Alan E. Young, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Puzzle Partner. Previously, Alan has held a number of executive level positions with Start-Up companies such as Newtrade Technologies, (acquired by Expedia), Hotel Booking Solutions (acquired by IBS Software) and TrustYou. Alan is past Chair of The Board of Directors of The OpenTravel Alliance, a global hospitality/travel industry technology standards association. Alan has also been very involved with other industry associations most notably AHLA, HEDNA and HTNG. He is also a presenter and has been a guest speaker at World Travel Mart, ITB, HITEC, Online Revealed, The HOT Conference.
Margaret Ady serves as Vice President of Marketing at TrustYou, an online reputation management company specializing in the hospitality industry. She graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in Economics and Psychology, and where she was awarded the Annenberg Communications Pathway Grant in 2004 for her research in new technology and its impact on health and healthcare decision-making. Margaret has extensive experience in research, marketing and branding strategy, having served in leadership positions at The Walt Disney Company (where she was appointed to the company’s Peer Advisory Board) and The Oprah Winfrey Network. She has also provided research and strategic consulting services to 20th Television (Fox), Nielsen and many other companies in FMCG/Entertainment/IT industries.
Chris Teso is the founder and CEO of Chirpify, a company working to revolutionize how consumers transact with brands by enabling multi-channel marketing and advertising conversion via social media. As educated designer, and autodidact software engineer, Chris has spent most of his career in the advertising industry as Digital Creative Director, in between founding three companies in the past 16 years. An experienced orator, Chris has been a speaker at The Future of Payments, Under The Radar, TechFestNW, and The Future of E-commerce conferences. A dog father, adventurer, motorcycle enthusiast, and photographer, Chris can often be found in the middle of nowhere living in the moment.
Evelyn Oreskovich is President and Founder of Hospitality Evolution Resources. As a founding member of HEDNA, the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, Evelyne was instrumental in cultivating education and advancement in the electronic distribution landscape. With significant experience in chain level and property level reservations, sales, marketing, and operations for lodging properties throughout the US, Asia and Europe, Evelyne brings practical and first-hand knowledge to the clients of HER. Evelyne’s ability to analyze an operation, identify needs and implement solutions designed to yield increased profits and improved productivity has proven to be a great asset for our clients.
Robert Cole the founder of RockCheetah where he helps companies bridge the chasms separating marketing strategy, travel technology and operations to create value by profitably improving customer engagement. He is a frequent speaker at travel conferences including The Association of Travel Marketing Executives Annual Conference, The PhoCusWright Conference, PhoCusWright@ITB, The Open Travel Alliance Advisory Forum, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals HITEC, HFTP, The Leading Hotels of The World Global Sales & Marketing Conference, The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International Online Marketing and Revenue Management Conference, HEDNA and more. He has also worked on projects that have helped shape industry standards including the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association’s (HEDNA) descriptive content standards, the Hospitality Industry Technology Information Standards (HITIS) transaction and content specifications, and the original Open Travel Alliance interoperability committee.
Jules Sieburgh has more than 30 years experience in the hospitality and travel industry and most recently as Senior Vice President for Kerzner International Bahamas overseeing the IT department . Prior to Kerzner International Jules served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Host Marriott Corp, where as a member of the Capital Expenditure team was accountable for evaluating technology requests from the hotel properties ranging from $15m to $20M annually. Sieburgh also served as Director of Industry Relations at priceline.com, Vice President of Hotel Systems at InterContinental Hotels and Vice President Information Technology at Sonesta Hotels. He is a past Board Member of Passkey International and has served in various roles as advisory member for technology firms and for the American Hotel & Lodging Association as well as the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals. Jules has a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration, both from Cornell University.
Valyn Perini is the Vice President of Strategic Relationships for Nor1. She was most recently the CEO of the OpenTravel Alliance, where she oversaw the operations of the organization, including developing and executing strategies to reach the goal of standardized electronic distribution of travel and traveler information. Her travel career includes stints with InterContinental, Westin and Swissôtel, with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a travel technology consultant, and as the director of product strategy for Newmarket International. Valyn speaks on industry topics at events around the world, and writes about travel when she can find the time. Originally from Atlanta, Valyn now lives in Boston.
Seth Christian is CIO of RealVoice and has spent 20+ years in executive roles helping both public and private companies drive over $1B in revenue. He developed the first internet-native SaaS model for hotel enterprise management and the first budget extended-stay hotel chain from concept to IPO with the best metrics and ROE in the industry creating $200M+ in shareholder value. Seth’s successful management, operations, sales, technology, fund raising and growth experience is due to his creativity, strategy, vision, execution and management style. Along with C-level positions with Suburban Hotels, HotelTools, Hotel Information Systems, among others, he has consulted for Starwood, IHG, Radiant Systems, Galaxy Systems, RealVoice and Knowcross Solutions in acting executive management roles among numerous other start-ups. Worldwide travel and hospitality technology management experience has also led to guest speaker engagements at worldwide conferences including WTA, PATA, ITB and Hitec among others.
Flo Lugli, Principal of Navesink Advisory Group, LLC, is a well-known expert on travel industry distribution and the implications of consumer transparency on branding. Lugli has been recognized as one of the “Most Powerful Women” in Travel for 7 years by Travel Agent Magazine and among the top 75 hotel executives and top 10 technology experts by Lodging Magazine. She has also been recognized as one of the most influential women in hospitality technology by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). Most recently, Lugli served as the executive vice president of marketing for Wyndham Hotel Group, which encompasses approximately 7400 hotels under 15 brands. Lugli also served as a board member for buuteeq, Inc., a Seattle based company that offers a cloud-based Digital Marketing System (DMS) for hotels and lodging properties, and which was recently acquired by The Priceline Group. She has served two terms as president of HEDNA, on the advisory board of TheBeatLive and as a member of the advisory board of the BTN Group. Lugli has also served as a member of HSMAI’s America’s board of directors and, while at Wyndham Hotel Group, served as a board member and Chairwoman for Room Key, a joint venture between 6 of the largest hotel companies.
Daniel E. Craig is an author, the former general manager of Opus Hotel, and a leading expert in digital reputation management. He is the CEO and founder of Reknown, a Vancouver-based consultancy that helps the hospitality businesses understand and adopt the latest trends, tools and best practices in customer service, marketing strategy and reputation management. Reknown works with a range of companies, from hotels to technology companies to destination management organizations, and has provided training to thousands of hoteliers and travel marketers worldwide. For more info visit www.reknown.com.
Mark Hoare is a Partner with The Prism Partnership, a Boston based consulting practice focused on the hospitality and travel industry, specializing in bridging the gap that so often exists between technology, operations and marketing. Following an international career in hotel management and operations with; The Savoy Group, Hilton, Sheraton, Royal Classic Hotels and Disney, Mark has held executive positions with established technology companies such as; Hotel Information Systems, Anasazi, Pegasus Solutions, and Hotel Booking Solutions. Today, as ever, Mark is passionate about breakthrough technologies that remove legacy barriers to commerce, and also those that open up brand new opportunities for our industry. Mark writes regularly for the industry press and is an active member and speaker with industry associations such as HTNG and HFTP.
Jennifer Ginty, with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, is a seasoned executive with a history of generating multi-million dollar revenues through digital distribution, supplier relations and product development for the hospitality industry. She has expertise in distribution, ecommerce, product development and technology management. She has a talent for identifying and capitalizing on profit-generating opportunities and operational excellence on a global scale. Her ability to understand the gaps and analyze the solutions to build a solid strategy has allowed her to be successful in managing the distribution business directives for her clients. In her previous positions with Hyatt Hotels Corporation, she was responsible for third party distribution and marketing strategies focusing on distribution cost management, customer booking behavior, connectivity and system & product innovation. She was elected to the Board of Directors for two hospitality associations focused on distribution – HEDNA and OpenTravel – where she had the opportunity to be instrumental in developing the industry standards relating to distribution.
Anne is President and CEO of Sequel Hotels and Resorts and is one of Canada’s leading Hospitality and Resort executives. She is a disrupter and innovator with dynamic experience in a wide range of projects in Hotel Management, Operations, design and development. She is a creative and empowering leader, a trailblazer, awarded for her ability to motivate teams and create success. Anne specializes in the development of unique brand cultures, revenue generation, and hospitality management. Anne has experience leading branded and independent hotels, resorts and mixed use developments. She is a dynamic speaker, skilled motivator and specializes in strategic digital platforms and social media marketing to create financial success with award winning results. Sequel has been featured in Profit Magazine and has been recognized in Hoteliers Magazine top 50 Hotel companies.
Shayne Paddock is the CIO of ZDirect. He is responsible for the overall data architecture and product management of ZDirect’s suite of Hotel Marketing Automation tools. Shayne has over 19 years of experience in the areas of email marketing, data profiling, loyalty management, guest surveys, hospitality systems integration, data warehousing, and analytic reporting platforms. Prior to working in hospitality he worked with the search engine Excite.com as well as several other dot com startups all revolving around database marketing. In his downtime Shayne prefers to be lost on a mountain or exploring remote areas of Africa with no access to WiFi.
Stephen Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2007, he launched Rezgo, a cloud based software as a service tour and activity booking engine for small and medium sized tour operators. He is a Past Chair of the Open Travel Alliance. He enjoys public speaking and speaks regularly at conferences around the World including Travelcom, PhoCusWright, Adventure Travel World Summit, E-Tourism Summit, ATPS, On-line Revealed, and others.
In addition to his tourism initiatives, Stephen is an active participant in ongoing business improvement in his community and is a Past Board Chair of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Past Board Member of the Coho Society, Past Board Member of the Pacific Club, and Co-founder of Travel Massive Vancouver.
Alex Kremer is a serial entrepreneur and travel industry consultant. He was previously Senior Vice President of Partnerships at Nor1, Inc where he led product and supply partnerships for Nor1’s Travel Merchandising Platform. Prior to that, he co-founded Flextrip, a tours & activities merchandising company which was acquired by Nor1. He has also founded 3 other startups in the Wine, Music and Technology industries. As a Techstars graduate, Alex is actively involved in the startup community via numerous advisory roles, mentorships and investments. Alex has spoken at notable travel industry conferences including WebInTravel, World Travel Market, ITB, EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit, the OpenTravel Symposium, and others. He is based in Denver, Colorado.