‘Moneyball’ figure to open summit

Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s executive who was the inspiration behind the best-selling book and Oscar-­nominated film “Moneyball,” will give the opening-day keynote at the 2017 Global Tourism Summit.

Beane’s 9 a.m. speech on Sept. 19 will open the summit, which will ­be held at the Hawai‘i Convention Center through Sept. 21. The summit’s focus is sustainable tourism.

Beane was portrayed by Brad Pitt in the 2011 hit “Moneyball.” His summit topic, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” will share how he used analytics to revolutionize Major League Baseball and how others can use it to identify undervalued assets to create a competitive advantage.

“Billy Beane has an amazing story to tell of how innovation, technology and analytics completely transformed how Major League Baseball evaluates players and projects their value based on keys to production success,” said George Szigeti, HTA president and CEO. “His ‘Moneyball’ strategy leveled the playing field for the Oakland A’s with the big-market teams and presents a fascinating case study that is perfectly applicable to the challenges Hawaii businesses face daily with global competition.”

Participants can register for the summit online atglobaltourism summithawaii.com. The cost to attend the summit ranges from $150 for students and faculty to $265 for partial attendance to $325 for the full conference. Early-bird discounts are available through July 31.