Headliners for Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Guest Experience on April 13

The day kicks off with Bernhard Stacher, vp of global hotel operations, MSC Cruises and Wertanzl talking through what it takes to welcome guests back on board both from a smaller and larger ship perspective.

How will on-board dining and entertainment change to account for new health and safety measures, and to keep up with current trends is the subject of a discussion between Jaques van Staden, vp food & beverage, MSC Cruises and Frank Weber, svp, hotel operations, Virgin Voyages, moderated by Richard Regan, director, partner relations, CLIA.

Environmentally conscious gastronomy  

As 2020 dawned there was one pursuit on the top of everyone’s mind: sustainability. Now, as the world begins to wake up, that trend hasn’t gone away. Dining options must now meet not only various dietary requirements, but also sustainability expectations. Joyce Landry, founder, SustainableShips.com is moderating a panel featuring Linken D'Souza, vp, food & beverage operations, Royal Caribbean International, Ana Esteves, director of hotel operations, Lindblad and Jill Stoneberg, director of sustainability and social impact, Virgin Voyages.

Turning to onboard entertainment, Ryan Stana CEO and founder, RWS Entertainment Group leads a discussion  on how can you give great entertainment with less entertainers and what are the new set up requirements to account for COVID-19 and how does this impact the musicians themselves? 

Retail therapy

Starboard chief Bauer and Adrian Pittaway, head of retail, MSC Cruises join a panel discussion on shopping trends for next year’s traveller and addressing when people return to travel will they be looking for a familiar, but safer, shopping experience, or something elevated? What does on board retail look like when cruising resumes in earnest? 

Back to Normal

Rounding off the day, tune in to hear Seabourn’s Leibowitz talk to What Is ‘Back To Normal’  and what being on board looks like in the future. 

Three targetted events

Seatrade Cruise Virtual: Guest Experience is the second of three one-day events from April 12-14; the other targeted events focus on Health & Safety and Technology & Innovations.

Participants can choose to attend one, two or three of the day-long events depending on areas of focus. In addition to content-rich sessions, small group sessions and networking opportunities are further features of each day.

Registration is available here and the agenda can be accessed here.