The conference sessions

Alexa Skuba, CMO of WEMA Global, opens the conference with Lana Olifer, COO of WEMA Global, in a session titled The New Wedding Economy. Their talk looks at how couples now discover destinations and select hospitality businesses, and why reputation and architectural history on their own no longer translate automatically into relevance for a younger client base.

Matteo Moramarco and Domenico Moramarco, father and son, run I Luoghi di Pitti together and speak jointly in One Legacy. Two Generations. One Future. Their session addresses what a family hospitality business protects as it grows, what it allows to evolve, and how two generations manage that transition without weakening the identity the business was built on.

Alessandro Baccaro, General Manager of Masseria San Giovanni and Director of Events at Epoca Collection, presents Growing Without Losing Your Soul, covering scaling, service consistency and how differently luxury is now defined depending on the client.

Destination wedding planner Gabriella Koya of A Flair to Remember delivers What Modern Clients Are Really Buying, arguing that the venue itself is only one part of the purchase decision. Her session focuses on how guests are welcomed, how communication feels throughout planning, and what clients remember once the event is over.

Tracey Manailescu and Danielle Andrews of The Wedding Planners Institute close the conference with The Decisions Hospitality Businesses Cannot Delay, a practical session on changes businesses can implement now, including personalization, communication and internal process.

Format and access

Around 30 international planners are confirmed for the 2026 edition, from markets including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the UAE, India, Germany and France. B-TREAT keeps its participant group deliberately small, giving exhibitors direct time with a defined group of buyers rather than competing for attention across a large trade-show floor. Structured B2B meetings run alongside destination and hospitality experiences at the host properties, so planners can assess Puglia wedding venues and their operations, service standards and guest logistics directly rather than through a presentation.

A dedicated Photo Creative Lab, developed with destination wedding planner Roberta Burcheri, takes place on October 27 at I Luoghi di Pitti’s Masseria San Giovanni. Photographers and videographers work within a full editorial wedding scenario, with participating planners joining as guests inside the set. The format brings planners and visual creatives into the same working environment outside an active client production, a combination the two groups rarely get structured time for elsewhere.

Host properties and media partners

The 2026 edition is hosted across Tenuta Pinto, Cala Ponte, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Masseria San Giovanni with Epoca Collection, Masseria Spina, I Luoghi di Pitti and Matera Collection. Participants stay, meet and dine across these properties throughout the week, giving planners direct exposure to the operations and service standards of the businesses they may later recommend to clients.

Media coverage for the 2026 edition comes from Lovenozze, Weddings and Honeymoons, Sposi Magazine, Zankyou Portugal and Wedding Venues Directory.

The destination behind the programme

Puglia and Basilicata combine coastal towns, olive-grove countryside and centuries-old masserie within a short drive of each other, giving planners a chance to compare very different wedding formats inside a single trip. A ceremony overlooking the Adriatic, a reception inside a restored stone estate and a multi-day guest programme across the region are all logistically possible without long transfers between properties. For planners weighing whether a destination can support the kind of complex, multi-day weddings international clients increasingly expect, seeing that range firsthand carries more weight than any single photograph.

Why the format stays small

“We work internationally with destinations, venues, hotels, planners and wedding businesses, and we see the same challenge from different sides,” says Alexa Skuba, CMO of WEMA Global. “Businesses want access to the right planners. Planners want access to destinations and partners they can trust. Both need enough time to understand who is sitting opposite them. B-TREAT is designed around that reality.”

The scale is intentional. A smaller group allows B2B meetings, dinners and venue visits to build on each other across the week, rather than compressing every professional relationship into a single scheduled appointment.

B-TREAT 2026 runs October 25 to 30 in Puglia and Basilicata, Italy, for selected international wedding planners, venues, hotels, destinations, wedding businesses, media, photographers and videographers. Registration for buyers and exhibitors is open.

For planners and hospitality businesses deciding whether to apply, the format rewards early registration. Participation is limited to the confirmed group, and B-TREAT does not add places once the programme is set. Details on how to register as a buyer or exhibitor are available directly through WEMA Global https://www.wema-global.com/wedding-networking-b-treat-by-wema/, email: team@wema-global.com,  or alongside further information on the conference schedule, host properties and the Photo Creative Lab.

What this signals for the wider market

The speaker lineup reflects a broader pattern WEMA Global has been tracking across its international network: hospitality businesses that once relied on reputation alone are now having to explain, actively and repeatedly, why that reputation still matters to a client who has never heard of them before searching. The sessions at B-TREAT 2026 do not treat this as a crisis. They treat it as a working problem with working answers, from how a family business hands down identity to how a planner actually decides which venue to recommend.

That framing matters beyond the week itself. Puglia and Basilicata have built a strong destination-wedding reputation over the past decade, largely through word of mouth among planners and steady media coverage of individual properties. B-TREAT 2026 gives that reputation a more structured test: can the region’s hospitality businesses articulate, in a room full of the people who actually book weddings, what makes them worth recommending now, not five years ago. The answer will shape how Puglia and Basilicata are positioned to international markets well after the conference ends.