Carolyn Childs is a Travel Futurist, Strategist and Co-Founder of MyTravelResearch.com. Carolyn has spent more than 25 years helping travel and tourism businesses achieve their goals by using research and other evidence to guide strategy and planning. She has worked in more than 35 countries on every inhabited continent and brings a detailed understanding of customers and how to connect with them.

Martin Lane is CEO of Focal Attractions, a publishing and events company whose portfolio includes media and marketing website Mumbrella, business prospecting tool The Source and events including Mumbrella360, the Mumbrella Awards, CommsCon, BeFest, Publish and the Travel Marketing Summit.

Martin started his career in local newspapers in London before joining independent travel magazine TNT as a sub-editor in 1995. He was appointed group editor in 1999, leaving two years later to join Reed Business Information as editor of Travel Weekly.

In 2005 he launched online travel trade brand Travolution, before moving to Sydney to head up Reed’s travel division in Australia. During a brief stint as publisher of Reed’s media and marketing title B&T he worked with Tim Burrowes with whom he later joined forces to launch Mumbrella.

In 2006, he joined TNT Magazine Australia and New Zealand as publishing director, setting up Focal Attractions in the same year. Focal’s portfolio soon grew to include the Adventure & Backpacker Industry Conference, the Golden Backpack Awards and Independent Travel Exchange. Mumbrella launched in late-2008.

In 2011, Martin oversaw the sale of Focal’s travel division sale to TNT Publishing UK and the launch of Mumbrella360.

Mumbrella was named Website of the Year at the Publishers Australia Excellence awards in 2011 and 2012 while Focal Attractions was named Small Publisher of the Year in 2012. Mumbrella360 was named the Australian Event Awards Conference of the Year in 2012 and NSW Conference of the Year in 2013.

Simon Ferguson joined Travelport in September 2011 and is Vice President & Managing Director for Northern Europe, overseeing the largest and most digitally savvy European travel markets. Prior to this he spent 20 years in business and consumer media, in a range of senior management positions. During 8 years as Chief Executive of the Travel Weekly group, he developed gazetteers.com, the UK’s largest online information resource for travel agents, and founded and launched Travolution, the leading media brand for the online travel sector. In 2009 he led a management buyout of Travel Weekly from FTSE-100 company Reed Elsevier.

Prior to the travel industry, Simon spent 8 years in technology media and consumer media, launching the UK’s first online B2B e-commerce platform for the IT sector, and Men’s magazine Maxim in 1995. Simon has been a Non-Exec Director and investor in a number of start-ups including mobile marketing platform MePlease and consumer fashion-app Frame.

With a passion for travel, technology, marketing & media, Simon believes today’s global omni-channel environment is the most exciting and challenging in living memory, and relishes the opportunity to discuss it.

About Travelport (www.travelport.com)

Travelport (NYSE: TVPT) is the technology company which makes the experience of selling, buying and managing travel continually better.  It operates a travel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.  The company facilitates travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers with online and offline travel buyers in a proprietary business-to-business (B2B) travel marketplace.

Travelport has a leadership position in airline merchandising, hotel content and distribution, car rental, mobile commerce and B2B payment solutions.  The company also provides critical IT services to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, departure control and other solutions.  With net revenue of over $2.3 billion in 2016, Travelport is headquartered in Langley, UK, has approximately 4,000 staff and is represented in 180 countries and territories.

As Global Senior Vice President of Expedia Media Solutions, the digital advertising arm of the Expedia group., Hari Nair oversees all facets of the business including product development and execution, engineering, operations, marketing, media sales and business development.

Hari was previously Vice President and General Manager of Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com, subsidiaries of the Expedia group, responsible for overseeing retail operations and profitability of the business, brand strategy, marketing efficiency and customer lifecycle management. Hari joined the Expedia group in 2002, and has managed and led market management operations in a variety of offices, including Dallas, New York and London. He also oversaw the company’s hotel supplier relations and directed lodging strategy and business for North America.

Prior to joining Expedia, Hari worked in corporate training and food and beverage operations at Oberoi Hotels, a leading luxury hotel chain that owns and manages thirty hotels and five luxury cruisers across six countries under the ‘Oberoi’ & ‘Trident’ brands.

Hari holds a master’s degree in Hotel Management from Cornell University.

Lauren Quaintance is Co-Founder of Storyation – a content marketing agency that counts Tourism Australia, Tourism Queensland and Carnival Cruises among its clients.

A former General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Travel for Fairfax Media, she knows her Slovakia from her Slovenia and is on a quest to visit every Australian island.

In a previous life she was an award-winning journalist who covered everything from people smuggling to September 11 for publications such as The Sunday Times in London before taking a much less life-threatening job to launch the newspaper-inserted Sunday glossy in New Zealand.

She had stints as editor of the (sydney) magazine and Good Weekend and took charge of launches, relaunches and digital strategy for Fairfax Magazines as Managing Editor. She later turned her attention to the company’s print and digital travel products including Traveller.

Quaintance has a Master’s from Columbia University in New York and spent a term at Oxford University in 1999 researching the impact of the internet on journalism (hint: it changed everything.)

When she’s not helping travel clients to create content that people will actually want to read, she writes travel stories for Qantas and Etihad’s magazines among others. She also writes about stylish adventures with her kids on her blog www.luxetravelwithkids.com

Andrés is a marketing consultant specialising in travel, destination and digital marketing. Until mid-2017, he steered the global content strategy for one of the world’s most respected tourism organisations, Tourism Australia, where he implemented a data-first approach to digital content. During his tenure, Australia.com was rated amongst 25 of the best tourism websites in the world by leading travel industry publisher, Skift. Andrés is also co-host of The Destinationists, a brand new travel marketing podcast starting in January 2018 that will give actionable insights and advice to modern travel marketers.

Andrés has also held senior agency roles working on marketing programs for brands in Australia and Asia-Pacific for the likes of Pfizer, PlayStation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sony, Coca-Cola South Pacific and Lenovo. Andrés is also a lover of (making and eating) baked goods, comic books, video games and the internet’s most famous export, cats. You’ll find him @hackjack on Twitter and his new podcast at www.thedestinationists.com.

With over 15 years experience in the disciplines of marketing, digital, CRM, events and commercial revenue generation across financial services, fundraising and Tourism, Libby’s work history began in the insurance industry and includes positions with UNICEF in London as well as having spent the last eight years with Taronga.

Some of Libby’s proudest moments and greatest achievements at Taronga have been The launch of the Zoo’s first app and Taronga’s centenary celebrations including the evolution of Taronga’s involvement with Vivid Sydney.

Values driven with a passion for the natural world. Libby strives to combine her commercial acumen with a desire to make the world just a little bit better.

As Head of Marketing, Vanessa looks after all disciplines of marketing for Contiki Australia, including but not limited to eCommerce, brand campaigns, activations, PR, B2B and content marketing.

In the last 3.5 years with Contiki she has delivered award winning campaigns, redefined the eCommerce strategy to improve conversions by 32% and collaborated with leading influencers and content creators to elevate Australia’s number 1 youth travel brand and thereby improve consideration and purchase intent by 48%.

Prior to Contiki, Vanessa spent 6 years with the Westpac Group in various senior online and marketing roles, delivering sales growth for their online retail and superannuation products, and during her time with The Group she was awarded the CEO innovation and excellence award for her work in the superannuation platforms space.

Outside of work, Vanessa enjoys travelling, hiking, cooking and spending quality time with her puppy beagle.

With more than 20 years marketing experience, as YHA’s Head of Marketing Janet looks after the full marketing brief for a network of more than 80 hostels across Australia. The role includes brand management, campaigns, PR and social, content and communications, trade marketing and digital activity.

YHA Australia is the country’s largest provider of budget accommodation offering a fun, engaging and authentic backpacker-style experience to thousands of travellers every night in properties ranging from Fremantle Prison to sweeping views of Sydney Harbour. It is a not-for-profit organisation and part of the global Hostelling International brand.

In recent years, Janet has led a brand transformation strategy at YHA to consolidate its appeal to millennial travellers seeking to meet fellow travellers, make new friends and discover Australia. As well as incorporating a new creative strategy, this has included a focus on product development.

A life-time backpacker at heart, Janet still enjoys exploring new parts of Australia and the world, with Iceland and the Kimberley on her 2018 wish list.

Bio to come…

Lisa Ronson is the Chief Marketing Officer for Tourism Australia. Lisa is responsible for leading the organisation’s global marketing strategy which includes Global Media, PR, Digital, Social, Content, Creative and Campaigns, Signature Experiences, Market Research and Insights.

Lisa Ronson joined Tourism Australia in February 2015 and is a commercially focused Senior Executive with 20 years’ experience, across multiple national and global brands. Prior to joining Tourism Australia Lisa was the General Manager, Brand and Advertising for Westpac. Lisa has also held senior marketing roles with Carlton and United Breweries, Visa International, Telstra and David Jones.

Simon Darcy specialises in developing inclusive organisational approaches for diversity groups. His research has spanned sport, tourism, events, volunteers, transport, the built environment and disability services. Simon has held grants with the Australian Research Council, Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre, the United Nations, and has carried out research for business, government and the not-for-profit sectors. His research and industry collaboration on disability, tourism and accessible tourism has been internationally recognised for its outstanding contribution to the field through the World Leisure Organisation’s Innovation Prize, the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s publication on best practice and the Asociación Española de Expertos Científicos en Turismo best tourism research paper. Simon presented the 2017 Richard Jones Oration for the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission examining issues of transport, travel, sport and tourism as it relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He is the co-author of Accessible Tourism: Concepts and Issues as well as 20 refereed journal articles on the area.

As publisher of YourLifechoices website, eNews and eGuides, Kaye has over 17 years’ experience in creating content for, and marketing to, Australian baby boomers. YourLifeChoices is Australia’s longest established and largest digital retirement community, with 210,000 members aged between 50 and 75 and nearly four million page views monthly. With a mission to deliver timely and independent retirement information on any device at any time, YourLifeChoices website has now gone ‘offline’ with Retirement Bootcamp events in major capital cities. Frequent surveys undertaken with our baby boomer members ensure that advertising promotions and native content remain relevant and targeted, delivering strong ROI. Travel is considered the ‘reward for years of hard work’ by most retirees so cruising, guided holidays and international adventures are high priorities for these intrepid members.

Kaye has been a full writer member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers since 2002. In her role as publisher Kaye is a regular commentator on retirement, retirement income and travel as well as baby boomer attitudes and trends. This includes frequent appearances on A Current Affair, ABC Radio, Macquarie Radio Network, commentary for major digital news sites and speaking at industry conferences. Kaye is also author of two best-selling ‘how to retire’ books published by Allen and Unwin. In addition to the weekly dedicated Saturday travel enews feature, YourLifeChoices publishes sponsored eGuides including the Essential Guide to Cruising and The Great Aussie Bucket List.

www.yourlifechoices.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/yourlifechoices

@YourLifeChoices

Carolyn Childs is a Travel Futurist, Strategist and Co-Founder of MyTravelResearch.com. Carolyn has spent more than 25 years helping travel and tourism businesses achieve their goals by using research and other evidence to guide strategy and planning. She has worked in more than 35 countries on every inhabited continent and brings a detailed understanding of customers and how to connect with them.

Lisa Squillace is Director of Program Partnerships at the Seven Network specialising in the development of new commercial concepts for premium programmes across Seven West Media group. Lisa is responsible for strategy, creative, negotiation and the implementation of millions of dollars in brand investment to drive premium integration on programmes across platform to the right people at the right time.

During her tenure at Seven West Media she has created a new business called Partnership Development and in addition to helping diversify revenue from programming she has ensured the success of new business models, delivering against plans and bring new operational processes to ensure own and client objectives are surpassed. The most recent example of this has been the successful launch of 7Travel.

Lisa joined The Seven Network in 2009 to launch the sales strategy for 7Two and 7mate, including the go to market and sales operational management of the channels. The successful launch included various new packages for clients and the creation of the first to market Break Engagers to meet demand.
Lisa started her career at Network Ten in 2000 selling TV advertising and sponsorship deals for top rating shows shows such as Australian Idol and Big Brother. Following this Lisa, joined The Nine Network in 2005 leading one of the group sales teams working on cross platform opportunities.

Founder of Klick Communications, Kim is a known for her strategic and visionary approach. With offices in Sydney, Los Angeles and Honolulu, Klick Communications is widely recognised as leaders in earned and shared media, servicing the Destination, Tourism and Hospitality industries.

A board member of the International Advertising Association and recognised as PR Employer of the year (3 years running) Kim ensures that Klick is a team of future thinkers, ensuring Klick’s clients have direct access to the industry’s best practitioners.

Bio to come…

Yin has enjoyed a dynamic international career with a passion in building meaningful connections between Western and Chinese businesses, people, and cultures through her extensive professional reach and unique trilingual mix.
 
Co-founder of ReadySetGo China, Yin’s mission is to help Australian and international brands to market to Chinese market more efficiently, using her extensive experience in advertising, business development, sales, client relationship, and learning and development across the globe.
 
Yin has called Sydney home since 2008 after spending four years in France and many years in various cities in her native China. A highlight of her travelling experience is a 10-month round-the-world tour with her family including a toddler in tow. She is also the founding president of the not-for-profit Chinglish Bilingual Toastmasters Club in Sydney, and an advocate for multilingual parenting in her spare time.
 

Amplify Me Director Andrea Plawutsky is an experienced travel and tourism consultant, communications specialist and China expert, with an almost 30 year association with China.

Backed by research and extensive industry experience, and a Mandarin speaker, Andrea offers training and consulting programs to help tourism operators and destinations ready themselves for the important Chinese market, with guidance on tailoring products and services, distribution channels, marketing, media and social media.

Andrew Gardiner, has over 35 years’ retail experience in Australia and abroad. Before moving to Australia, Andrew was the Chief Operations Executive at Edgars Stores Limited in South Africa, having previously served as Credit and Customer Director. He has spent ten years in the travel retail business, as Managing Director at DFS Galleria Australia, General Manager of Retail at Sydney Airport and now Chief of Retail and Chief of Launceston Airport at Australia Pacific Airports Corporation. Andrew is a past Chairman of the Australian Duty Free Association and serves on the boards of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) and Launceston Airport. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Most recently Andrew was appointed to the Victorian State Advisory Board of the Starlight Children’s Foundation and is a committee member of Monash Business School, ACRS (Australian Consumer, Retail, and Services) Research Unit Steering Committee.

As Executive Director of Marketing and Digital at Australia’s largest hotel group, Matt oversees advertising, engagement, loyalty and digital customer experience at 127 Mantra, Peppers and BreakFree properties around the world. Prior to joining Mantra in 2015, Matt was head of marketing in a bank, and spent a decade working in advertising, digital and consumer PR agencies. Matt has been a mobile phone owner since 1999, and was crowned world Snake champion on the Nokia 3210, beating Sven ‘The Snake’ Andersson in the infamous Helsinki battle of 2001.

Zoë is Co-Founder of Alpaca Travel – a travel itinerary tool helping the tourism industry unlock the power of maps to fuel discovery and encourage exploration.

Started in 2015, Zoë identified that there was a need for a platform that enabled the easy creation of beautiful, interactive itineraries that could support the traveller journey from planning through to in-destination. Zoë believes that itineraries are not just a way to get from point A to B, it is about inviting visitors to go further, see more along the way and stay longer.

Alpaca is currently being used by travellers, travel writers and tourism organisations around the world to power their itinerary content.
Prior to launching Alpaca, Zoë consulted across a range of industries on digital marketing, strategy and product innovation, and most recently was responsible for growing the brand and market position of another Australian startup.

Zoë has travelled to over 30 countries and is a self-confessed cartophile, with a healthy addiction to maps.

Sandra Chipchase is the Chief Executive Officer of Destination NSW and Executive Producer of Vivid Sydney; Australia’s largest event.

Ms Chipchase has had an outstanding career in international and domestic tourism and business events marketing, major events acquisition and management, sponsorship, business and asset management. Her current roles include: Board Member – Business Events Sydney, Steering Committee Member for the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Centre Precinct and member of the NSW Australia Day Committee.

Ms Chipchase was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau, President – Australian Association of Convention Bureaux (AACB), President – Best Cities Global Alliance, Member – Tourism and Transport Forum Advisory Board, Board Member – Business Events Council of Australia (BECA), Member – Federal Government’s Business Events Strategy Implementation Group, Member – Federal Government’s Brand Australia Advisory Board, Member of the NSW Crown Holiday Parks Trust and Board Member – NSW Visitor Economy Taskforce.
Her previous roles include: Executive Director – Australia Pavilion – World EXPO 2000, Executive Director – Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, GM Marketing – Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau and she held senior management roles with Australian Tourist Commission/Tourism Australia in Frankfurt, Chicago and New York.

In 2010 she was recognised with the Outstanding Contribution to Industry National Award from peak body Meetings & Events Australia and in 2012 was co-author of the NSW Visitor Economy Taskforce Report that delivered the record breaking blueprint for Tourism and Major Events development for the state.

Cam has honed his marketing and branding skills over the past 20 years in senior marketing roles with Nike, Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) and now with iconic leisure accommodation brand BIG4 Holiday Parks. Cam has extensive experience successfully developing brand campaigns and aligning them with business goals having delivered the award-winning 2012 London Olympics brand activation +NINE for Nike Australia and the Every Greyhound Has A Story brand position and campaigns for GRV. For the past 5 years Cam has been driving people into regional locations to major race meetings at regional racetracks and to BIG4 Holiday Parks right across the country.

Joseph is a lecturer at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics (LLCL) at Monash University and directs the activities of the Australia and International Tourism Research Unit (AITRU). Joseph’s research draws from transdisciplinary perspectives especially human geography, cultural anthropology, political economy and social-ecological resilience with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. As a former practitioner, he is focused on research to practice with an emphasis on resilience building, sustainability and social justice in tourism. With Alan Lew, he has published two books recently Tourism Resilience and Adaptation to Environmental Change (2018) and Tourism Resilience and Sustainability: Adapting to Social, Political and Economic Change (2018).

A media professional with over 10 years experience in both print and digital journalism, public relations and corporate communications. Passions include technology, travel, business, aviation, cars and motorsports, media, tennis, and family. An enthusiastic and sociable people person with a track record of building and maintaining relationships and strengthening brands.

Robin is a Senior Regional Manager in KAYAK’s Asia-Pacific team, overseeing Australasia, South- East Asia and the Greater China markets. Prior to KAYAK, Robin was senior corporate finance professional, having been appointed Partner and Managing Director to a number of leading private equity and venture capital funds in Asia. He started his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting and investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

Robin holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne. He also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a qualified lawyer in Australia.

A media professional with over 10 years experience in both print and digital journalism, public relations and corporate communications. Passions include technology, travel, business, aviation, cars and motorsports, media, tennis, and family. An enthusiastic and sociable people person with a track record of building and maintaining relationships and strengthening brands.

Matt is the Director of Brand USA for Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney. He joined the USA’s nation destination marketing organisation in August 2016, having had a background in travel sales and marketing leadership. He previously ran Contiki’s sales & marketing in the UK & Europe, before heading up their global commercial function, managing strategy across 8 international markets.

Matt has over 12 years of experience within the travel industry. With a diverse range of accountabilities including: brand development, performance market, PR, content marketing, social strategy, web development and loyalty programs.

Today he is responsible for the overall management Brand USA’s strategy and operations in market. Ultimately responsible for increasing visitation, spend and dispersal of travel to the USA.

Brand USA’s approach to the market is integrated across advertising, public relations and trade support. This includes the implementation of impactful destination marketing campaigns and product development strategies.

Air New Zealand appointed Kathryn Robertson to the newly created role of Regional General Manager Australia in September 2016.

Kathryn joined Air New Zealand from British Midland International in 2007 as Marketing Manager UK and Europe. She moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to become Director of Marketing, Americas Region, before returning to London as Manager, Commercial and then Sales and Marketing Manager. In 2014 Kathryn was promoted to General Manager UK and Europe.

Kathryn, has a strong commercial track record with Air New Zealand and is now looking forward to leading their Australian growth strategy.

Bio to come…