our listeners, which isTravelTrends25,.
You can use that onFocusRightEuropecom, click on
new registration and add thatdiscount code to save 100 euros
(47:26):
off the prevailing price, or youcan go to
TravelTrendsPodcastcom and clickon our dynamic link.
Either way, we hope you will bejoining us at Focusrite Europe.
Get your ticket and send me anemail, dan at
traveltrendspodcastcom, to letme know and we'll schedule time
to record together.
I'm really looking forward tothis event.
(47:46):
I can't wait to see many of youthere and I look forward to
bringing you a special highlightepisode when we wrap up the
event.
So make sure you're subscribedon the streaming platform of
your choice to be notified whenthat goes live.
And until next time, safetravels.
You know I think that's always been true to our
brand is try to really lean intosenior level executives.
You know the speakers are allCEOs and presidents.
The attendees are generallydirector level and above.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello everyone and welcome to a special event
spotlight episode of TravelTrends.
This is your host, danChristian, and today we're going
to be exploring the FocusriteEurope event that is happening
June 10th to 12th 2025 inbeautiful Barcelona.
I'm going to be there for thevery first time and I'm so
looking forward to it.
I've been to many Focusriteevents in the US over the years,
(00:40):
but this is the first Europeanevent that I'm going to have the
privilege to go to, and, givenmy enthusiasm and anticipation,
I wanted to create this specialspotlight episode and bring
together two extraordinaryindividuals Pete Como, the
managing director of Focusrite,who you've heard from on this
podcast before, and FlorenceCouchy, who is the senior
(01:01):
director of Focusrite Europe.
Now Pete and Florence combineto bring this event together,
but Florence leads us locally,since she's based in the
beautiful south of France, and Iwanted to have the opportunity
to speak to them both, which Ihad the privilege to do live at
ITB Berlin in the Focusritebooth, and so we're going to
talk to Pete first and thenwe're going to go over to
(01:23):
Florence and learn all of theinsights and the highlights of
what they're looking forward tothe speakers, the sessions, the
themes, all the things that weneed to be paying attention to
going into Focusrite Europe 2025to make the most out of that
conference before we start, isthey have kindly offered all of
(01:47):
our travel trends listeners aspecial 100 euro discount over
whatever the prevailing price isat the moment of a focus right
europe ticket.
All you have to do is go tofocus right europecom, click on
new registration and then addthe discount code travel trends
25.
We also have a live link on ourwebsite so that you can just
dynamically go through to bookyour ticket.
So you can check that out aswell on TravelTrendsPodcastcom,
(02:11):
but you should otherwise just beset to use the discount code
right on Focusrite Europe'swebsite.
The other thing I wanted tohighlight, too, is that, with us
being there, we're going tohave a booth and a great setup
to record podcasts at the event,just like we've done at
Focusrite USA the last two years, and we'll be back at Focusrite
San Diego in November 2025 aswell, for those of you who are
(02:33):
marking your calendars andmaking plans for that event.
But the one I wanted tohighlight to all of our
listeners headed to FocusriteEurope if you use that promo
code, my commitment is thatevery listener that books a
ticket using our Travel Trends25 discount code will be
guaranteed to be interviewed andincluded in our Focusrite
(02:53):
Spotlight edition from Europe.
I have already heard from a fewlisteners that have booked
their ticket and emailed me tolet me know, so I definitely
encourage any of those of youthat do feel free to drop me a
line, dan, at Travel TrendsPodcast, so we can schedule time
to record at Focusrite Europein Barcelona, and, for those of
you who won't be able to join us, we will have a highlight video
(03:16):
from the event itself.
So be sure to subscribe andlook out for that coming out in
a few months time.
Otherwise, I look forward toseeing many of you there and I'm
keen now to bring in Pete Comointo this conversation.
So one of the things I justwanted to start our conversation
with Pete is I wanted to pickup exactly where we left off in
San Diego.
Do you remember what you said tome when I came up to you on
(03:38):
that last night?
There was an after party and Icame up to thank you for
bringing travel trends, givingus the opportunity to record,
because you know I loveFocusrite.
It is literally my favorite, orone of my favorite, but it's
like the Oscars of travel for meand you know strongly I feel
about the Focusrite company andteam and yourself.
Do you remember what you saidto me that night?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I don't remember specifics, although I suspect it
was somewhere around.
You know how well you youreally amplify the messages of
our of our audience and andpeople love being on your
podcast.
It's a really important part ofthem coming to our event and I
think that's what makes ourpartnership partnership so
strong is they feel like they'regetting value out of being
(04:22):
there and also getting value outof the audience that you bring
to them.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
That's lovely.
The exact comment you said tome that really warmed my heart
at the time was like you're partof the family now.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yes, that is true, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That is true as well.
So I was like, oh man, what anhonor to be invited into the
Focusrite family.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I may have said family.
We are using the word communitya lot more I may have said
family.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We are using the word community a lot more and I
think that's also something thatspeaks to our brand and also
speaks to what we try to do hereis bring people together around
travel tech and topics andreally embrace them as part of
the community.
You know, being here in Europetogether this is my first time
at ITV Obviously you're familiarwith this conference and you
have a presence in Europe withthe Focusrite Europe conference.
I literally want to dive rightinto that, because if people
want to learn more about you andmore about Focusrite, they can
obviously listen to thatfantastic interview that we did.
But what I wanted to dive rightinto is the fact that our
(05:19):
relationship has continued toevolve in advance.
So a big thanks to you and toJean and the team, because you
guys kindly invited me toFocusrite Europe in Barcelona
for the very first time.
So we're going to be at theevent for the first time.
We've actually just highlightedon our podcast that anyone
listening to our Travel Trendspodcast can actually get a
hundred euro discount.
(05:39):
It's a Travel Trends 25, butthere's a unique link on our
website, the dynamic link, and Ialso said at the very end of
that podcast on the AfricanSafari series.
I highlighted that.
Anyone who uses that link, Iwill guarantee them that I will
interview them at FocusriteEurope.
So there's an additionalincentive to book and to come
and I'll make sure that you geton the show.
But yeah, pete.
(05:59):
So thanks so much for thatopportunity.
Let's talk about FocusriteEurope.
So, thanks so much for thatopportunity.
Let's talk about FocusriteEurope.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
What I've heard already is that there's a new
venue for this year.
So tell us about the theme forFocusrite Europe, tell us about
the venue and what people canexpect Convention Center, palau
de Congressos de Catalunya.
That's right next to it and itallows us to bring people in,
keep them at a really niceresort-style hotel and also
(06:32):
provide amazing conferencefacilities and, more importantly
, amazing places to network.
And that's what we're all about, as you know, is bringing
together a community andproviding a platform for them to
meet others, to do business, todo partnerships, to learn
what's new in the ecosystem.
We're also bringing the finalsof our global startup pitch to
(06:57):
Europe this year Very cool, sothat's something that we used to
do virtually.
This is an event that we do incollaboration with wit, um, so
suhoon and the web and travelbrand.
So we go out and scour um allaround the world to find
interesting startups and we'rebringing them to barcelona this
year to to pitch um.
(07:18):
So that's something new.
That um, we think, will add areally nice element to the event
.
So we're going to produce thaton the Tuesday, you know, and
it's also.
It's really about providingthat space that allows for
people to connect, and that'swhat you know.
That's what our brand is allabout, and we're really looking
(07:39):
forward to that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Well, it's certainly one of the things that got
highlighted over and over again.
When I was at Focusrite in SanDiego and we had the opportunity
when I was at Focusrite inPhoenix, I had and you're going
to be at San Diego coming up and, um, but yeah, when I was at
Focusrite Phoenix, we produced atwo-part series, as many of our
listeners know, at the end ofseason four, and we literally
put it at the end of season fourbecause when you listen to the
(08:00):
conversation that I had withPete and many of our listeners
have followed our journey andwhat I highlighted to him is I
always saw Focusrite as kind ofthe New York Times on the Sunday
New York Times you could kindof get the sense of what the
industry was going to be, whatwas going to be happening in the
industry over the next sixmonths.
Pete kindly corrected me andsaid well, we're more like three
months because the world'schanging so quickly, but
(08:28):
nevertheless, the complimentremains the same is that when
you go to Focusrite you have anopportunity to see what is
really going to shape theindustry.
And the other thing that cameup in all those conversations
and I highly encourage people toactually listen to that
two-part series because we spoketo many CEOs and executives and
various people that cometogether for Focusrite.
It gives a pretty good overviewof the whole ecosystem, and one
of the things everyone kepttalking about is the fact that
you get access to decisionmakers.
So you know, you're not onlyjust networking, but you're
networking with the person thatcan actually make a decision on
(08:48):
whether there's going to be adeal or a partnership to be had.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So yeah, it is important and and you know I
think that's always been true toour brand is is try to to
really lean into senior levelexecutives.
You know the speakers are allCEOs and presidents.
The attendees are generallydirector level and above.
So that's always a reallyimportant part because we know
we, you know the price tag on aFocusrite conference is
(09:13):
relatively high and weunderstand that, although we are
, you know, offering a nicediscount to Travel Trends
members.
So we're excited about that aswell.
As far as content, this yearwe're bringing our theme from
our global event to our Europeanevent, but it's going to be a
very different conversationbecause, of course, we'll take
the content and localize it forthe most important trends and
(09:37):
topics that the European marketcares about no-transcript.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Focusrite from USA to Europe, and given I haven't had
the chance to attend Europe yetand I'm so looking forward to
it, I'd love to also talk aboutsome of the things that are
different and unique, becausesome of the guests that I had a
chance to interview in Phoenixhad been to Focusrite Europe and
they were so impressed with itthat they couldn't wait to come
to the US event.
So let's talk about, I guess,the difference in the size and
scale, because Focusrite USA,the audience is what about 1,000
(10:52):
, 1,500 people?
1,500, yes, and then soobviously it's a large
conference.
How does Europe compare?
What is the numbers you'retypically looking at for that
conference?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So the Europe event is about a little less than half
the size, so about 600 people,which is, I mean, we love the
1500 people that we bringtogether to our global event.
But the Europe event is alittle more intimate.
You can talk to everybody thereon site if you want.
It's a really good mix oftechnology companies, hotel
(11:20):
suppliers you know smaller hotelchains that maybe we don't get
at our global event.
They come to Europe becausethey can get that a bit more
intimate experience Airlineexecutives, of course, online
travel companies like Bookingand Expedia and Tripcom, and the
big players in the market willbe there.
But you know the topics are.
(11:41):
There's a lot more raildiscussion, which obviously you
know is is very, is very timelyand specific for for Europe.
There is a lot of of discussionaround sustainability and how
do you build a sustainabledestination.
Digging deep into that, andwe're bringing together
(12:02):
destinations and distributors tothe same discussion to try to
figure out how can we, as anindustry, not just manage
tourism once the travelers getto destination, but also, you
know, educate them, and Mitrapresented some of this today at
ITB how do we educate travelerson what traveling more
sustainably means and how theydo it and I think that's a big
(12:25):
gap that we've seen in the uh inthe market.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, for sure it's interesting.
You mentioned rail travelbecause, uh, pete, kindly let me
record in their Focusrite boothto interview the CEO of
Railbookers, frank Marini.
Uh, which was a fascinatingconversation.
I definitely encourage you tolisten to that, and one of the
other topics that we're focusingon in season five is with the
Bjorn, the CEO of Rail Europe,and so Rail, absolutely.
Here we are in the heart ofEurope, in Berlin, and certainly
(12:50):
many people have actuallytraveled to this event on Rail,
and the questions I've beenasking them is around
sustainability.
So obviously this is where thecontent adjusts to the local
audience.
I know from the US experienceit is an international event.
It is, you know, it isobviously predominantly US based
.
However, there are people whotravel from around the world to
be there.
How does that compare to Europe?
(13:11):
And I guess I'm really excitedthat the idea of it being a
smaller, more intimate eventreally genuinely excites me,
especially when we'll see thecontrast from being here with
100,000 people in Berlin, whichis great as well, but it's also
a different experience.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Different experience.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, so I'm a little closer to get to each of your
next meetings when you're inBarcelona.
But, yeah, tell us a little bitmore about the audience that
comes together for that and ifit is, you know, very focused on
the European market.
I guess I'm highlighting thatbecause so many companies are
going to be focused on Europefor 2025 and 2026 for many, many
reasons that, with all thesegeopolitical events happening
(13:46):
around the world, that Europe isa very strong travel market,
inbound and outbound, so I thinkmany more people are going to
be interested in Europe thisyear.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know we certainly localize
the topics for a veryEurope-specific audience.
So you know, roughly 80% of theaudience at Focusrite Europe is
from Europe, although from acontent perspective.
So we have Matt Goldberg thisyear, the CEO of TripAdvisor,
who obviously you know leads abig, massive global company.
(14:22):
You know we'll talk about a lotof the topics from his business
that are specific to Europe,but there certainly is an
international element and, ofcourse, a lot of the biggest
travel companies are based inEurope, whether it's Bookingcom
or TUI or you know, some of thebig airlines that will be there
in attendance.
We run a WIT Europe session, soSuhoon will bring in some
speakers from Asia to talk aboutwhat the Asian markets mean for
(14:46):
Europeans, whether it's inboundor outbound.
So that's always a reallyunique session where you know
she runs about an hour's worthof content with speakers that
are from Asia, from emergingmarkets, and really kind of
helping the European-basedaudience understand what's going
on in different parts of theworld.
The European based audienceunderstands what's going on in
different parts of the world.
(15:07):
So while it is an event that wecurate and localize for Europe,
we also do cover other marketsand really look at what the
European context is as itrelates to the rest of the
industry.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's exciting, and we're actually going to have
your colleague, florence, joinus in a moment.
So for those of you that thisepisode is actually going to
have two amazing interviews withPete and Florence and Florence
is actually based in Europe,near Monaco, and she actually
runs the Barcelona event, and sowe'll get into some additional
detail but while we have Petehere with us, since he is the
managing director globally forFocusrite, I also wanted to take
(15:39):
the opportunity to talk a bitmore about all the exciting
things that are happening withFocusrite.
But just before we do, forthose people that are now
intrigued about joining us inFocusrite Europe, obviously they
can use the link on the TravelTrans website, but just would
you remind everyone, pete, thedates for the event and the
venue.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yes, so dates are June 10th through 12th.
Hotel venue is the Gran Miliaand it's by the university.
It's really a beautiful area ofBarcelona, so it will be.
It will feel like our globalconference, that we've really
put our stamp on a resort stylevenue, a conference center
(16:18):
that's really close.
We like to kind of lock peoplein, but it's a very good reason
so they, so they can cometogether, network, do business,
do deals, learn from each other.
So we're really excited tobring that sort of experience to
Focusrite Europe.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
I'm so looking forward to it.
But, given the number of thingsthat Focusrite has on, I also
wanted just to highlight theresearch that you do, because
obviously that's an importantpart of your practice.
I think you're so well knownfor the events, but part of our
previous conversation how Ireally got to know Focus right
and really benefit from thepartnership was getting access
to the research that I could usefor justifying business
(16:55):
investment.
And something that justrecently came to my attention
because you yourself and theteam and I've got to know many
of the team members that whichyou've got a terrific
organization, some amazing teammembers.
Mike Coletta, who's doing a lotof work on AI.
You kindly partnered with us onour AI summit in 2024, and
we'll have more details about2025, but you guys have really
started to focus on AI, which isfantastic.
(17:17):
But you also have expanded thisresearch, because whenever I
get ready for a podcast, Ialways look for Focusrite
Research or I reach out to youguys to say I'm about to do an
African safari series or a rivercruise series.
What is some of the data thatyou can share with me to set the
context?
But I recently discoveredyou've been producing more of
this content and making itavailable.
So tell us about this newapproach and where people can
(17:38):
find these new reports which areI couldn't believe it wasn't
behind a paywall.
I was like, oh my God, there'sso much great content here.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Well, there's still great content behind the paywall
, but we've recognized that.
You know it's important for usto get our research out, not
only from a marketingperspective, but also we get a
lot of people that come and askyou know how do I engage with
Focusrite, what does yourresearch look like?
And so we produced a piece lastDecember called Travel Forward,
(18:05):
which is kind of a you know, asummary of all of the different
types of work that we do, frommarket sizing to consumer
behavior, to technology andinnovation, social media.
So that's available for free.
You know Focusritecom.
Just Google Travel Forward,focusrite and it'll pop up.
So that's one piece.
(18:26):
Mike Coletta, who you mentioned,put together our travel,
innovation and tech trends pieceand we've also made that
available publicly.
So that's a piece.
Again, you can find it on ourhomepage.
A lot of the detail and depthwe will reserve for our research
subscribers.
A lot of the detail and depthwe will reserve for our research
(18:48):
subscribers.
But again, we want to make surethat we get our research out,
that people understand whattypes of topics that we're.
You know that we're researching.
So they can either purchase youknow deep, you know kind of
detail if they want, or they cancome to our conference and they
get to, you know, a bit more ofa flavor of what we're all
about to our conference and theyget to you know a bit more of a
flavor of of what we're, whatwe're all about.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, and I think that's where they're very
substantial appetizers to tryand get people into the entree,
which is absolutely worth theprice of admission.
I mean, I used to pay a realpremium for it.
I know the cost has come downconsiderably and you don't have
monthly and you have startuprates, so you've really adapted
to the market.
But I think this was an exampleto me where not only had I
discovered it, I then hadactually forwarded it to a
number of our acceleration teamclients and some of our team
members, because it's suchvaluable information.
(19:28):
So I love that you are gettingahead of the curve and making
that available.
So, obviously, research eventswhat are some of the other big
developments for Focusrite in2025?
And I want to finish off, too,by talking about San Diego.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, so of course, focus Wire is our media channel
that we continue to cover themost important topics.
You know it's it's freelyavailable daily basis.
We're we're looking atacquisitions, startup funding.
We cover the publicly tradedonline travel companies.
So Linda, linda Fox does agreat job of kind of curating
that daily news that we cover onFocusWire.
(20:05):
Mitra is spending a lot of timekind of you know, bringing
together our bodies of contentand making sure that we're
looking at the topics from adaily coverage, from an in-depth
research coverage and on thestage at our events.
So you'll see a little bit moreconsistency of topic coverages
across all of our differentbodies of work.
Uh, so those are the twoprobably biggest things that
(20:27):
we're we're working on right now.
Uh, san Diego you mentioned isa new venue for us, which we're
we're excited about.
Normally we're East coast, westcoast kind of alternating.
This year is kind of an oddyear for us because our East
coast venue was already booked.
So we decided, you know, let'sgo to San Diego.
(20:47):
I mean, what a better place tohost an event.
So we're at the Hyatt Manchesterin San Diego, which is a
fantastic venue, fairly recentlyrenovated.
It's right on the Marina.
It's a great property.
But you know it's whatFocusrite conference attendees
expect, with really high qualityAV.
You know, lots of choice ofrestaurants available, a really
(21:09):
nice bar.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Which is where most of the business deals get done,
where most of the business dealsget done.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So that's always a priority for us is having a nice
bar where people can gettogether, you know after hours
and have those conversationsthat are really meaningful.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
And I just wanted to highlight, with the uh the
reports, that one of the statsthat I recently uh uncovered in
uh what some of Mike Coletta'swork, he was highlighting
startup funding in 2024.
And one of the Q4 was the veryfirst time that startup funding
to B2B travel companies outpacedB2C and I found that
fascinating.
I've I've mentioned on ourpodcast, I've mentioned some
(21:44):
speaking engagements.
Obviously I do a lot of work onthe B2B side and this is where
companies need to understandthat, because if you have a
captive audience, if you've gotan existing market, it's much
more easy to investors than ahigher risk B2C play.
And so these AI tools that manyof these companies are
introducing, the AI tools, themoney is flowing to B2B
companies that are creatinggreat technology for partners.
(22:05):
But it's a trend report likethat that actually really for me
, I can point to and say hand onheart, there's something
significant happening here.
This is the cutting to thesignal across the noise.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
But yeah, that's yeah , I mean for sure, and I think
we've always voiced a bit ofcaution for companies that are
trying to launch a B2C business,because they're competing
against $14 billion of marketingdollars that the OTAs are
spending Really challenging tobreak through.
However, there's a lot of greatapplications across B2B, so
(22:38):
we're seeing that shift, alsoseeing investors still being a
little bit cautious aboutinvesting.
Hopefully this year we'll startto see more money coming into
the travel startup ecosystem.
We've been dealing with a highinterest rate environment.
Certainly, inflation hasfactored in.
Valuations have, I think,finally come down to a place
(23:00):
where investors are starting tolook for opportunities.
Acquisitions we've actuallyseen pick up, especially in
Europe.
We've seen some pretty bigacquisitions, some other raises
that you know it's companiesthat are kind of following on
previous raises Series B, seriesC.
So yeah, I mean we'reoptimistic about the travel
startup ecosystem, especiallywith AI, and I think we'll start
(23:23):
to see some really impressivecompanies build out of, you know
, very small engineering teams.
Ai just allows these companiesto test ideas and get them out
to market without having tobuild a, you know, 100 person
engineering team.
So we're going to start to seesome really interesting things
come out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, it's something that I always loved about
attending a Focusrite conferenceand this has really been.
You know, in the last 10 yearsthat I've been going, there's
always been a focus on startupsand the pitch day, and it was
part of the reason I alwayslooked forward to attending,
especially in my role of being achief digital officer at a
large travel group where you'retrying to connect startups with
established travel brands togive them that agility, to give
them, you know, the opportunityto influence roadmap of a
(24:00):
smaller startup that you've gota smart team that is looking to
work with an established brandand to be able to build that
relationship.
And that's just something Ithink you guys have wisely
navigated, because some of thosestartups go on to become quite
successful businesses Likeyou're.
You're feeding the ecosystem,and so I'm I'm glad you
highlighted that and I'm glad tohear that's going to be part of
what I can look forward to inBarcelona.
(24:20):
Just to finish off, pete, andthen we'll bring Florence on to
give us some additionalhighlights about Barcelona.
We're here at ITB.
You mentioned Mitra'spresentation, obviously sharing
some of the Focusrite researchstats.
What else brings you to ITBthis year and what are some of
the benefits you find of beinghere?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, so it's a lot of our clients are here.
You know, itb has done a reallynice job of kind of building up
their tech presence, so we'remeeting with a lot of our
customers.
We're also hosting a dinnerwhere we're bringing together
some of our top customers andconstituents from across the
industry.
So that's an event that wealways love to kind of convene
our community, and ITB is agreat place to do it because
(25:02):
many of them are here, and ITBis a great place to do it
because many of them are here.
So it's kind of a captiveaudience of, you know, members
of our community, whether it'sinvestors or startups or, you
know, or executives from acrossthe category.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's exciting.
Well, it's a real pleasure tosee you here, pete.
I always look forward tocatching up with you.
I'm certainly really lookingforward to seeing you again in a
few months in Barcelona for thefirst time.
Thanks again for theopportunity, the partnership and
our friendship, and obviouslyyou know I'm a huge fan of
Focusrite, so I look forward toany all of our listeners does
you know checking out Focusrite,checking out Focuswire and
(25:37):
staying tuned to all of yourresearch and and certainly
definitely come and see us inBarcelona and if, for any reason
, you're not able to meet us inBarcelona, please Be there in
San.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Diego Indeed.
Thank you so much, Dan.
Thanks a lot, Pete.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I now have the privilege to sit down live here
at the ITB conference in Berlinwith Florence Cassie, who is the
Senior Director of FocusriteEurope, and we actually just had
the pleasure to meet last weekat Forbes Travel Guide the
summit in Monaco.
Charlotte, our common friend,introduced us and I was like no
way, florence.
I'm coming to Focusrite Europefor the first time, so I was so
(26:11):
thrilled to meet you, delightedthat I get a chance to sit down
with you here and talk about theevent.
So, florence, welcome to TravelTrends.
Thank you so much.
Likewise, tell everybody whereyou get to live, because you
live in one of the mostbeautiful parts of the world.
I have to say let's start withthat, because you, I'm not
actually traveling here, I livenear here.
So tell everyone where you'rebased.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
So I'm based out of France, on the French Riviera
Beautiful.
I usually don't mention it toomuch not to make people jealous
about the weather.
I live close to Antibes, in thesouth of France, outside of
Nice.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Stunning, stunning, stunning.
So my family.
So I was born in England and myfamily went in different
directions and my aunt and theirkids moved to the south of
France and they live nearRocquebrune-sur-Argent.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
And I used to travel to the south of France when I
was a kid and obviously it'sstunningly beautiful, but I had
yet to explore it as an adult.
It's been many, many yearssince I went back and I had this
weekend exploring the south ofFrance before I do my Hidden
Gems presentation here, and Iwas asking friends and
colleagues tell me what are theHidden Gems?
And Antibes was one of theHidden Gems, and I went to
(27:16):
Antibes in the afternoon.
Oh my God, that town isbeautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yes, the town is beautiful.
It's actually a British town aswell.
It's full of British and IrishBecause it's very close to Sofia
, antipolis, where you have alot of big multinational
companies with a lot of expats.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, the other thing that my aunt highlighted, which
I'm sure that she was likethere's only a few places in the
world to get 300 days ofsunshine a year.
California is one of them, inthe south of France, that's
right, and there we were inFebruary and it was beautiful
every day.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Well, yeah, you saw that in Monaco and, yes,
currently it's like around 18degrees Celsius.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So we'll stop making people jealous of where you're
based.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, yes, because we are in Berlin right now.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
We're in Berlin, yeah , which is also a great city.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Great city Not exactly the same temperature,
but tell us your background intourism and how you actually
ended up with this amazing teamat Focusrite.
With Focusrite?
Yes, well, I've always workedin travel.
So I actually did a businessschool in the south of France,
in Aix-en-Provence, esquette,and did an MBA in travel and
(28:24):
tourism Amazing, so that wasreally going to be the destiny.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
You knew that this is what you wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to do.
I started working on the traveltech side.
I was with Pegasus Solutions inLondon at the European
headquarters for around 10, 11years before joining Focusrite,
and I've been with Focusrite nowfor around 14 years.
(28:51):
So I was on a mission to buildthe European market, to build
the European audience, initiallyfor Focusrite research and then
obviously bringing moreEuropeans to our events in the
US.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
That's why I was so delighted to meet you, and now,
obviously, I have so delightedto meet you and now obviously, I
have the privilege to sit downwith you, especially after
having just spoken to Pete, asour listeners would have heard,
because Pete is definitely knownto our listeners, obviously
having been on the show before,and we were just diving into
Focusrite Europe.
But having you here, I mean, hegave a number of fantastic
highlights, but having you hereto really dive into what our
(29:30):
listeners can expect.
I was highlighting Florence,that we do have this special
partnership, travel Trends andFocusrite, so any of our
listeners that want to attendthis year can get a 100 euro
discount.
There's a Travel Trends 25 code, but it's actually there's a
dynamic link on our website.
So I strongly encourage anyonethat is considering it to make
it.
This is your year.
It going to be my first year atfocus right europe, but
(29:52):
florence, let's talk about focusright europe from your
perspective.
So you've been building this up, because focus right obviously
started in the us, yes, andthat's how I've always known
focus right, and so I asked petea number of questions.
But again, I want to get yourperspective here because you're
the one that has actually builtup this conference over the last
10, 14, 14 years.
So tell us what's special aboutFocusrite Europe?
(30:13):
And I guess what I wanted toknow from Pete, and I'm keen to
know it from you, is what's thesame and what's different.
Yes so what are some of thethings that are consistent about
the Focusrite experience?
And then what is really uniqueto the European market.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Yes, so obviously, when we launched Focusrite
Europe a couple of years ago, weinitially launched it in
Ireland.
The idea was to move aroundEurope, so maybe not every year,
but every couple of years.
So we launched the event inIreland, in Dublin, then we
moved to Amsterdam, then,obviously, covid hit all of us.
(30:47):
We didn't have the conferencefor two years and then decided
to move to Southern Europe andBarcelona was top of the list.
So Focusrite Europe has a lotof similarities with Focusrite
US, which is our global event,our signature event, in regards
(31:07):
to the format, in regards to thestage, in regards to the stage,
the center stage program.
So we offer, through theprogram, very similar sessions
and sub programs, such as thelaunch competition for
innovative companies that weselect throughout the year.
(31:31):
We also have breakout sessions,we have industry roundtables.
We obviously have the centerstage sessions.
So everything is built around asimilar format.
It's just a smaller scale.
It's much more focused onEurope.
So the program and the themeare around Europe, only
opportunities and challenges,what's going on in Europe.
(31:54):
And the program is made 99% ofEuropean-based speakers.
And in regards to the audience,yes, it's mainly composed by
Europeans, but we also have alot of companies now coming from
Israel, from Turkey, and also alot of companies coming from
(32:15):
India or the US or other marketswho really want to develop
partnerships with Europeancompanies.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, and that's where I think there's just so
much potential for the Europeanconference this year.
I was mentioning to Pete thatclearly there's geopolitical
factors at play, for sure, andwhere Europe can be a, it's a
large travel market, bothinbound and outbound.
But if it's a more stable marketand there's so much growth
opportunity.
I think one of the things thatI had highlighted from our chat
was the fact that in Q4 2024,that most of the investment
(32:44):
flowed to B2B companies for thefirst time.
But what I didn't mention whenI was speaking to Pete that is
very relevant to ourconversation, florence is that
the majority of those companieswere European-based, and so this
is where the startup ecosystemand that travel tech hub you're
going to meet startups in Europethat wouldn't necessarily make
their way to San Diego.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Yes, absolutely so.
It's not necessarily the sameaudience.
I mean, obviously somecompanies will always come to
both events.
But in Europe, don't forget,the market is extremely
fragmented.
It's a very different marketthan North America.
It's obviously more than 27markets.
(33:24):
We also include EasternEuropean markets.
In Europe, and some companieswill be pan-European companies,
but the majority of the playersthat are going to be at
Focusrite Europe and somecompanies will be pan-European
companies, but the majority ofthe players that are going to be
at Focusrite Europe tend towork on one or two or three
markets or region of Europe andthey want to extend and become a
(33:45):
bit more global within Europebefore attacking the US market,
for example, or Asia, asia-pac.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, well, the other thing that was interesting, and
this is where you're curatingthe content for this event, so
you have a unique lens as towhat content is going to appeal
most to the European audience.
That's coming to the event.
Pete talked a little bit aboutrail, that rail is more
predominant in Europe for allthe obvious reasons.
But tell us some of the otherthings.
When you're listening to yourglobal team or the US team and
(34:14):
some of their thoughts, what arethe things that you put on the
table to make sure that thecontent you're curating, the
sessions, the speakers speak toa European audience?
So take us through some ofthose things that you're paying
attention to.
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Well, because obviously we're having
conversations with playersthroughout the year, that we
meet at events like itb, likethe forbes travel event in
monaco, and through all thosediscussions we tend to identify,
obviously, challenges andopportunities that europeans may
have that can be completelydifferent than for companies in
(34:49):
the us or in other regions.
And in europe, for example,ground transportation is a very
important topic.
Obviously, there are a lot ofdiscussions around
sustainability, about removingsome routes for airlines that
are too short to and that can becovered by rail, by ground
(35:12):
transportation.
In Europe we also have a lot ofbig players for the car sharing
.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, exactly the car sharing space in the bus space.
Yes, Flixbus and some of these.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Flixbus exactly, Also ferries are important.
And that's obviously not asegment that we would
necessarily talk about in the us, for sure, um cruises as well,
and when I say cruise, it's notnecessarily big ships you know,
going for transatlantics, but uh, river cruises like um.
(35:50):
we also um work, um a lot lotwith travel and activities
providers.
Europeans are looking forexperiences and not just
traveling from point A to pointB, so it's important to
constantly reinforce theimportance of experiences for
(36:13):
the European travelers.
Sustainability is a big topic.
Yes, it's a topic that is broad, but it becomes more and more
top of the agenda and peoplewant to see really and what they
want to hear concrete casestudies and not just you know, a
hotel trying to be sustainableby, you know, delivering
(36:36):
cleaning services or things likethat.
So sustainability is definitelya big topic for OTAs, not just
for hotels.
The vacation rental space ishuge in Europe.
It's also big in the US, ofcourse, but there is a lot more
competition with the hospitalityindustry.
The US, of course, but there isa lot more competition with the
(36:57):
hospitality industry.
So there are so many topicsthat we might have in the US but
that we won't analyze and wewon't put in front of the
audience in the same way that wedo at the US event.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I think you've listed about 10 reasons right
there to be at Focusrite Europe,and this is where I'm so keen
to see it for myself up closefor all the reasons you just
outlined, because those are allthe things that are.
You know, europe is definitelyahead of North America in terms
of sustainability, payingattention to it and actually
customers choosing moresustainable options, as you
mentioned about, you know,getting even government
(37:28):
regulation.
I mean, obviously, eu is aheadof the curve on a lot of things
privacy and data control andthings that ahead of the curve
on a lot of things privacy anddata control and things that and
again.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
legacy is an important topic as well, just
because Europe is represented byso many different markets that
have their own legacy.
So you can't just assume thatyou go to Europe and have a
standard.
That can't work that way.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Well, and the other thing you guys all have the
beauty of speaking multiplelanguages, which is like you
know, unlike us.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Anglophiles or unilingual.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Anglophiles that come across and it's like one of the
things culturally, there's amuch more of an awareness of
different, unique elements todifferent markets within Europe.
So understanding how best tomarket to them and position to
them, absolutely.
One of the things I also wantto ask you, florence, is that,
given all of those topics you'vejust highlighted, what are some
of the trends, the Europeantrends, that you're paying
(38:20):
attention to, that you'rebuilding into the content, and
obviously they can relate tosome of those topics we just
talked about.
But, yeah, what are some of thethings that you've been
thinking through in terms of theprogramming that you want
speakers to talk about?
Or you know the types of panelsessions you want to run based
on the trends that you wantspeakers to talk about, or the
types of panel sessions you wantto run based on the trends that
you're seeing?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
that people really care about.
So obviously, focusrite Stampis really distribution tech
innovation.
So that's what we do.
That's what we do throughoutthe year.
We have a team of analystsbased around the world.
We watch trends, we watchchanges, we watch innovators.
We're always willing to meetwith startups.
So that's one of the reasons whythat we've moved the global
(39:01):
startup pitch at FocusriteEurope in Barcelona instead of
having it virtually like we'vedone in the past few years.
So one of the main topics,obviously this year and around
the theme that we've launchedthe new agents, is going to be
artificial intelligence.
So all the topics that Imentioned earlier, that
sustainability, that it'stransportation, like any topic
(39:25):
that's relating to any of thesegments composing the travel
industry is obviously going tohave an impact or it's going to
be related to what is beingdeveloped right now through AI.
So that's obviously going to beone of the main themes for most
of the sessions at FocusriteEurope Exciting and trying to
(39:46):
bring a new angle, fresh ideasand concrete case studies as to
who and how the industry isadapting and is changing, and
really concrete examples ofwhat's disrupting the
distribution and travelecosystem.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's fantastic.
I appreciate you sharing thatwith us, because I guess this is
where I always benefitimmensely from the content.
I know a lot of people attendconferences for networking, and
Pete referenced that, which isobviously very important as well
.
You get access to high-leveldecision makers, One of the
things he also mentioned.
He referenced WIT, which Irealized that when we were
discussing.
We didn't actually explain thatfor our listeners, so would you
mind giving an overview?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
of.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Web and Travel and how they fit into this.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Yes, well, wit Web and Travel is our sister company
.
Wit Web and Travel is oursister company, so we work hand
in hand and WIT is actuallydelivering a two-hour program
during the Focusrite Europeconference.
It's been the case every year,so Siu Hoon and her fantastic
team are also working on thatpart of the program and that
(40:50):
they deliver at Focusrite Europefor Europeans as well, to
understand the opportunities towork with partners and companies
in Asia-Pac.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's exciting.
Well, this is where I want toask you about some of the other
speakers, because I actually gotan email from Rod Cuthbert the
other day the founder of.
Viator and I guess he had justbeen on a call with Pete and
Mitra and he reminded him tofollow up with me because he was
keen.
We were keen to have him on theTravel Trends podcast.
We spoke at Focusrite inPhoenix and we hadn't scheduled
anything yet.
Anyway, he kindly sent me anote to say oh, my goodness, I
realized that I wanted to getthis sorted.
(41:22):
And he's like, just so you know, you came up on our
conversation, you've got bigfans over there and Pete and
Mitra at Focusrite.
And obviously, as our listenerswould have heard, we've got a
terrific relationship, afriendship and a collaboration
together.
So that was nice to hear, butit was also exciting for me to
know maybe Rod is speaking, andso one of the reasons that
people love traveling to aFocusrite event is the big
(41:43):
speakers and the big names thatyou have.
So tell us who have you linedup for Focusrite Barcelona
Europe this year?
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Yes, with pleasure, because we're actually very
proud of the speakers that wehave already announced and the
program is not finalized yet.
So there will be more that willbe announced in the next couple
of weeks, but we'll have theprivilege to have Marnie Wilking
from Bookingcom.
We're also going to have theCEO of TripAdvisor, the CEO of
Rail Europe.
We're also going to havetickets.
(42:15):
We're going to have Accor onthe main stage, airbnb, google,
so obviously a lot of big namesthat are on the program this
year.
And I think the beauty ofFocusrite and everyone who's
attended the event will knowthat is that all that group is
always making the effort to makeit available to connect.
(42:37):
So we're very excited as wellbecause we're moving to a new
venue and maybe not everyoneknows that yet.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Let's talk about that too.
But I was just going tohighlight, too, the fact that
Airbnb is going to be there,because Airbnb doesn't attend a
lot of industry conferences.
They haven't typically engagedthe travel industry and clearly
this is an important year forAirbnb, not only because,
obviously, short-term rental youkindly highlighted that's a big
theme for Europe, butespecially in places like
Barcelona, where short-termrentals like some, but Airbnb is
obviously moving back into theexperience of space, and what
(43:06):
better way to convey that at anevent in Europe?
So that'll be great.
But yeah, tell us a little bitabout this extraordinary new
venue, because I saw the emailhighlight and I didn't realize
how significant it was.
Pete was talking about the newhotel, but tell us about how
this shift in the actual venueand the destination came about.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yes, absolutely.
Well, we really wanted to stayin Spain.
I mean, what a beautifulcountry and it's very easy to
travel to.
Barcelona was our first choice.
We've been super happy to be inBarcelona the last two years.
So we're moving to the newvenue, which is still obviously
in Barcelona the Palau deCongresso, which is next to an
(43:47):
amazing Milia property.
So what's exciting is thatwe're finally moving the event
to the next level.
So this year is actually thebest choice for you to attend
your first Focusrite Europeevent.
Amazing, Because we're veryexcited.
We're moving to a propertythat's offering a similar
(44:07):
surrounding and similar vibes asto what we do in the US.
Similar surrounding and similarvibes as to what we do in the
US and what people are comingfor when they come to a.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Focusrite event.
Well, and for those of you whohave not been to a Focusrite
event before that are in Europeor this is where, when Florence
says that I think I've had theprivilege to be to, I've been to
a number of Focusrite eventsand what that says to me is is
like the quality of the food,the accommodation, like the
whole experience is much morepremium, if not luxury.
Like it is um things that otherconferences, the attention to
(44:45):
detail, even just coffees andteas, Like it's just, it's
really well curated, like it'sum, it's Like it's you have the
who's who of the travel industryfor a reason.
And the tickets, even thoughthey can be more expensive, they
are absolutely worth it.
So if someone looks at theprice and says that seems like a
lot, it's like well, come toFocusrite for the first time and
you'll see why.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Yes, and I think the most important besides you know
the accommodation, the food,everything that we built into
Focusrite that is in Europe orin the US, and I will quote our
founder, philip Wolf it's thebuzz that is created and that
(45:26):
takes place at that conferencethe minute you walk into the
lobby on the first day.
And that this buzz that hemanaged to create and that he's
still there.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
It's sustained.
Yeah, no, that's his legacy.
You're absolutely right.
I mean, philip Roof was anamazing individual and he
started the business during thedot-com era, where he felt there
was a need to be able to tellthe story about how distribution
was going to change.
And here you are, 25 yearslater.
It's a remarkable story.
Well, I'm glad that we finallymet and we're part of the same
community now, because it's apleasure to speak to you,
florence.
(45:57):
Thank you very much for makingthe time for this, florence, and
I wish you great success at ITBin the next couple of days.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Most importantly, I look forward to seeing you in
Barcelona in a couple of monthstime.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
That's the most important stop.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
So just to finish off , so they hear it from you
rather than me where should theygo for more information and to
book their ticket?
They've got to go throughTravel Trends so they get their
100-euro discount.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yes, so they get their discount.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Absolutely, but where should they go for more
information?
Speaker 3 (46:23):
So for anyone who would like more information
about the show, the program orsponsorships, or how to support
the event or how to be part ofone of the side events that we
organize as well during FoxtrotEurope, People can come to me.
So Florence Cassie onLinkedIncom, or my email is
fcassie at foxtrotcom.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
Awesome, that's great .
I appreciate putting those outthere and, yeah, I look forward
to seeing you in a couple ofmonths.
Good luck getting ready for theevent and enjoy the rest of the
time at ITV you too Good luck.
Barcelona will be intense.
Thanks so much for joining uson this special event spotlight
episode of Travel Trends.
I hope you enjoyed theconversation with both Pete and
Florence from Focusrite as weprepare for Focusrite Europe in
(47:05):
Barcelona, june 10th to 12th2025.
As you heard, I will be thererecording live from the event
and anyone that uses the promocode that they've kindly offered
our listeners, which isTravelTrends25,.
You can use that onFocusRightEuropecom, click on
new registration and add thatdiscount code to save 100 euros
(47:26):
off the prevailing price, or youcan go to
TravelTrendsPodcastcom and clickon our dynamic link.
Either way, we hope you will bejoining us at Focusrite Europe.
Get your ticket and send me anemail, dan at
traveltrendspodcastcom, to letme know and we'll schedule time
to record together.
I'm really looking forward tothis event.
(47:46):
I can't wait to see many of youthere and I look forward to
bringing you a special highlightepisode when we wrap up the
event.
So make sure you're subscribedon the streaming platform of
your choice to be notified whenthat goes live.
And until next time, safetravels.
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