Bangkok Study Trip 2026

Digital Labs

What will the next 3 days look like. How do we approach them. What do you want to get out of them?

Nitipat Krobeeranon, Director, Business Development, Global Markets (GMK)

Overview of the Thailand market, economic overview, what drives growth, UHNW population, banking/credit market

Vishan Sharma

Explore how leading travel card propositions drive engagement, loyalty, and spend among affluent customer through compelling rewards, benefits, and experiences. You will learn:

What drives engagement, loyalty, and spend among affluent customers through leading travel card propositions.

How rewards, travel benefits, and exclusive experiences create differentiated premium card value.

Best-practice travel card strategies that issuers use to increase acquisition, retention, and wallet share.

Steven Ladd, SMC, Advisors & Consulting

Explore how leading travel card propositions drive engagement, loyalty, and spend among affluent customer through compelling rewards, benefits, and experiences. Participants will learn:

What drives engagement, loyalty, and spend among affluent customers through leading travel card propositions.

How rewards, travel benefits, and exclusive experiences create differentiated premium card value.

Best-practice travel card strategies that issuers use to increase acquisition, retention, and wallet share.

Jen Loong-Goodwin

What motivates ultra high net worth individuals, how do they make decisions, and what do they expect from the organisations that serve them? Drawing on her experience fundraising from UHNW investors, advising founders and executives, and working as a therapist specialising in high-performing individuals, Jen Loong-Goodwin will provide an insider's perspective on the psychology, behaviours and relationship dynamics of this segment. The session will explore how wealthy clients evaluate brands, financial institutions, travel experiences and loyalty propositions, translating these insights into practical lessons for bankers, product teams and customer experience leaders.

Dinner at Le Du Kaan.

Together, Central Group and GCS provide participants with a unique opportunity to examine both sides of a highly successful premium customer ecosystem. While Central Group demonstrates how a leading retailer attracts, engages, and retains affluent and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) customers through exceptional experiences, partnerships, and ecosystem design, GCS provides the issuer perspective on how a co-brand card programme can translate those experiences into loyalty, spending, and long-term customer value. Collectively, the visits will help participants understand how retailers and financial institutions can work together to create differentiated propositions that deepen customer relationships, increase share of wallet, and drive sustainable growth.

What Participants Will Learn

• How leading retailers and financial institutions collaborate to create integrated ecosystems that drive customer acquisition, engagement, loyalty, and long-term value.
• How affluent and ultra-high-net-worth customers are identified, engaged, and retained through personalised experiences, premium benefits, and differentiated service models.
• The critical success factors behind a high-performing co-brand card programme, including partnership governance, value proposition design, and customer engagement strategies.
• How customer data, loyalty programmes, rewards, and exclusive experiences can be combined to strengthen customer relationships and increase share of wallet.
• Practical lessons and proven approaches that participants can apply when designing future travel, lifestyle, rewards, and affluent customer propositions across their organisations and broader partner ecosystems.

Together, Central Group and GCS provide participants with a unique opportunity to examine both sides of a highly successful premium customer ecosystem. While Central Group demonstrates how a leading retailer attracts, engages, and retains affluent and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) customers through exceptional experiences, partnerships, and ecosystem design, GCS provides the issuer perspective on how a co-brand card programme can translate those experiences into loyalty, spending, and long-term customer value. Collectively, the visits will help participants understand how retailers and financial institutions can work together to create differentiated propositions that deepen customer relationships, increase share of wallet, and drive sustainable growth.

What Participants Will Learn

• How leading retailers and financial institutions collaborate to create integrated ecosystems that drive customer acquisition, engagement, loyalty, and long-term value.
• How affluent and ultra-high-net-worth customers are identified, engaged, and retained through personalised experiences, premium benefits, and differentiated service models.
• The critical success factors behind a high-performing co-brand card programme, including partnership governance, value proposition design, and customer engagement strategies.
• How customer data, loyalty programmes, rewards, and exclusive experiences can be combined to strengthen customer relationships and increase share of wallet.
• Practical lessons and proven approaches that participants can apply when designing future travel, lifestyle, rewards, and affluent customer propositions across their organisations and broader partner ecosystems.

Step beyond the typical tourist experience and discover a different side of Bangkok through an immersive journey into the city's living Buddhist traditions. Guided by a local expert and practising Buddhist, participants will explore the beliefs, rituals, and cultural practices that continue to shape daily life in Thailand today. Through visits to significant temples and cultural landmarks, the experience offers a unique perspective on the values, traditions, and social influences that underpin Thai society, while providing a deeper appreciation of the cultural context in which leading Thai brands build relationships, trust, and loyalty with their customers.

Dinner at Celadon.

Dave McCaughan

What does it take to build a brand that truly resonates with ultra-high-net-worth customers? Drawing on decades of experience advising leading organisations across Asia, Dave McCaughan will explore the behaviours, expectations, and decision-making patterns of affluent and UHNW consumers. Through examples from luxury, travel, hospitality, and financial services, the session will examine how the world's most successful premium brands create aspiration, exclusivity, and long-term customer loyalty. Participants will gain practical insights into how customer understanding, positioning, storytelling, and experience design can be used to create more compelling propositions for high-value customer segments, with direct relevance to participants’ future travel, lifestyle, and premium banking strategies.

Alisha Islam, SVP, Customer Solutions Center, South-East Asia

Affluent customers are changing, and premium card propositions need to evolve with them. In this session, we'll explore how affluent consumers are increasingly seeking meaningful experiences, personal passions, and intrinsic value rather than traditional status symbols.

We'll examine how leading issuers are responding by creating distinctive "hero" propositions with a clear claim to fame, and how Mastercard's affluent portfolio, including World, World Elite Refresh, and World Legend, can help issuers build differentiated propositions that resonate with the next generation of affluent cardholders.

A conversation with those who build

OOZOU is a Bangkok-headquartered software design and engineering studio that designs, builds and scales web, mobile, data and AI products. Its integrated teams combine user research, product design, engineering, data and AI to take ideas from early discovery through to production.

In this session, participants will explore how modern digital products are conceived, validated, built and continuously improved. OOZOU will offer a perspective beyond financial services, showing how customer insight, design, technology and experimentation come together to create intuitive digital experiences that people actually want to use.

Alex Yardley

Alex Yardley will share a founder’s perspective on the future of premium travel and how banks can build propositions customers choose first. Drawing on his experience across Laters.com, travel, ecommerce, product and strategic partnerships, the session will explore how travel, payments, loyalty, lifestyle benefits and trusted service can operate as one connected ecosystem. Discussion will cover the changing customer front door, drivers of repeat choice, partnership models, ownership of customer relationships and lessons from founder-led experimentation. Participants will leave with practical principles for identifying customer problems, selecting partners and testing a differentiated travel-card proposition for premium customers in their home markets.

Digital Labs Wrap-Up Workshop at SO/ Bangkok, Social Hub (7th Floor).

Dinner at Pawats Kitchen.