Where leaders learn to build, innovate and lead in the age of AI Executive Education
Phocuswright × GLIDR.ai

A 4-Week Executive Learning Program from Phocuswright + GLIDR.ai

AI Advantage for
Travel Leaders

AI is reshaping every stage of travel, from how travelers dream, search, book, and share to how companies compete, personalize, service customers, and grow. Yet many AI pilots still struggle to move from experimentation to meaningful business impact.

Watch the informational webinar recording.


4-week Executive Program
Live Weekly Online Sessions
6+ AI Tools in Practice

Curriculum Leaders

Led by practitioners, not theorists.

The program is led by two executives who have built, scaled and invested in travel and technology businesses at the highest level.

Jim Hornthal

Jim Hornthal

Co-Founder, GLIDR.ai / LaunchPad Central

A distinguished entrepreneur and investor who led two startups to IPO, Jim co-founded Zignal Labs and LaunchPad Central, the company behind GLIDR.ai. He has made more than 50 direct investments and holds stakes in over a dozen venture capital funds across the US, the Middle East and Israel. Since 2002, he has taught entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and has brought the Lean Launchpad methodology to Princeton, Stanford, UCSF and the NSF I-Corps program.

✓ Co-Founder, Preview Travel (precursor to Travelocity)

✓ Seed investor: KIND Snacks, Krave Jerky, Flywire

✓ Lester Center Fellow, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

✓ Author, TED Book: A Haystack Full of Needles

✓ Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Erik Blachford

Erik Blachford

Former CEO, Expedia & IAC Travel

A founding team member at Expedia within Microsoft, Erik led Marketing before becoming President and then CEO of Expedia and IAC Travel, the precursor to today's Expedia Group. He subsequently served as CEO of Terrapass and Butterfield & Robinson. He continues to invest in startups through Blachford Capital, with focus on online travel, health and fitness, and clean energy, and has served as Lead Independent Director at Peloton Interactive.

✓ Founding team, Expedia (within Microsoft)

✓ Venture Partner, TCV

✓ Investor and advisor, Pine5 Ventures and Narrative.Fund

✓ Lead Independent Director, Peloton Interactive

✓ SEC-qualified Audit Committee member

About the Program

From discussion to disciplined action.

AI Advantage for Travel Leaders is a practical 4-week executive learning program designed to help senior travel leaders use today's AI tools to build, test, and iterate real business opportunities with speed and confidence. Developed by Phocuswright and GLIDR.ai, the program helps participants turn AI from a topic of discussion into a disciplined approach for strategic action.

Participants work on a real opportunity, challenge, workflow, or growth question from their own business. Using GLIDR.ai as the core innovation operating system, alongside tools such as Claude Code, Gemini, Replit, Lovable, Figma, and Canva, they will model opportunities, build lightweight prototypes, test assumptions, evaluate business paths, and prepare an executive-ready plan.

The program is grounded in modeling excellence, using AI to generate market analysis, business model canvases, value propositions, hypotheses, partner maps, MVP concepts, and implementation pathways before building or testing. Participants also gain access to Phocuswright's industry research throughout the program.

Watch the informational webinar recording.


Program Format

Four weeks. Real work. A plan you can act on.

The program includes four weekly live online sessions plus weekly group Executive Coaching Session office hours for targeted feedback, tool support, prototype review, and final brief preparation. Participants leave with a practical AI Opportunity Brief supported by a prototype, demo, test artifact, or implementation plan. The program runs from mid-September to mid-October, with a meetup planned at The Phocuswright Conference (November 17-19, 2026) in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Program Arc

1

Week 1 · Mid-September

AI and the New Travel Business Model

2

Week 2

Strategic Framing, Use Cases & Value

3

Week 3

From Concept to Prototype & Test

4

Week 4 · Mid-October

Scaling AI: Risk, Readiness & Executive Brief

Tools Used in the Program

GLIDR.ai Claude Code Gemini Replit Lovable Figma Canva Phocuswright Research

Weekly Curriculum

What you'll do each week.

The program runs mid-September through mid-October 2026.

1

Week 1 · Mid-September

AI and the New Travel Business Model

Participants examine how AI is reshaping travel and use GLIDR.ai to translate a real opportunity into an AI-enabled business model.

Output AI Opportunity Snapshot and Business Model Hypothesis
2

Week 2

Strategic Framing, Use Cases, and Value

Participants clarify who benefits, what changes, why the opportunity matters, and which assumptions matter most.

Output Value Proposition, Stakeholder Map, and Strategic Assumptions Plan
3

Week 3

From Concept to Prototype and Test

Participants use tools such as Claude Code, Replit, Lovable, Figma, Canva, and GLIDR.ai to create a lightweight prototype, workflow, demo, landing page, internal tool, or service concept, then pressure-test it with practical evidence.

Output Prototype or Demo Artifact plus Evidence and Iteration Plan
4

Week 4 · Mid-October

Scaling AI in Travel: Risk, Readiness, and Executive Opportunity Briefs

Participants evaluate what it would take to move from concept to pilot or implementation, including data needs, integration, governance, adoption, partner dependencies, budget, metrics, and ROI.

Output Final AI Opportunity Brief

Who Should Attend

Built for the full travel ecosystem.

This program is built for executives, founders, investors, and senior operators across travel, including hotels, airlines, OTAs, metasearch, corporate travel, cruise, tours and activities, hospitality technology, travel insurance, payments, loyalty, destination marketing, mobility, travel media, startups, and travel-focused investment firms.

It is especially relevant for leaders in strategy, innovation, product, commercial growth, marketing, customer experience, operations, revenue management, technology, partnerships, and digital transformation.

Executives and founders who want to move from observing AI trends to shaping what comes next

Investors and senior operators evaluating AI-driven opportunities across the travel ecosystem

Strategy, innovation and product leaders who need a structured framework to move from pilot to impact

No technical background required. The program is built around executive judgment, not code.

Participant Takeaway

Leave with more than a better understanding of AI.

Participants leave with a concrete business opportunity, practical experience using AI tools, a prototype or test artifact, and a polished executive brief that can support real business decisions.

AI Advantage for Travel Leaders is designed for executives who do not just want to watch AI transform travel. They want to help shape what comes next.

Concrete Business OpportunityDeveloped and pressure-tested against your real business context
Prototype or Test ArtifactA working demo, workflow, landing page, or service concept
Practical AI Tool ExperienceHands-on fluency with GLIDR.ai, Claude Code, Replit, Lovable, Figma, and Canva
Final AI Opportunity BriefA polished executive document ready to support real business decisions

Developed By

Two organizations. One program.

Phocuswright and GLIDR.ai bring complementary expertise to a program grounded in industry reality and built for practical execution.

Industry Intelligence

Phocuswright

The travel industry's most trusted source for deep market intelligence, with decades of research on how travelers behave and how companies compete. Participants access the full Phocuswright research library throughout the program.

Innovation Operating System

GLIDR.ai

An AI-powered platform purpose-built for opportunity modeling and strategic innovation. GLIDR.ai serves as the core operating system of the program, structuring each participant's work from analysis through to executive presentation.

Tuition

Two ways to participate.

Per-person pricing. Choose the option that fits your goals.

Program Only

$3,400

per person

✓  Full 4-week AI Advantage program

✓  Weekly live online sessions plus group office hours

✓  Access to GLIDR.ai innovation platform

✓  Phocuswright research library access

✓  Final AI Opportunity Brief with prototype or test artifact

✓  Meetup at The Phocuswright Conference (November 17–19, Fort Lauderdale)

Sign up to get on the waitlist
Recommended

Program + Conference

$5,900

per person

✓  Full 4-week AI Advantage program

✓  Weekly live online sessions plus group office hours

✓  Access to GLIDR.ai innovation platform

✓  Phocuswright research library access

✓  Final AI Opportunity Brief with prototype or test artifact

✓  One ticket to The Phocuswright Conference (November 17–19, Fort Lauderdale)

✓  Meetup at The Phocuswright Conference (November 17–19, Fort Lauderdale)

Sign up to get on the waitlist

Ready to move from AI pilot to strategic advantage?

Rewatch the informational webinar to learn more about the program and find out if it's the right fit for you.

Sign up to get on the waitlist

Questions? Contact us to learn more about the program.