There was a time when industry networking didn’t require a name badge the size of a dinner plate or a PowerPoint presentation disguised as conversation. You turned up, you ordered a drink, and you talked. Properly.
Skål Bangkok appears to have remembered that.
On Tuesday, 13 January, the travel industry group is hosting a cocktail evening at The Landmark Bangkok, one of those hotels that has seen more deals struck over martinis than most boardrooms, featuring former Liverpool and Leeds United defender Dominic Matteo.
Matteo’s presence is not about celebrity gloss. It’s about storytelling. The kind that only comes from a footballer who played the game before it was entirely sanitised, monetised and managed by committee. Expect anecdotes with edges, lessons about teamwork learned the hard way, and the sort of dry humour that doesn’t need a microphone to land.
For Skål members and industry guests, the evening is pitched deliberately low-key. No panels. No pitches. Just conversation, food, and free-flowing wine, beer and cocktails, served between 6.30 pm and 9.00 pm, a civilised window that respects both schedules and attention spans.
The venue choice matters. The Landmark Bangkok, on Sukhumvit Road near Nana BTS, remains one of the city’s enduring hospitality stalwarts, familiar, central, and unpretentious in the best possible way. It’s the sort of place where introductions don’t feel forced, and people actually stay long enough to finish a sentence.
Pricing has been set sensibly: THB 1,000 for Young Skål members, THB 1,200 for members, and THB 1,900 for non-members—a modest outlay for an evening that promises something increasingly rare in the industry: unstructured time with peers who know what they’re talking about.
In a travel sector still obsessed with digital connection, Skål Bangkok’s January gathering is a quiet reminder that relationships are still built face-to-face—and that some of the best conversations happen once the second drink arrives.
Reservations are open via [email protected].
