Check out the sessions below, from interactive sprints to amazing keynotes. Programme is subject to change.
The programme for Monday is set to explore the unique digital visitor experiences offered by the region of urbanana. We've planned some insightful technical visits for you to experience some of the latest developments in Cologne.
To start the day, we invite you to follow the EcoHopper trail, an initiative by Greencentive that takes you on a journey to explore the local and sustainable businesses in the region. EcoHopper provides a sustainable city guide. It's an interesting way to guide visitors towards taking sustainable measures while exploring a destination. During the trail, you'll explore the shopping experience with the local and authentic businesses, which are part of a zero-waste and upcycling initiative while creating a greater connection with the local community and heritage of the city. During the XDW, we'll be exploring the different sustainable innovations that could offer impactful and responsible visitor experiences.
In the afternoon, you can visit the augmented art gallery, while walking through the streets of Cologne with AR Biennale. It provides a digital platform to the artists in the form of Augmented Art Galleries, where travellers can immerse themselves in contemporary art in a unique and interactive way, using their mobile phones. We will be exploring how digital technologies can create opportunities for artists to share their work with travellers. Also, we will be exploring how art & cultural enthusiasts can engage with the culture of a destination.
Go and explore the city of Cologne through a different lens with an immersive and interactive VR experience that takes you back in time to Cologne in the 1920s. You can discover how the city's character and appearance have evolved since WWII. You can witness the changes in the iconic landmarks across the city and the lifestyle of the people during the Golden Twenties. TimeRide sets an inspiring example of how Virtual Reality can be used to develop rich visitor experiences and add a unique perspective to exploring the history and heritage of a city.
We will be starting the day with registration and welcome coffee at Design Offices Schanzenstraße. The participants will check in with our team confirming their participation while enjoying morning coffee.
We are so pleased to kick-off DTTT's first in-person post-pandemic gathering and what better than to start with a fresh perspective on design-led, ultra immersive and focused around an entirely new format of collaboration and co-working. We will be working on shaping solutions, during this week long innovation process in the region of urbanana. We will be joined by Dr. Heike Döll-König from Tourismus NRW and Claudia Neumann from Köln Tourismus opening the XDW and welcoming us all to urbanana region. We will explore the digital trends in tourism and re-designing the future of tourism experiences in this urban polycentric part of Germany.
After a warm welcome to the XDW by Urbanana, we will move towards the icebreaker session. During this session, we will learn more about the participants of XDW. We will be discovering more about the destinations, where they come from, what kind of tourism experiences are popular in their destinations and how they envision the destination experiences of the future.
During this discussion, we'll be discovering how far tourism has come with sustainability. How are destinations like Azores leading the path to sustainability in the tourism sector? What are the major challenges faced by the destinations and tourism businesses in meeting the Sustainable Development goals? What role can data play in benchmarking and monitoring sustainable actions? We'll also look at which technologies can be used to accelerate the process and how we can integrate these technologies into our sustainability actions.
In this session, we will kick off Design Thinking with the DTTT. This is the departure point for our three-day Design Sprint, where we'll start by framing the challenges we face as an industry. We will start by working on the first two Design Sprint themes - The Macro Shift in Tourism and Digital Destination Stewardship. We will identify the challenges that we face in the Tourism and Travel industry today and begin exploring how we could rise to them with digitalisation, transformation and efficiency in strategies. As we introduce the challenges, this is an opportunity to familiarise yourself with some of the key issues our industry is facing - reflecting on a wide range of perspectives.
During this talk, we will be discovering how gamification can set travellers into an immersive, fast-paced, interactive adventure to explore the rich culture of a destination. Can gamification be the new tool to engage the travellers with the destination? Can interactive games replace videos and images as an engaging and immersive communication tool? We will be learning how to develop an interactive consumer journey for travellers with gamification.
In the urban environment, pop-up experiences can have a transformative impact on the wider destination, whilst also creating a vibrant visitor economy addressing sustainability through culture, art and interpretation. In this session, hear from three unique perspectives who have led the pop-up events scene in Cologne and have worked first-hand to transform the urban experience through creativity and innovation.
During this discussion, we will be exploring how we can create a bridge between culture and digital tourism experiences. How does an ultra-niche approach to tourism offer create a rich and deep engagement with travellers? How can we communicate the story and passion of artists to travellers while offering an intimate connection with the culture and the local community of the destination?
In this session, we will be introducing and identifying the challenges on the other two sprint themes - Visitor Experience Development and Sustainable Innovation. We will be diving into the grass-root level to bring out the challenges that restrict us from achieving sustainable goals and developing digital travel experiences. During the course of the next few days, we will be working on addressing these challenges with collaborative workshops.
Break-out and dive in as we invite you to jump into the XDW Discovery Zone. Together with our destination partners, we have created an informal marketplace where you can get to know some of the talented creative minds behind the tech-driven companies, thriving in and around Cologne and North Rhein Westphalia. If you're curious to explore conceptual ideas around XR, understand the possibilities to exploit gaming and gamification or do more with data by leveraging AI in your solutions, the Discovery Zone offers a range of interesting perspectives to consider.
Digital travel experiences are transforming the way we explore the heritage and culture of a destination. During this talk, we will discuss how digital experiences with AR/VR, gamification and metaverse can be used to develop unique and immersive tourism experiences. We will be discovering more about the idea of how digital technologies can create time travel experiences and add a unique perspective to the iconic historical incidents that shape the identity of a destination. Can we also create a unique experience that takes us to the future with XR?
During this talk, we will be discussing the potential of AR in creating a bridge between cultural artists and travellers. With AR experiences, can artists communicate the culture of a destination in a more immersive way? Will Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) provide a new platform to promote the culture of a destination? How can we digitalise the cultural content remotely? Are we ready to walk through the virtual galleries? Is it possible to encrypt the work of artists in a digital form? Travellers can take it home as an NFT of their digital experience from their trips. We will be pushing our thoughts to explore the possibilities of Tourism 4.0.
Following the challenges sessions, this session will be all about defining the challenges and understanding the users. Vote, discuss, react and connect. Together we will unpack the challenges identified, uncovering what is causing the problem and the effects it is causing. We will be critically evaluating the challenges from a user perspective, empathising with them to solve the challenges that they are facing and continue working on prototyping solutions to these challenges throughout the week.
Join us for a rooftop party at the Urban Loft. We will be enjoying the sunset with some of the authentically made local and international cuisine and drinks that gives you a taste of German and cosmopolitan flavours. There will be live music by music band Chogori, where you can immerse yourself in jazz, indie and electronica music. We also be joined by Modular Fields to share some enjoy Popular Music Tales of Cologne. This social evening will be all about soaking in the artistic atmosphere and meeting some like-minded people to discover friendships and partnerships.
We will be starting the day with registration and welcome coffee at Design Offices Schanzenstraße. The participants will check in with our team at the registration desk confirming their participation while enjoying morning coffee.
Are digital travel assistants elevating the personalised experience during travel? Are the suggestions from digital travel assistants actually shaping travellers' decisions? We will discover how chatbots and voice assistants are becoming digital travel advisors. We will be looking at interesting research that explores the concept of how personal digital travel assistants can influence the user behaviour and support travellers to have a better experience while travelling.
The emergence of immersive technologies has transformed the tourism industry. In this rapid ideation session, we will explore how emerging technologies, such as digital touchpoints, layered reality and seamless interactions, can help us develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced in different areas of the industry. This workshop centres on the impact of technological solutions on destinations. In the first part of the session, we will ideate a large number of solutions that different emerging technologies can present, allowing us to explore the impact and feasibility of their implementation during the second part.
During this session, we will be exploring the power of Social XR. How can destination & tourism businesses engage travellers with interactive XR communications? We will also be having a thought provoking session on how XR could be integrated with other digital technologies to develop an interesting visitor journey. Can we have a virtual personal assistant with XR providing us with personalised travel suggestions? Can XR travel assistants act as personal butlers to provide travel updates? Can there be a virtual travel assistant that takes us around a destination to provide us with a local's perspective of a destination?
Did we already tell you? The North Rhein Westphalia region of Germany is a thriving hub for Europe's gaming industry, with a dizzying array of tech and creative start-ups developing solutions from early-stage prototype conceptual ideas right through to modern day gaming classics. Hear about a few of these from Games NRW. So how do you tap into this booming sector as an opportunity for developing tourism? Well, we have a few examples to spark some creative thinking - from interactive games which support discovery pre-trip to location based games which support discovery in-trip.
During this workshop, we will be exploring how different technologies can help destinations transform passive experiences into interactive ones. We will ideate how technology can help unlock features, boost immersion and crush barriers, helping us identify possible solutions by combining different technologies. We'll wrap up by analysing how these technological solutions help create value for destinations.
What happens when you actively put in place human centred design methods to move the needle in a different direction and shape solutions designed to directly address the needs of the different communities who play a role in tourism - whilst also considering environmental and business priorities in shaping a sustainable destination. We'll be hearing about destinations who have done just this and take the opportunity to explore how we can create more room for observational research, create more diverse perspectives when informing our strategies and prototyping new ideas in order to pursue a mission of relentless reinvention.
Break-out and dive in as we invite you to jump into the XDW Discovery Zone. Together with our destination partners, we have created an informal marketplace where you can get to know some of the talented creative minds behind the tech-driven companies, thriving in and around Cologne and North Rhein Westphalia. If you're curious to explore conceptual ideas around XR, understand the possibilities to exploit gaming and gamification or do more with data by leveraging AI in your solutions, the Discovery Zone offers a range of interesting perspectives to consider.
During the session, we will be uncovering how AI can be a crucial tool in understanding consumer interests and intentions. How can we leverage AI and data to develop personalised travel solutions? How is travellers' behaviour shaping the emerging trends? What are the challenges faced by the industry while implementing AI solutions? How can we address these challenges and optimise the benefits of data? What can we achieve with AI solutions in the tourism sector? How is AI impacting the destinations?
Artificial Intelligence has become a trendy topic considering the increased interest in automated services. AI is a big topic, so why not start thinking about it by exploring the benefits it could bring to the industry supporting travellers and destinations? In this session, we will look at AI from a service design point of view. We will explore how AI empowered services could contribute to intelligence, decision making, data and management.
Circular business design represents a key opportunity for tourism to deliver on its sustainability goals, whilst also shaping a richer, more authentic visitor experience based on strong local value chains. We will be gaining insights from the industry leaders committed to enriching the local value chain by sharing their first-hand experiences - the good, the bad and the challenges. We will be discovering how we can influence the visitors to make more sustainable choices.
After a super productive day, we invite you to join us for a social evening at Mediapark. It will be an open air gathering with music, networking and delicious street food. You can also enjoy the AR art gallery with interactive elements during the evening to explore how technology is transforming urban experiences.
We will be starting the day with registration and welcome coffee at Design Offices Mediapark. The participants will check in with our team at the registration desk confirming their participation while enjoying morning coffee.
Have you heard about decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) or non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? Well, now is the time to start considering how they might disrupt the next phase of travel, as we seek to create more equity in our industry and leverage blockchain as a means to reaching our sustainability goals. In this rich, interactive panel, we'll be exploring the landscape of tokenisation to see where opportunities exist at every stage in the visitor journey and start to collate ideas and examples of how our industry can organise itself to build open models to take collaboration on DAOs to the next level.
How can we work to make tourism an activity which contributes to the net benefit of everybody involved in it? In this prototyping session, we'll explore how the implementation of blockchain within the tourism industry and its experiences can lead to a more positive impact through decentralised autonomous networks. We'll brainstorm around the idea of tokenising products and services, the networks that exist within the industry and how they could be transformed into DAOs for a more positive impact.
There's a lot of talks around big data in our industry, but sometimes we might struggle to make it work for us. In this session we're putting expert minds on the job, looking at how to push the boundaries further with data - to achieve efficiency and greater personalisation of services with AI and even better predict and anticipate patterns by working with richer sets of data. Working to get you connected with relevant expertise in the field of artificial intelligence, this session is all about having unique opportunity to explore new ideas, put automation to work and create amazing solutions, leveraging the true capabilities of smart technology.
During the Destination Stewardship prototyping session, we will be focusing on generating solutions for the challenges identified around the themes of "Becoming a Smart Destination" and "Pushing Proximity Data Further". In the former we'll explore solutions through the lens of governance, innovation, technology, sustainability and accessibility; while in the latter we'll different data sets and how, by having real-time access to them, we could solve the challenges identified.
During this discussion, we will be exploring how we can use AR to build immersive and interactive city guides. Can AR add a new perspective to a city? Can we walk through a destination with a digital lens that lets you explore history, culture and a way of living at a particular destination? How can we enhance the real world travel experience with a touch of augmented reality?
With sustainability representing such an essential component of future developments, we'll be exploring the role that innovation plays in identifying solutions and pathways through the wider transformation process. From setting and carrying-out a vision, through to working at the grass roots supply chain, these Sprints will have everybody thinking about the future. During the session we will be working on the topic of Shaping Innovation around Sustainable Development Goals, brainstorming on the challenge of how do we accelerate our mission to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals together? We will focus on Sustainable Business Innovation where can we find opportunities to address problems related to sustainability by applying innovation methods and processes to identify new solutions.
Break-out and dive in as we invite you to jump into the XDW Discovery Zone. Together with our destination partners, we have created an informal marketplace where you can get to know some of the talented creative minds behind the tech-driven companies, thriving in and around Cologne and North Rhein Westphalia. If you're curious to explore conceptual ideas around XR, understand the possibilities to exploit gaming and gamification or do more with data by leveraging AI in your solutions, the Discovery Zone offers a range of interesting perspectives to consider.
During this discussion, we'll explore how cultural visitor experiences have transformed in the last two years and how the pandemic has impacted the cultural experience. Can online events create the same value as the in-person events? How will experiences emerge in the future? Will they continue to be hybrid? Will people still be able to explore a destination's culture from the comfort of their homes or will destination experiences move to in-person completely?
During this discussion, we will be gaining an insight on how destinations are experimenting with digital technologies and using it as a competitive advantage to attract travellers. How can we exploit the latest digital trends to influence the consumers' perception of the destination? How can the process of becoming a smart destination create an impact on the destination's image and the community? What are the factors that accelerate the process of becoming a smart destination? How can small DMO teams demonstrate significant impact?
During the Macro Shift in Tourism prototyping session, we'll be focusing on generating solutions for the challenges identified around the themes of "Destination Experiences in Meta" and "Hyper Immersive Digital Brand Development". For both themes, we'll be prototyping solutions for the challenges under different scenarios. We'll also reflect on how these would solve the challenges at hand and imagine what they would look like in real life.
Join us for a rooftop party at the Urban Loft. We will be enjoying the sunset with some of the authentically made local and international cuisine and drinks that gives you a taste of German and cosmopolitan flavours. This social evening will be all about soaking in the artistic atmosphere of the Urban Loft and meeting some like-minded people to discover friendships and partnerships.
Last day of the event is aimed at reflecting on the ideas discussed throughout the week. Friday is reserved for co-working and networking, where we will be exploring the potential of the solutions developed during the design sprints. We will be discovering how these solutions can be built into live working projects and businesses. We will be spending the day in co-working labs to find partners and network with the international community of tourism and tech professionals to work on new innovation projects.
Register for the Hackathon Here.
The future of tourism and living spaces will be significantly influenced by digitalisation and thus by modern tourism data management. This will benefit not only guests, but also residents and economic actors. Travel, mobility, housing, infrastructure, culture - in all areas, society will be radically transformed in the coming decades by digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
Tourism, and all those who would like to contribute to Search: Ideas, will have a central, formative task in ensuring that this transformation succeeds in a human-centred way.
Together we want to find answers to the question of how tourism stakeholders can use digital systems to support the transformation. How do digital touristic solutions contribute to the infrastructure of the future in cities and rural areas? How can digital systems help to engage tourists and the population and create value in equal measure? How can Big Data, AI and the likes contribute to the expansion of offerings in cities and rural regions?
Each of us can make a contribution, whether it is a strategy that is already being implemented or a daydream to inspire others. At our first Hackathon on 10.06.2022 as part of the X Design Week in Cologne, you will meet like-minded people and together we will prepare the ground for future digitalisation projects in tourism. We will provide the premises in the Design Offices Schanzenstraße, catering and the right contacts. Everything else will work itself out. The Hackathon will be held in German.
