CONX 2025: A Conversation with Matteo Conte. Cloud Business, Huawei
Travelgate Team had the opportunity to sit down with Matteo Conte, Cloud Business - Senior Sales Manager at Huawei, ConX and AfterX 2025 main sponsor. As the landscape of global connectivity continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, Huawei remains at the forefront of driving this transformation.
In our conversation, Matteo shared insights on how the industry is shifting, the challenges and opportunities in building a more connected world, and what role Huawei is playing in shaping the networks of tomorrow.
About Huawei
Huawei is a global ICT leader focused on “building a fully connected, intelligent world.” In travel that vision becomes three clear commitments:
- Always-on connectivity – high-performance networks and open cloud APIs that let airlines, hotels, mobility providers and B2B marketplaces share live inventory and payments in milliseconds.
- Actionable intelligence – cloud-native AI that predicts demand, personalizes offers and automates operations, turning fragmented trip data into one continuous conversation for travelers.
- Sustainable scale – ultra-efficient data-center and power solutions that help partners cut costs and carbon while they grow.
By blending connectivity, intelligence and sustainability, Huawei positions itself as the trusted digital backbone powering the next decade of innovation—and growth—across the travel ecosystem.
The travel industry is often seen as fragmented with many moving parts. From your perspective, how important is it for all industry stakeholders to be ‘connected’ in today’s market – and how does your company foster these connections? Can you share a success story that illustrates these connections in action?
Modern travelers expect the entire journey—search, booking, payment, check-in, and in-trip support—to flow like a single conversation. That simply isn’t possible if the industry’s players — from PMS/CRS providers and channel managers to OTAs, hotel chains, bed-banks and DMCs — operate in silos. When even one link is out of sync, inventory sits idle, margins erode and customer trust suffers.
Connectivity is therefore the bedrock of a resilient travel business: the better each stakeholder plugs into a shared data layer, the faster inventory moves, the richer the offers become and the smoother the experience feels.
Huawei delivers that backbone with high-performance networks and an open cloud platform that lets any partner exchange live data in real time. Integration accelerators and AI services sit on top, so companies can enrich offers and launch new products without tearing out their existing technology. In short, we stitch the ecosystem together so the traveler enjoys one seamless journey—and every player shares in the upside.
In our increasingly digital world, traditional human connections sometimes take a backseat. How does your organization ensure that personal, human interactions continue to thrive, both internally and with your customers? What specific initiatives or technologies are you employing to make digital interactions as meaningful as face-to-face engagements?
At Huawei we start from a single principle: technology should amplify genuine relationships, not replace them. Internally that means keeping a rhythm of purposeful in-person time—where spontaneous ideas spark—balanced by high-fidelity telepresence that makes remote colleagues feel equally “in the room.” Meetings end with AI-generated action notes, ensuring everyone leaves with the same clarity you get from a white-board session.
With customers we assign a compact, cross-functional “solution squad” that stays with the account from first workshop through optimization, so no one is handed off down a support queue. For day-to-day collaboration we offer shared digital workspaces where chat, video, sand-box environments and telemetry sit side-by-side; partners can experiment, see real results and iterate together in real time.
The result is faster decisions, quicker answers and, most importantly, relationships that partners tell us they can feel—even when the conversation happens through a screen.
Every industry faces its own challenges, and travel is no exception. What do you believe are the most pressing challenges in the travel industry today, and how is your company planning to tackle them? How do you see these strategies evolving with the continuous changes in consumer behavior and technology?
Travel is squeezed by three forces:
- Demand whiplash – peaks and lulls arrive with little warning.
- Data trust – regulators and travelers demand airtight security and local sovereignty.
- Carbon scrutiny – every trip now carries an emissions score.
Huawei tackles these with elastic cloud that scales in seconds, zero-trust security in sovereign data centers, and ultra-efficient infrastructure that trims energy use for us and our customers.
This triple focus turns three structural risks into competitive advantages—keeping our partners agile when demand swings, trusted when data is on the line, and credible when sustainability is scrutinized.
Events like ConX and AfterX emphasize the value of building relationships – not only between companies, but also with customers and partners. Could you discuss how you view these connections and why they are essential for mutual growth? How do you measure the impact of these relationships on your overall business success?
ConX and AfterX convert handshakes into shared roadmaps. When B2B marketplaces, hotel groups, bed-banks, tech vendors, distribution platforms, OTAs, and start-ups meet face-to-face, trust forms in hours—not months. Hearing customer pain points firsthand helps us prioritize features that truly move the needle.
We know these connections deliver when momentum speaks for itself: a coffee-line idea becomes a live pilot before the quarter ends, that pilot starts moving real business very quickly, and the partner schedules the next sprint because the first one performed. Speed, live usage, and repeat collaboration tell us the relationship is creating genuine growth—well beyond a photo-op.
B2B travel distribution is a rapidly shifting landscape. What is your perspective on the current trends in B2B travel distribution, and what do you foresee in the near future? Are there any emerging technologies or partnerships that you are particularly excited about in this realm?
Distribution is shifting on three fronts.
1 – Instant, open connectivity. Real-time APIs are replacing batch file feeds, moving inventory and pricing in milliseconds and enabling dynamic offers.
2 – Intelligence everywhere. Pricing, personalization, and fraud checks now run on lightweight cloud services deployed close to the user, cutting latency and easing privacy concerns.
3 – Automatic settlement. Smart-contract and real-time payment rails are compressing refunds, commissions, and reconciliation cycles from weeks to minutes.
Layered with generative-AI “trip builders” and secure data-sharing spaces, these shifts promise a B2B ecosystem that is faster, smarter, and more collaborative for every participant.
How do you believe events like ConX help to unify the fragmented travel industry and drive innovation and growth? What advice would you give to other industry players seeking to strengthen their networks and relationships in today’s dynamic environment?
ConX is a fast-track through the travel ecosystem. In a single morning you might move from a PMS/CRS tech-platform demo to a debate with a payment-service provider, bounce ideas off a channel-manager specialist, compare notes with an online travel agency, then grab coffee next to a global hotel chain or a bed-bank wholesaler. Bringing all of those categories—tech platforms, marketplaces, tour operators, booking-engine vendors, vacation-rental firms, DMCs, and more—under one roof dissolves silos and sparks collaborations that rarely surface on a video call. The face-to-face context accelerates standards alignment, inspires joint pilots, and ultimately produces smoother journeys for travelers.
How to turn those hallway conversations into lasting alliances:
- Arrive with a concrete business challenge. A clear problem statement invites co-creation; a generic pitch invites polite smiles.
- Listen for complementary strengths. The most valuable insight often comes from an unscripted chat with someone outside your usual circle.
- Lock in a next step within days. A brief call or one-pager that captures owners and a 30-day action keeps momentum alive and signals commitment.
Apply that rhythm consistently and the relationships sparked at ConX will keep delivering long after the event badges are packed away.