MINISTER

The Hon. Louise Asher, MLA

Biography

Louise Asher is the Member for Brighton, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and the Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business, Minister for Tourism and Major Events and the Minister for Employment and Trade. Additionally Louise Asher is Leader of the Legislative Assembly, (also known as “Leader of the House”) responsible for the government’s legislative programme.

She was elected in 1992 to the Legislative Council as the Member for Monash Province. From 1996-1999 she was Minister for Small Business and Minister for Tourism, making her the first Liberal woman to be appointed as a Minister in the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament.In September 1999 Ms Asher was elected as the Member for Brighton. She was elected as Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 1999, a position she resigned from in 2002, and was re-elected to this position in March 2006.

Louise holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne and a Diploma of Education and Bachelor of Economics from Monash University. Prior to being elected to Parliament, Louise worked as a secondary teacher, a research officer with the Victorian Credit Co-operative Association and was a senior adviser to the then NSW Minister for Health.

2013 MC

Alicia Loxley

Nine News, Melbourne

Biography

Alicia Loxley is an Australian journalist and news presenter and is currently the weekend anchor for Nine News Melbourne. Loxley studied a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism at RMIT University, where she won the Ormsby Wilkins Memorial Award. Her career began at the ABC, which took her to Perth for five years where she became the lead anchor for ABC TV News. After returning to Melbourne as a reporter for Nine News, Loxley again relocated, this time to Sydney to join the Today and Weekend Today team as its news presenter. In December 2011, she returned to Melbourne to become Nine’s weekend anchor. Loxley has had a box seat to the biggest news stories of the past decade, she led Nine’s Black Saturday Bushfires coverage in 2009 and was a key member of the network’s Olympics team in London last year. She also co-hosted Shane Warne’s variety show, Warnie, presented A Current Affair, and has been the Today Show Summer host for the past two years. Away from work, Loxley loves travel, playing tennis and watching her AFL team, the Saints.

The Keynote speakers for the 2013 National Tourism and Events Excellence Conference will be added here as they are announced:

MINISTER

• The Hon. Louise Asher, MLA

MC

• Alicia Loxley

PANELIST

• Adam Ferrier
• Angela Swayn
• Anthony Hayes
• Brendan McClements
• Brendan McKenna
• Carmen Pavlovic
• Catherine Bates
• Dan Gregory
• Daniel Gschwind
• Leigh Harry
• Paul Fox
• Rodney Harrex
• Rodney Payne
• Simon Currant
• Steven Wright

KEYNOTES

• Catherine Bates, Tourism New Zealand
• Michele Levine, Roy Morgan Research
• Ed Parsons, Google
• Rodney Payne, Think! Social Media
• Brendan McClements

2013 Panelist

Adam Ferrier

Chief Executive, Global Head of Behavioural Science (B.S) & Founding Partner of Naked Communications

Biography

Adam Ferrier is Global Head of Behavioural Science (B.S.) and Founding Partner of Naked Communications. He graduated university with degrees in Commerce and Psychology and by a strange twist of fate began his career in forensic psychology. Adam worked in maximum-security prisons and private practice, before making the natural move to marketing consultancy, working for Added Value. Here Adam switched his interest from understanding criminal behaviour to consumer behaviour. 

He completed his Clinical Psychology Thesis in 'Identifying the underlying constructs of cool people', and for a short while was a global cool hunter. Continuing the slide from the moral high-ground Adam joined ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, before starting Naked Communications Asia Pacific in 2004. 

Naked harnesses a behavioural change model in all communications, focusing on building brands whilst changing behaviour for clients such as Coke, Sony, Weight Watchers, TAC, Renault, and Unilever.   Naked has been consistently voted as one of Australia's top 10 agencies.

Adam is regular on ABC radio (Sunday Nights with James O'Loghlin) and TV (Gruen, Celebrity Apprentice, News and Lateline).   He writes at The Drum, The Australian, and Adnews, blogs at www.theconsumerpsych.com and tweets @adamferrier.  Adam's work has won gold at most of the worlds advertising awards including the Cannes Lions, Clio, LIA, and the Effies (although unfortunately these acronyms don't mean much to most people).  Adam was West Australian State Under 12 Chess Champion, and inventor of ‘The Analyst’ a board game still selling well in the Benelux countries.

2013 Panelist

Angela Swayn

Global Business Director, OMD Sydney

Biography

With over 13 year media agency experience, Angela has worked extensively across most categories - including FMCG, Finance, Retail, Prestige, Media and Travel. Angela has been a mainstay of the OMD family over the last 7 years, in January of this year Angela was promoted Global Business Director on the Tourism Australia account. Her efforts have been focused most recently as Project Lead on the successful relaunch of the original Best Jobs in the World campaign globally. With extensive experience in managing a range of high profile advertisers with diversified needs, Angela has developed strong strategic media planning and account management skills- with insights and ideas at the heart of delivering better outcomes for clients.

2013 Panelist

Anthony Hayes

Global Managing Director, AAT Kings

Biography

Anthony Hayes is the Global Managing Director of AAT Kings, Australia's largest tour operator and the third largest tour operator in New Zealand. Specialising in extended touring, short breaks and day tours, AAT Kings carries hundreds of thousands of passengers each year.

Prior to joining AAT Kings, Anthony was Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Queensland, where he was responsible for international and national sales and marketing, industry development, airline route negotiations, product development and setting the overall strategic direction for tourism in Queensland. Anthony also enjoyed a long career at Qantas, holding numerous roles in sales, marketing and product development, including Assistant to Managing Director James Strong and Regional head of Central Europe based in Frankfurt.

Anthony has sat on numerous tourism boards including ATEC, the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau, Events Queensland and the National Long Term Tourism Strategy committee.

2013 Panelist & Keynote Speaker

Brendan McClements

Chief Executive, Victorian Major Events Company

Strategies to win major international events

For the past five years, Brendan McClements has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Major Events Company (VMEC), one of the world’s leading major events acquisitions businesses.

Key achievements over this time have included:

• balancing an award-winning Major Events Calendar which delivers an economic benefit to Victoria of $1.4 billion annually;
• successfully negotiating to bring the UCI Road Cycling World Championships to Melbourne and Geelong in 2010 – the first time for the southern hemisphere;
• securing exclusively for Melbourne the record-breaking exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, which attracted more than 796,000 attendees in 2011;
• partnering with the US PGATOUR to bring one of the most prestigious international golfing tournaments, the Presidents Cup, to Melbourne in 2011; and
• attracting the premiere seasons of blockbuster theatrical productions including Mary Poppins in 2010, War Horse in 2012, and King Kong and Ghost in 2013.

Mr McClements has extensive experience in international sport, and prior to the Chief Executive role at VMEC had held senior roles in commercial, marketing and public affairs in the brewing, financial services and sporting industries.

Prior to Mr McClements' appointment at VMEC he managed the Corporate Affairs and Strategy functions for the International Cricket Council (ICC) in London as General Manager - Corporate Affairs and spent four years from 2002 to 2006 working in London and Dubai with the ICC.  The role with the ICC followed a term with the then Australian Cricket Board’s Senior Executive Team as General Manager - Public Affairs.

Before moving to specialise in international sport, Mr McClements spent seven years in public affairs and communications consultancy for a wide range of clients across business, financial services, brewing and sporting industries.

2013 Panelist

Brendan McKenna

Chair, Adventure Queensland

Biography

Brendan McKenna has spent the last 24 years in the Hotel, Tourism & Hospitality sector predominantly in Australia. He developed a passion for the industry while studying accountancy at University. Through opportunities with multinational hotels companies he has managed to work in almost every level of accommodation & tourism operation as well as departments. He has a Masters in Hotel & Hospitality from Griffith University. For the past 8 years Brendan has been in the Youth & Adventure sector of Tourism. He is currently a General Manager of Base, Chair of Adventure Queensland & Chair of the Backpacker & Youth Tourism Advisory Panel.

2013 Panelist

Carmen Pavlovic

Director & CEO, Global Creatures

Biography

Carmen Pavlovic was educated in Melbourne and holds a Bachelor of Arts and an MA in Business Administration. Throughout the 1990s, Carmen's career spanned various theatre companies including the Really Useful Company where she was executive producer. Carmen eventually relocated to London as executive producer at Clear Channel Entertainment.

Later she became the Director of the International Production Department for Stage Entertainment responsible for establishing new territories (including Russia, Italy and France), licensing, overall programming of 25 theatres across Europe and overseeing all productions in the UK, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Spain and Russia. For Stage Entertainment Carmen was also the international executive producer of the European premiere of Dirty Dancing in Germany and subsequently Holland, the Russian speaking productions of Cats and Mamma Mia! (the first open-ended musicals in Moscow); the German speaking production of Wicked; The Spanish speaking production of The Producers; the French speaking productions of Sam Mendes' Cabaret at the prestigious Folies Bergeres and The Lion King at the Mogodor Theatre in Paris.

In 2008 Carmen returned to Australia to take up the role of CEO and board member of Global Creatures. Since that time she has rapidly expanded the organisation and production slate such that Global Creatures is now one of the largest producers of new work in the world.

2013 Panelist & Keynote Speaker

Catherine Bates

General Manager Brand & International PR, Tourism New Zealand

Biography

Catherine Bates is General Manager Brand and International PR at Tourism New Zealand. She is responsible for the integration of Tourism New Zealand's brand, marketing research, events, and international media teams, and has responsibility for the consumer travel website www.newzealand.com. In 2012 Catherine was appointed project lead on the New Zealand Country Story; a project with an objective to deliver a shared story about New Zealand that helps to communicate the country's distinct and unique attributes to international audiences around the world.

Catherine has been with Tourism New Zealand for 18 years in varying roles including overseeing the '100% Pure New Zealand' campaign Graduating from Massey University in 1994, she has a BBS Hons majoring in Management and DBS majoring in Business Communication.

2013 Panelist

Dan Gregory

Co-Founder & CEO, The Impossible Institute

An evangelist for truth in a world of spin

Dan Gregory is the co-founder and CEO of research, training and innovation think tank, The Impossible Institute.

A leader in the field of marketing and advertising, Dan has won awards for creativity and effectiveness around the world, working for corporations as diverse as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Aussie Home Loans.

He currently works as a researcher, trainer and a social commentator as well as a corporate speaker on behaviour, innovation and leadership. He also sits as Creative Chair on the board of digital hot-shop, New Republique, and works as an ambassador for Diabetes Australia, the White Ribbon Foundation and Thought Leaders Global.

A regular on ABC TV’s The Gruen Transfer, Dan is a rare evangelist for truth in a world of spin and encourages his audiences to “Sell their Soul”.

2013 Panelist

Daniel Gschwind

Chief Executive, Tourism Industry Council

Biography

Daniel Gschwind is the CEO for the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC).  QTIC is Queensland’s peak tourism industry body with more than 3,500 regional members.  

Daniel is a Director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC) and the National Tourism Alliance (NTA). He represents QTIC on various committees and advisory boards including the Tourism Forecasting Committee, the Bond University Regional Advisory Board, the GBR National Landscapes Steering Committee, the Tourism Research Advisory Board, Skills Queensland Industry Reference Group and the Labour and Skills Working Group.  In the past 12 months, Daniel has presented at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP-11) in Hyderabad, India, the ACIUCN World Heritage Symposium, the Second Australian Earth System Outlook Conference and the Queensland Tropical Health Alliance Conference.

Daniel is an Adjunct Professor to the School of Tourism at the University of Queensland.  He is the Honorary Consul of Switzerland for Queensland.Daniel holds an honours degree in economics from the University of Queensland and has worked as a senior economist with Queensland Treasury.  He is a Vice Patron of Surf Life Saving Queensland.He has previously been involved in yacht charter operations in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for ten years.

2013 Panelist

Leigh Harry

Chief Executive, Tourism Victoria & Deputy Secretary, Tourism & Aviation

Biography

Leigh Harry was appointed Chief Executive, Tourism Victoria and Deputy Secretary, Tourism & Aviation in October 2011. In this role he is the senior executive charged with providing strategic leadership to the Victorian Tourism Commission in its key activities aimed at growing all elements of the tourism industry within Victoria.

Leigh is recognised as an international leader in the field of businessevents, having held the positions of International President of both the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) and International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) from 2006-2010.

 Leigh has had extensive experience working with both State and Federal Government and the private sector.  Before joining the team in October 2011, Leigh was Chief Executive of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Melbourne’s new six star green star 5000 seat world-class convention centre.

2013 Panelist

Paul Fox

Chief Executive Officer, Aviation/Aerospace Australia

Biography

Paul Fox is the chief executive officer of Aviation/Aerospace Australia – the national association for the Australian aviation and aerospace industries. The association is an independent, not-for-profit organisation whose primary goal is the long-term health and sustainability of the sector in Australia.

Prior to his current roles, Paul was regional director of the US-based Flight Safety Foundation. He was responsible for establishing the Foundation’s Asia Pacific Regional Office in early 2009. During his time with the Foundation he was responsible for the development of the Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) Program – a ground breaking global safety program for aviation operations in the resources and allied sectors.

Paul was previously General Manager of the Australian Davos Connection (an affiliate of the World Economic Forum), responsible for overseeing some of Australia’s most important gatherings of senior corporate, political, government, and community leaders. In this role he was also responsible for the delivery of the Energy and Minerals Business Council meeting as part of the 2006 G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors held in Melbourne.

Prior to this, Paul has run a CEO forum, represented a multi-national aviation security and counter-terrorism technology company in Australia, and hosted a large number of high-profile corporate events across Australia, including the launch activities of Virgin Blue Airlines in August 2000.

2013 Panelist

Rodney Harrex

Chief Executive, South Australian Tourism Commission

Biography

Rodney Harrex has over 20 years experience with Tourism Australia, he has worked in various teams and offices around the world. His most recent role as TA’s Regional General Manager UK/Northern Europe is one he has held for seven years.

He joins the South Australian Tourism Commission as Chief Executive with vast tourism experience and a wealth of contacts. His thorough understanding of the industry and, proven track record in delivering high quality partnership based marketing campaigns, will be hugely beneficial in his new role. He is highly respected and is looking forward to working with the South Australian industry to promote South Australia to domestic and international visitors alike.

2013 Panelist & Keynote Speaker

Rodney Payne

Think! Social Media

Biography

Rodney is co-founder of Think! Social Media, a boutique digital agency for tourism destinations and businesses with offices in Vancouver, Michigan, Sydney and Amsterdam. Think! has worked with hundreds of organisations all over the world to help them adapt to the digital age and understand how the social web affects their marketing activity.

 Rodney has presented on the strategic implications of social media on destination marketing at conferences all over the world, including; ENTER and ETC eBusiness Academy in Europe, Indaba in South Africa, DMAI and SoMeT in North America and at many regional tourism conferences throughout Canada.

2013 Panelist

Simon Currant

Chief Executive, Principal, Simon Currant & Associates and Chairman of the TICT

Biography

With more than 30 years’ experience as a tourism visionary, developer, operator and consultant specialising in remote area and marine tourism, Simon’s focus on the tourism experience, particularly the wilderness and Tasmania’s reputation for excellence in the production of food, wine and beverages, is now synonymous with the Tasmanian brand.

He is the visionary and developer behind some of Tasmania and Australia’s most celebrated tourism experiences including Cradle Mountain Lodge, Franklin Manor, Strahan Village, Gordon River Cruises, and Peppermint Bay and Hobart Cruises, and is a partner in the newly established Tasmanian Air Adventures.

Simon's current development is Pumphouse at St Clair in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area. Due to open summer 2013/14, Pumphouse at St Clair will see the transformation of historic industrial buildings into a unique wilderness lodge where guests will sleep in the heritage pumphouse building out on the waters of the central highlands' beautiful Lake St Clair.

In 2010, in recognition of his experience and contribution to the tourism industry; particularly his strong advocacy for product and service excellence through industry accreditation, Simon was appointed the inaugural Chairman of the Tourism Quality Council of Australia (TQCA).

Simon has been Chairman of the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania since 2000, is a current Director of Tourism Tasmania and a former long‐term Director of TT‐Line, operator of the Spirit of Tasmania ferries.

Simon, a Churchill Fellow, was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 and was also named Tasmanian of the Year in 2004. In 2006 Simon was honored as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community and the Tasmanian tourism industry.

Simon consults both nationally and internationally, providing expert advice in operations, new destination evaluation, market evaluation, and product concept development.

2013 Panelist

Steven Wright

CEO, Tourism & Events Queensland

Biography

As CEO of Queensland’s chief Tourism and Events organisation, Steven is responsible for the promotion and marketing of Queensland to attract international and domestic travellers and bidding and securing major events which deliver an economic and community benefit to the state.

Prior to joining Tourism and Events Queensland, Steven was founder and principal consultant at SBEC Solutions.  Where he developed:

• strategic plans for major sporting organisations leading to sustained growth;  
• undertook detailed financial and business analysis and modelling;
• created comprehensive business turnaround plans with associated organisational restructures;
• generated significant new commercial revenue streams;
• restructured commercial membership products and programs; and
• undertook sponsorship audits, devised strategy and negotiated numerous multi-million dollar sponsorships

Prior to this, Steven was Chief Executive Officer Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) responsible for both the Australian Formula One and Motorcycle Grands Prix and CEO of Richmond Football Club (RFC).

As well as his extensive practical experience, Steven also has formal legal and financial qualifications B.Ec (accounting major), LLB (Hons), LLM).

2013 Keynote Speaker

Michele Levine

Chief Executive Officer, Roy Morgan Research

Biography

Michele Levine was born with a passion for people and what makes them tick, social justice and an insatiable curiosity about life.

With over 30 years’ experience as a researcher, Michele has been responsible for thousands of surveys, including many of the largest research projects ever undertaken in Australia, many of which continue to play a critically important part in shaping our society today.

With a fundamental belief in the empowering value of information, Michele was instrumental in the development and refinement of Roy Morgan Single Source, the world’s leading consumer study (based on over 50,000 interviews a year) and, in 2010, the introduction of the Roy Morgan Business Survey. 

Since her appointment as CEO in 1992, Michele has been responsible for the launch of Roy Morgan Single Source in other markets, including New Zealand and Indonesia and is driving the impressive global growth of the Company in major markets like the USA and UK.

2013 Keynote Speaker

Ed Parsons

Geospatial Technologist, Google

Google Geo: the magic behind the map

Maps are more widely available than at any time in our history, and although to the untrained eye may look very familiar they are in fact a million miles away from the atlas we may have used in our geography lessons at school. See how Google creates the maps that are used by a billion people around the world and how each users experience is likely to change as maps develop into highly personalised digital companions!

Biography

Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google, with responsibility for evangelising Google's mission to organise the world's information using geography, and tools including Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Maps for Mobile. In his role he also maintains links with Universities, Research and Standards Organisations which are involved in the development of Geospatial Technology.

Ed is based in Google's London office, and anywhere else he can plug in his laptop.

Ed was the first Chief Technology Officer in the 200-year-old history of Ordnance Survey, and was instrumental in moving the focus of the organisation from mapping to Geographical Information.

Ed came to the Ordnance Survey from Autodesk, where he was EMEA Applications Manager for the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Division.

He earned a Masters degree in Applied Remote Sensing from Cranfield Institute of Technology and holds a Honorary Doctorate in Science from Kingston University, London.

Ed is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is the author of numerous articles, professional papers and presentations to International Conferences and he developed one of first weblogs in the Geospatial Industry at www.edparsons.com.