Berkshire State of Work Summit

8:30 – 9 a.m.: Registration and Networking

Attendees arrive, check in, and connect with fellow hospitality, tourism, and business professionals.

9 – 9:10 a.m.: Welcome and Opening Remarks from the BCC Team

The BCC team will welcome attendees, introduce the purpose of the summit, and set the stage for the day's programming.

9:10 – 9:40 a.m.: Opening Keynote

Kate Fox, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, will discuss how AI is being used in destination marketing and highlight emerging trends shaping the tourism industry.

9:40 – 10:10 a.m.: Presentation 1

Robert Botto: Automate Customer Responses with AI

A practical session on using AI to automate customer support responses, including a live demonstration and beginner-friendly prompting framework.

10:10 – 10:40 a.m.: Presentation 2

Susie Arnett: Practical AI for Hospitality: Lessons from Building an AI Teammate

A real-world look at how hospitality professionals can use AI to solve business challenges, support sales, and enhance meaningful human-centered guest experiences.

10:40 – 11 a.m.: Break A 20-minute break for networking, refreshments, and informal discussion.

11 – 11:30 a.m.: Presentation 3

Adam Graney: Beyond Prompting in Hospitality

A strategic discussion on how AI adoption is moving beyond basic prompting and retail AI tools toward custom AI-integrated software solutions, buy-versus-build decisions, and long-term competitive advantage.

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Closing Keynote

Matt Mervis: Future-Looking Innovation in Hospitality

A forward-looking keynote on how hospitality businesses can identify custom AI opportunities across departments, workflows, operations, guest services, and business strategy.

12 – 12:30 p.m.: Open Q&A

AI in Tourism and Hospitality Audience members will have the opportunity to ask presenters specific questions about AI adoption, implementation, vendor decisions, custom solutions, and practical use cases in tourism and hospitality.

Kate Fox - Opening Keynote

Kate Fox will share ways in which the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism is using AI for destination marketing, as well as trends and practices that are evolving in the tourism industry. Whether it's helping bust through writer's block, contribute to a concept brainstorm, or enhancing targeted content creation, AI has become an asset to productivity for MOTT.

Robert Botto - Automate Customer Responses with AI Dive into practical AI implementation with a session focused on automating customer support responses for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs).

This presentation demonstrates how to leverage cloud technology, specifically Claude Desktop, to draft automated replies through Gmail accounts. Attendees will watch a live, step-by-step demo showing how to connect Claude and set up routines to draft responses to dummy support information.

The session includes a valuable, beginner-style section on prompting methodology, introducing the "three C's" framework to help attendees contextualize their prompts for better, more iterative outputs. This will be an interactive workshop, encouraging participants to follow along collectively and build their own automation using an example prompt displayed on a projector.

Finally, participants will receive a handout with contact information to aid in troubleshooting and ongoing reference after the session.

Susie Arnett - Practical AI for Hospitality: Lessons from Building an AI Teammate Technology has always transformed the hospitality industry, from online booking to mobile check-in, but artificial intelligence represents a fundamentally different shift. Yet you don't need to be a programmer or engineer to begin using it. No coding. No engineering degree. Just curiosity.

In this session, Susie Arnett, a hospitality executive with decades of experience designing wellness experiences around the world, shares her journey from experimenting with simple AI prompts to building an AI-powered assistant that supports wellness retreat sales. Along the way, she'll explore what she built, what surprised her most, and why the greatest opportunity isn't replacing people with AI, it's empowering hospitality professionals to solve real business challenges while spending more time doing what they do best: creating meaningful human experiences.

Adam Graney - Beyond Prompting in Hospitality Adam will explore how the conversation around AI adoption in business has rapidly evolved. Just a year ago, many business leaders, employees, and freelancers were focused on learning how to structure better prompts and use the features inside retail AI models more effectively.

Today, that discussion is shifting toward building custom AI-integrated software solutions that solve specific business problems and create lasting competitive advantage. This program will examine why businesses need to move beyond simply asking how they are using AI tools and begin asking what AI solutions they should build, buy, or integrate.

Attendees will leave with a a better understanding of how to approach the buy-versus-build decision, and position their organizations for the next stage of AI adoption.

Matt Mervis - Closing Keynote Future-Looking Innovation in Hospitality will bring the summit's core themes together into a practical, next-step strategy for hospitality leaders.

After exploring how AI can help capture streamline customer support, how businesses can do more with less through automation, and how the build-versus-buy equation has changed, this closing keynote will re-scan the AI landscape through a hospitality lens. Attendees will see how these themes connect across marketing, operations, guest services, staffing, and revenue growth.

The session will close with a “next day” game plan, helping leaders identify what to assess, what to prioritize, and what actions they can take immediately to move from AI curiosity to measurable business value.

Open Q&A: AI in Tourism and Hospitality will give audience members the opportunity to ask presenters specific questions about AI adoption, use cases, challenges, and opportunities within the tourism and hospitality industries.

This interactive discussion is designed to address real-world questions from attendees, whether they are exploring AI for the first time or considering more advanced custom solutions. Presenters will field questions on practical applications, implementation strategy, vendor decisions, department-specific opportunities, and how AI can support stronger guest experiences and business outcomes.

This AI in Hospitality Summit is designed for tourism and hospitality leaders, solo business owners, and small teams who want to move beyond curiosity and begin making confident, strategic decisions about how AI can improve their organizations.

The event brings together industry practitioners, AI strategists, hospitality innovators, and business leaders to explore how AI is already reshaping destination marketing, customer service, operations, sales, guest experiences, workforce productivity, and long-term competitive positioning.

Rather than focusing only on basic prompting or generic AI tools, this summit gives attendees a practical look at the next stage of AI adoption: identifying real business problems, evaluating buy-versus-build decisions, and understanding when custom AI-integrated solutions can create stronger results than off-the-shelf platforms. For solo operators and businesses with limited time, staff, and resources, the summit will highlight how AI can help extend capacity, reduce repetitive work, and make smarter use of existing teams and budgets. Through keynote sessions, live demonstrations, real-world case studies, and an open Q&A, hospitality professionals will gain a clearer understanding of what is possible, what is practical, and what steps they can take next.

Attendees should leave with more than inspiration. They should leave with a strategic lens for evaluating AI opportunities across departments, a better understanding of how advanced technology has become more accessible to businesses of all sizes, and a roadmap for using AI to save time, improve service, empower teams, and create more meaningful guest experiences. For hospitality organizations looking to protect their edge, improve efficiency, and prepare for the future of the industry, this summit offers a high-value opportunity to learn directly from leaders who are building, teaching, and applying AI in real business environments.