Join Matador Network's AI Playground at ESTO 2025 in Phoenix
Matador Network, GuideGeek AI and U.S. Travel are launching the inaugural "AI Playground" at ESTO 2025 in Phoenix, August 17-19.
The educational space, hands-on demo area, genius bar and live sessions will run all three days during the conference. We are also producing programming specific for travel industry CEOs, along with other sessions dedicated for senior executives, highlighting actionable AI strategies focusing on real world business outcomes.
Leading up to ESTO, I'll be reaching out to many of you requesting any AI-related success stories and/or questions you might have for the AI Playground.
Looking back over the last two years, it's clear the industry is turning a corner in 2025 when it comes to AI learning and adoption. Many DMOs and their industry partners are now integrating AI processes and platforms across their organizations, whereas last year many destination leaders were still in wait-and-see mode.
For those of you still on the fringes, it is our ambition that the AI Playground will plant a flag in the ground showing how AI is now a proven strategy for helping DMOs further deliver on their mandate.
"AI is clearly powering the future of travel and how people explore the world today," says Ross Borden, founder and CEO of Matador Network. "We are stoked to be working with U.S. Travel and investing in our industry to produce the AI Playground. AI will become standard operating procedure for every DMO soon, and we're excited to help lead this journey."
DMO CEOs on AI Strategy
Matador launched its proprietary GuideGeek AI chat platform for DMO websites and social media channels almost two years ago. We now have more than 40 DMOs onboard, and we're expanding the scope of GuideGeek AI with new hotel groups and tour operators joing in recent months.
Based on our experience working with municipal, regional and national organizations across the global visitor industry, we have unparalleled insights into how conversational AI is changing the relationship between destinations and visitors, as well as how DMOs operate internally.
In preparation for ESTO 2025, we launched this GuideGeek Destination AI newsletter in January to ramp up our industry outreach and further expand our understanding of how DMO leaders are navigating the rise of AI. Here are five stories from the newsletter that inform high-level decision making related to AI strategy, with input from more than 15 CEO DMOs:
What Tourism CEOs Want to Know About AI: Our first post with 12 DMO CEOs highlighted the wide range of questions they have. One asked for the five big AI questions he should know about. Another wants practical advice on five AI initiatives that he can implement, like, tomorrow.
Destination Vancouver CEO on AI Leadership in Tourism: CEO Royce Chwin, who helms Destination Vancouver, shared why his organization was one of the first DMOs in the world to dive into AI.
Destination Toronto & Visit Denver CEOs on the 5 Big AI Questions in Tourism: Two chief executives, Andrew Weir in Toronto and Richard Scharf in Denver, worked out what they believe are the five big AI themes/questions that DMOs need to focus on, as touched on in the first post.
Florida Keys Tourism CEO on Leading AI Innovation: Newly installed Florida Keys CEO Kara Franker, who is also an attorney, shed light on AI policy, compliance and the need for more non-enterprise AI solutions for her organization.
Visit Mesa CEO Launches New DMO AI Road Map: Another visionary DMO chief executive, Visit Mesa leader Marc Garcia is bringing a new level of structure and direction for integrating AI processes and platforms.
Next up, Matthias Schultze, managing director of the German Convention Bureau, will be discussing AI strategy from a business events perspective. I also met with Cody Chomiak, vice president of marketing at Travel Manitoba, who's really lighting a fire in Canada around AI thought leadership and adoption. He'll be sharing a few powerful AI case studies from his provincial marketing organization, both internal and visitor-facing.
AI Playground at ESTO 2025
The AI Playground this year will feature three stations at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge. We will have our Matador GuideGeek team and U.S. Travel staff on hand to guide participants through the space, along with some invited AI experts from around the industry.
We'll be digging into a handful of paid AI models including ChatGPT Plus/Teams, Claude Pro, Perplexity Pro, Google AI Pro, Microsoft Copilot Pro and Manus. We'll show how AI is best navigated at DMOs by bucketing strategy into three unique categories: Search, Create and Sales. Specific use cases will include content generation and data analysis, AI SEO and AI-optimized web development, AI policy and governance, staff adoption, building custom GPTs for sales proposals, and automated workflows and AI agents, among others.
The three stations are:
The Prompt Lab welcomes all attendees to come in and test drive various AI models. The interactive, hands-on learning station will have multiple laptops for experimenting with AI tools for people of all skill levels. We'll have a bunch of paid AI models pre-loaded for live demos and one-on-one conversations showing how AI actually works and some of what it accomplishes across different departments. Feel free to bring your own laptop if you like.
The Genius Bar is designed for individual and group Q&A about real world AI strategy, implementation and ROI. We'll be collecting all the questions posed to share with the broader industry afterward, so we'll have a couple crowdsourcing boards to help generate new ideas and explore new solutions. Reach out to me if you want to schedule time to talk during ESTO.
The AI Theater seating area will host a range of AI-focused dialogues, micro-presentations and a few dedicated sessions designed for CEOs, as well as other senior executives. The programming schedule for all those will engagements be included in the ESTO agenda. Most importantly, all the conversations at the AI Playground will highlight tangible AI case studies and specific business outcomes.
The 5 Big Questions About AI
One of the best things to come out of all the interviews with DMO CEOs this year is our list of the five big AI questions that chief executives need to focus on. These questions will likely evolve a bit, but for now they're providing direction for how we're developing the AI Playground and how DMOs are moving forward with AI integration.
How do we channel our staff's enthusiasm for AI, who have wildly different perspectives and capabilities related to AI, to elevate our organization’s impact in our industry and community?
How do we create AI policy that serves and protects our organization but doesn't suppress wonder and experimentation among staff?
How does AI benefit all our departments, versus just marketing, and how do we measure improvements in productivity, creativity and overall quality of work?
How do we redevelop our websites and content to rank higher in AI search?
How do we capitalize on conversational AI to influence travel purchase decisions and in-destination visitor behavior?
I would love to hear your feedback on any the above and how we can make the ESTO 2025 AI Playground as valuable as possible for you and your teams. Reach out at greg@matadornetwork.com.