Speakers

Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis’ 20-year career has taken him from local television to The Today Show. He’s marketed for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. His latest book, Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships, is one of Amazon.com’s Top 100 Marketing Books.

For more than a decade, Drew has led the charge to change the way publishers think and how brands market their products in a digital world. In 2001, Andrew co-founded Tippingpoint Labs, where, as the chief strategy officer, Andrew and his team helped companies like Putnam Investments, Breville and TomTom. They built digital strategies for publishers like Rodale and Meredith.

Andrew has produced for Charles Kuralt and MTV. He produced a documentary film called Roadside Ambition: The amazing true story of one small town with two huge balls. And yes, he’s even worked for The Muppets in New York. Andrew is a knowledgeable, digital-world marketer who entertains his audiences while sharing real value.

Andrew Grill

Global Partner, IBM Interactive Experience

Andrew is an internationally renowned thought leader in the fields of social business, digital transformation and social media networks. At IBM he leads a team of social business professionals across Europe providing strategic advice and delivering complex projects across all industries.

Previously, Andrew was CEO of leading social influence platform Kred. He presents at international conferences on a regular basis, while writing his blog LondonCalling.co which is about digital transformation and social business trends.

Sara Fay

Social Media Neuromarketing I Strategic Consultant, WordofMedia

As a world thought leader and Neuromarketing pioneer Sara brings together Strategy, Brand & Social Behaviour into one holistic framework through the Perception Adoption Process© giving business and brands academic rigour to their marketing practices. Specialising in Neuroscience at Oxford University, Sara’s consultancy received Gartner Cool Vender 2013 in Consumer Dynamics whilst WordofMedia brings together the worlds of Social Media and Strategic Neuromarketing.

Sara has worked with tourism boards, bloggers and entrepreneurs as well as corporate institutions and consumer brands. Her unique approach and deep understanding of the human mind brings fresh perspective to creating engagement and tying this into your strategic goals. Perception, Priming, Attention, Memory, Reward, Neural profiling, Fear extinction, Adoption protocols, Decision Making and Demand creation are at the centre of her work as a Strategic Neuromarketer.

André Morys

CEO & Founder, Web Arts

Andre is Publisher of Germany’s most influential blog about conversion optimization, called “konversionsKRAFT”. He is also an author, speaker, university lecturer and entrepreneur. With 40 consultants, his consulting company, Web Arts, is Germanys leading agency specializing in Optimization and E-Commerce, Behavioral Economics, UX and Testing. It is regarded as one of the most successful conversion agencies worldwide. He is also host and organizer of conversionSUMMIT.org, Germanys leading conference for conversion optimization.

Caspar Diederik

Videographer and Spirit of StoryTravelers

Caspar is among today’s most prominent travel videographers. He is a curious teller of digital stories and a lover of natural things. His life changed dramatically four years ago as he left a managerial position in a direct marketing and sales company, moved from his home in Holland to southern Italy, and began building his dream.

Caspar’s background in social cultural science, paired with a lifelong love of photography, eventually led to the creation of several travel storytelling projects that became StoryTravelers, a tribe of digital storytellers who chase and cultivate authentic experiences around the globe and recount them in evocative ways. His work is more than just making videos, travelling the world, and sharing photos on social media. It’s all of this melded together with unlimited creativity, a passion for real connections and experiences, and the ability to share his unique vision with the world. Already his videos have received more than a million views through multiple platforms and channels. His journeys are read and shared daily by many followers and fans. Today, Caspar’s work is much sought after by national tourism boards and marketing campaigns from Germany to South Africa and Canada to Mauritius, often in collaboration with the iambassador travel blogger network. He is currently based in Matera, southern Italy, where his professional journey began, but he considers himself independent of place and ready for any exploit.

Rachelle Lucas

Founder, The Travel Bite

A foodie with a zest for life and passion for travel, Rachelle has been blogging since 2007 when she started documenting her life as an innkeeper. As her wanderlust grew, she sold the inn to pursue travel writing full-time and has since been to over 40 countries in pursuit of the tastiest meal. In addition to writing, Rachelle is also an experienced on-camera personality that is frequently featured on television, from national commercials to morning shows.

James Thomlinson

Partner & Managing Director – Digital, Bell Pottinger

James founded Bell Pottinger’s digital division, which today sits at the heart of one of the world’s leading communications agencies. During his 10 year career at Bell Pottinger he has planned and executed campaigns for a wide-range of international travel, transport and lifestyle clients. He has advised governments; brands from both the FTSE 100 and Fortune 500; international charities and start-ups on integrated communications briefs, as well as delivering complex digital projects, such as websites; apps; intranets; online branding collateral; corporate films; webcasts; animations and infographics. Clients include South African Tourism, Emirates, Canadian Affair, Etihad, Carnival Cruises, CLIA, Fortnum & Mason, Royal Albert Hall, Volvo, Kraft, Virgin Media, plus numerous high-profile individuals, including heads of state and members of the Royal Family.

Mario Cacciottolo

Journalist and founder of Someone Once Told Me

Mario is a multimedia journalist for the BBC News website and was previously a reporter for two highly respected UK local newspapers. He has travelled to Israel and the West Bank to write about suicide bombers, reported in Sri Lanka following the 2004 Tsunami, investigated prostitution at the London Olympics, interviewed a woman whose father ran part of Auschwitz concentration camp, covered the Maltese referendum on the introduction of divorce and reported on many of the UK’s breaking and hard news stories over the past eight years. In July 2014 he wrote a story about Lego washing up on beaches in Cornwall, which became one of the BBC’s most popular online features of all time. Mario is also the founder of Someone Once Told Me and posts travel photographs at Travelling Lensman.

Maximillian Muhr

Head of SEO, BILD and CEO poliSYS UG 

As Head of SEO for BILD, the leading Newspaper in Germany, Max is responsible for the SEO-Team and all SEO-activities within the company including SEO for Travelbook and Stylebook. A frequent speaker on SEO at events such as SMX-Munich and SEO-Cruise, he is passionate about helping people do SEO right while also being entertaining on stage. Max is hugely successful in this endeavour and has been asked back to The Social Travel Summit to guide delegates to greater success through more effective SEO in 2015. In addition to his session on SEO he will provide one-on-one consultations (space is limited).

Shane Dallas

Speaker and Founder of The Travel Camel

With 25 years of experience, Shane Dallas (The Travel Camel) is a highly skilled public speaker who is in demand on the travel, social media and cruise ship speaking circuits. Last year, Shane delivered 30 presentations to audiences in Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America. A winner of numerous speech competitions, he has coached hundreds of people in public speaking and is back again in 2015 to help Summit delegates hone their speaking skills.

Catharina Fischer

Head of Social Media at GNTB

Catharina Fischer has more than 8 years of experience in marketing and sales. She studied Tourism Management at the University of Applied Sciences Munich and at Edinburgh Napier University. She started her career in tourism with an apprenticeship in a small private school in Berlin and worked over 2 years as a freelance project manager for an event consulting agency. Since 2011 she has been responsible for all social media activities and online public relations of the German National Tourist Board and has realized several international campaigns. Whenever it is possible she is keen to share her experiences at events and in workshops worldwide.

Apart from that, Catharina Fischer works as a part-time consultant for enterprises from various industries helping them to improve and enhance their online and social media marketing.

David Arcifa

Corporate Social Media Manager, MSC Cruises

From the Geneva-based HQ of MSC Cruises David designs and implements the company’s global social media strategy for more than 30 countries. Before joining the company in August 2012, he worked for almost five years for Nestlé Italy as Digital Communication and CRM Specialist and for RAI Corporation, Italy’s national public broadcasting company, in New York City. David strongly believes that a combination of brand-generated online content and engagement with independent bloggers is the way ahead for cruise lines seeking a wider market and new customers.

Nicholas Montemaggi

Digital Press Officer, Emilia Romagna Tourism Board

Nicholas is the Digital Press Officer of the Emilia Romagna Tourist Board in Italy. He has been a member of the Tourist Board’s Web Strategy & Marketing department since 2010. He is the co-founder and Project Manager of BlogVille. Launched in 2012, it provides international bloggers a home in Italy, from where they are able to discover the destination in total freedom and to live like a local in Italy. The initiative results in sharing content on their blogs and social media channels, in order to create awareness and especially to fill the gap of the “lack of online content in foreign language” about the region.

The Emilia Romagna Tourist Board improves its digital strategy every year, creating new concepts and campaigns and working actively with online influencers and storytellers from its key markets, in order to present the destination to visitors both online and offline in a completely new way.

Keith Jenkins

Founder and Publisher of Velvet Escape

Keith Jenkins is the Founder and Publisher of the Velvet Escape luxury travel blog. Based in Amsterdam, Keith left his ten-year investment banking career to travel the world and carve out a new career as a travel blogger and social media advocate. He has visited more than 80 countries across six continents. In addition to being a travel blogger, Keith is the CEO of iambassador – the world’s leading international travel blogger network – a company he founded in 2011. He also speaks often at travel and social media conferences about online marketing and blogger collaboration. Keith is also the co-founder of the Global Bloggers Network, a community of more than 3,000 travel bloggers. Keith has been featured in The New York Times, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler, and has spoken at TEDxTalk.

Kelly Harrison

PR & Communications Executive, USA – VisitBritain

Kelly Harrison is PR & Communications Executive, USA for national tourism board, VisitBritain, handling media relations, social media and public relations integration, digital communications and consumer marketing efforts for Britain’s most important inbound tourism market. Based in VisitBritain’s North American headquarters in New York City, Kelly promotes leisure travel to England, Scotland and Wales, encouraging Americans to visit the UK.

Following a one-year stint in marketing at The Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida, Kelly transitioned to travel public relations in her home state of New Jersey. She also worked with Heathrow Airport around the London 2012 Olympics and The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, providing her first taste of promoting Britain in America – a dream come true for a tried and true Anglophile. Looking for a new challenge that would combine her passion for Britain and travel experience, Kelly joined the VisitBritain PR & Communications team in New York City in August 2013. Kelly has worked closely with the international press and digital teams to further develop VisitBritain’s blogger and social influencer strategy, including the organization’s first-ever global blogger press trip, which saw 30 bloggers from around the world travel across England, Scotland and Wales. In the fall of 2014, Kelly spearheaded VisitBritain’s first-ever partnership with iAmbassador, leading to three iAmbassadors serving as official campaign curators for a national tourism campaign.

Kash Bhattacharya

Founder of BudgetTraveller

Better known as the ‘BudgetTraveller’, Kash Bhattacharya is a travel blogger, blogger outreach specialist and social media professional. 2013 was a landmark year for BudgetTraveller. Kash was shortlisted as a finalist in Best Travel Blogger category at the British Travel Press Awards. In August 2013, Kash launched the Luxury Hostels of Europe e-book which showcased 40 of Europe’s leading Luxury Hostels. The project has been featured by the New York Times, Guardian, CNN and won the most innovative blogging award at World Travel Market last year.  In September 2013, Kash, in partnership with the German National Tourism Office, launched his 2nd e-book: ‘BudgetTraveller’s German Wanderlust- a series of 48 hour travel guides to Germany’s leading youth hotspots which you can download for free here.

Melvin Böcher

Founder of Travel Dudes

Melvin Böcher realized that travel guides were heading for extinction, unless they evolved. He decided to use his experience and knowledge to bring guidebooks to the next level and change the world of hashtags! Traveldudes is the first Social Travel Platform which lets you find social travel content about your destination. The travel posts are shared by travelers around the world, including bloggers and industry. Melvin is one of the top travel influencers online, founder of Traveldudes.org – The Social Travel platform, where travelers can exchange their passion and experiences. Melvin is also the co-founder of the Social Travel Summit, the onlineROIcalculator.com, and iambassador.net, which is known for creating some of the most successful and innovative marketing campaigns in the travel industry, creating estimated advertising value equivalents of € 1-3 million per campaign with travel bloggers. He created #TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter), which reaches approximately 970,275,000 accounts on Twitter every month.

Mariette du Toit-Helmbold

CEO Destinate

Mariette du Toit-Helmbold is an international destination marketing and tourism thought leader, a writer and public speaker on tourism, travel trends, destination marketing, brand innovation and digital strategy.

She established Destinate, a first of its kind boutique destination and tourism marketing agency, after an enviable tenure of 10 years as the CEO of Cape Town Tourism.

She now works with brands and destinations within and beyond South Africa to unlock their full potential, applying her knowledge and pursuing her passion for innovative, people-centred marketing and tourism by unpacking global consumer trends, new markets, city tourism dynamics, Africa and the impact of new technology and the web on tourism.

Abigail King

Founder, Inside the Travel Lab

Abigail King publishes the award-winning blog Inside the Travel Lab, which focuses on thoughtful luxury as seen by a writer and photographer who swapped a career as a doctor for a life on the road. As a journalist and TV host, Abigail has worked with Lonely Planet, the BBC, National Geographic Traveler and more interviewing Japanese artists, Nagasaki bomb survivors and fans of Paddington Bear. Inside the Travel Lab carries accolades from Vanity Fair, Stylist, Grazia and more and has been described as one of “the best in the world” by National Geographic Traveler, Lonely Planet and the BBC. It has partnered with Canon, Cathay Pacific and Eurail to create bespoke digital projects and has been a member of both iAmbassador and the Must Love Festivals team since their inception.

Alastair McKenzie

Travel Journalist and Social Media Influencer

Alastair McKenzie is a travel journalist and ‘influencer’ with one foot in traditional media and the other in social media. A local and national (Classic FM) radio travel presenter since 1989, he moved online just before the millennium and has been a freelance digital travel journalist ever since. He has been Webmaster and a regular committee member of the British Guild of Travel Writers since 2002, and an active member of the travel blogger community since 2010, speaking or moderating at travel related social media events, and advising the travel & tourism industry on blogging and social media developments. His own long-standing travel site & blog is Alastair McKenzie’s Travel Lists, and he hosts The Travel Coffee Break, a regular weekly ‘live’ Hangout on Air.

Angelika Schwaff

Founder of Reisefreunde

Angelika studied Journalism and Communications at Freie Universität Berlin. Following her Masters, she worked as a radio journalist in Berlin, then became a freelance writer and filmed a 90 minute documentary for Public Broadcasting Television. From 2003 to the end of 2007 Angelika held a position as a Press Officer with Air Berlin, launching and establishing the airline’s new low cost products. In 2008 she started working at Germanwings as Head of International Communications and as a spokesperson. In 2012 she left Germanwings to start her own business. Angelika is a professional travel blogger of the blog Reisefreunde and a consultant in blogger relations, social media and crisis communications. She also started to take on assignments for travel publications and has been a speaker at international blogger conferences such as TBEX, TBU, Blogst, and the Hive. In 2012 she founded the Reiseblogger Kollektiv (German Travel Blogger Collective) to set professional standards in the German travel blogosphere. Later that year, she joined Keith Jenkins and Melvin Böcher at iambassador to become their Chief Strategy Officer. Her home base is Berlin.

Erik van Erp

Founder, Around the Globe

Erik van Erp is the founder of Around the Globe. What started as a personal blog during a trip in 2002 became one of the biggest active independent travel communities in the Netherlands. Erik, a traveling nomad himself, knows the needs of travellers. For over 10 years he uses his IT background to develop unique tools to provide support to travellers during their journey.

Erik is a speaker at travel conferences, universities and is one of the initiators of travelbloggers.nl. This platform where travelbloggers, online journalists, publishers and online magazines work together collaborate, amplify each other campaigns and share knowledge. Together with the travel industry they search for the best possible results, resources and possibilities to effectively create successful campaigns.

Janice Waugh

Founder of Solo Traveler and Full Flight Press

Janice is author of The Solo Traveler’s Handbook and publisher of Solo Traveler, the blog for those who travel alone. Her niche blog attracts more than 100,000 unique visitors every month and is supported by strong social communities including the 75,000-strong Solo Travel Society on Facebook. Janice also publishes a newsletter for solo travelers and another on solo travel market news for the travel industry. Janice has spoken internationally about travel blogging and solo travel and has been interviewed on television and radio, including NPR, CBC, and Global. She has been quoted in media outlets from CNN to the Oprah Blog, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and USA Today. Janice is also founder of Full Flight Press, publisher of The Traveler’s Handbooks series.

Yvonne Zagermann

Founder of JUST travelous

Yvonne Zagermann is the publisher of the award-winning travel blog JUST travelous. She is also chief editor of the Smart Travel-Hub on the popular German Tech-Blog mobilegeeks.de and content-partner of the Berlin online magazine i-ref.de. In 2012 she co-founded the Reiseblogger Kollektiv (German Travel Blogger Collective) to set professional standards in the German Travel Blogosphere. She’s also a member of iambassador. Yvonne has been a speaker at international conferences such as ITB, TBEX, GTM, and STS. Since 2010 she has been working as a freelance TV journalist in Germany. In 2012, she was awarded the Columbus TV Preis by the German travel journalist association for her report “red! @ the city: Berlin.“ Yvonne is based in Berlin.

Matt Long

An experiential luxury traveler at heart, Matt Long shares his adventures with thousands of readers every day through his award winning site LandLopers.com. As someone who has a bad case of the travel bug, Matt travels the world in order to share tips on where to go, what to see and how to experience the best the world has to offer. Based in Washington, DC, Matt has been to more than 65 countries and all 7 continents.

Michael Turtle

Michael Turtle worked for a decade in broadcast media before leaving Australia to travel the world indefinitely. He now uses his journalistic experience to write about his journey on the travel blog, Time Travel Turtle. The website focuses on culture, history, food and people. Time Travel Turtle was named by the Australian Writers Centre as Lifestyle Blog of the Year in 2014. It has been featured in National Geographic Traveller, The Huffington Post, and the Daily Mail UK.

Becki Enright

Becki is a British Travel Press award winning writer and blogger at Borders of Adventure and a travel PR director. Her writing focuses on adventures with a social conscience and journeys to change perceptions, with insight into social, historical, political and economic factors that shape the country. Becki regularly reports on misunderstood or little-known destinations, and if travelling to a well-established or popular destination, aims to find a different angle on it in order to entice readers to dig a little deeper outside of standard ‘to do’ lists.

She has appeared live on Sky News talking about travel in North Korea, and regularly writes for established adventure outlets, travel brands and airline publications. She has worked with some of the biggest consumer brands at some of the UK’s leading international PR consultancies during her 12 year PR career, and has been an ambassador for a variety of tourism boards and partners including Germany, Greece, Finland, Canada, Israel and Borneo.

Tika Larasati

Social Influencer Marketing Manager, Skyscanner

Tika has worked in the travel industry for more than a decade, including experience ranging from front office, marketing to ecommerce in hospitality.

Tika now leads Skyscanner’s relationships with brand ambassadors and social media influencers around the world, forging strategic collaborations and creating engaging and inspirational content for travellers everywhere. In the past five years, Tika has worked closely with many travel bloggers in APAC for various projects, primarily in Singapore and Indonesia.

Before taking on her new role with Skyscanner in the Edinburgh office, Tika was based in Singapore and managed the company’s marketing activities in Indonesia.

Emma Gorman

Emma Gorman manages Destination PR at Tourism Ireland’s Head Office in Dublin.
She has over 15 years’ experience marketing Ireland as a holiday destination overseas. In her current role she is responsible for Digital PR, Blogger outreach & collaboration, media content creation, as well as collaboration with the Film industry and promotion of festivals. She recently developed and delivered an internal training programme for Tourism Ireland’s international publicity team on digital PR skills, including social media skills and a module on working with bloggers.
Prior to taking up this role, Emma worked in Tourism Ireland’s German Office in Frankfurt, initially on the PR team and later in a consumer marketing role.
Emma originally studied French & German in Trinity College Dublin. Later she completed an MBA with the Open University and most recently she completed a Diploma in Digital Marketing in Dublin’s Digital Marketing Institute.