Appearances by Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer and Travelocity founder Terrell Jones as well as an expanded Phocuswright Innovation Platform will highlight the 2016 Phocuswright Conference at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live.

Around 1,800 people are expected to attend the conference in Los Angeles, which will run from Nov. 14 to 17. About 60% of the speakers will be CEOs or managing directors of travel, hospitality or technology companies.

Central to the event is its Phocuswright Innovation Platform, which provides early-stage travel and technology companies a forum to present their products and services to potential clients and investors.

The Innovation Platform, sponsored by Brand USA, will have 62 competitors this year, up from 42 last year. The company that is chosen Innovator of the Year will receive a US$100,000 convertible bridge loan from the venture capital firm General Catalyst.

The Innovation Platform is comprised of three categories: Battleground, Summit, Launch.

Phocuswright, along with partner and agent consortium Virtuoso, will choose from among the competitor pool for its 2017 Incubator Program.

Founded in 1993, the conference has evolved into a crucial informational and networking event for the travel sector, a marketplace in which Phocuswright estimates that global spending will increase to US$1.4 trillion this year from US$1.3 trillion two years ago.

Lured by expectations of continued growth, venture capitalists have sunk more than US$33 billion into travel startups in the past decade, according to Phocuswright, while New York-based research firm CB Insights earlier this year estimated that travel-technology startups attracted a record US$5 billion in 2015.

"Investment in travel startups continues to grow," said Douglas Quinby, Phocuswright's vice president for research. "And we're going to see some of the industry's most innovative companies battle it out on stage."

With that in mind, Phocuswright is featuring some of the biggest players in the travel technology industry. The event will offer keynotes and one-on-one interviews with Khosrowshahi; Kaufer; David Baga, Lyft's chief business officer; and Jenny Wu, Ctrip International's chief strategy officer.

In addition, panels will include Chip Conley, Airbnb's head of global hospitality and strategy; Chris Silcock, Hilton Hotel Corp.'s chief commercial officer; Gillian Tans, Booking.com's CEO; and Richard Barton, founder of Expedia and co-founder of the Zillow Group.

At Phocuswright's conference in Fort Lauderdale last November, the 2015 Phocuswright Innovation Platform award went to Tansler, a reverse-auction site for vacation rentals. The award for the most innovative startup went to Proxce, an identity and location manager that provides auto check-in and keyless room entry for hotel guests as well as targeted, real-time advertising.

Revinate, which has rolled out a software-as-a-service solution that mines big data about a hotel's guests and enables the property to deliver a personalized experience, beat out metasearch company Hipmunk to win the award for the most innovative established company.

Last year, almost a third of the 1,800 attendees represented technology providers, while 17% were travel agencies and tour operators and 13% worked for attractions, cruise, ground transportation and rail providers.