As a dedicated and passionate tourism and local government professional, Joel has extensive experience spanning 12 years in roles in Victoria’s Goldfields region as Manager Tourism, Events and Culture at Central Goldfields Shire Council, and as the current Coordinator Visitor Economy at City of Ballarat in Victoria. To accompany this local government experience, Joel spent 7 years as a board member of Bendigo Regional Tourism Board up until 2019, where he moved for his new role at the other bookend of the Goldfields, in Ballarat.

Joel has driven and delivered strategic projects that have included but not limited to the Ballarat Traveller Experience Plan, Ballarat Visitor Economy Strategy, Bendigo Region Destination Management Plan, Central Goldfields Tourism and Events Strategy, along with various Regional Brand Personality Blueprints and Visitor Servicing strategies.

Lori has had a diverse career in community and economic development for over 25 years. From Regional Marketing Manager at Tourism NSW, Community and Economic Development Manager at a Local Government Authority through to Senior Manager of Place Activation and Strategy at Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

In the past 15 years through her business, Lorick Management, she has held roles such as Event Manager of the NSW Tourism Awards, Marketing Manager of New England North West Tourism and CEO of Outback NSE Tourism, Hills Hawkesbury Tourism and South Coast Tourism. Through her business she now holds the role of Project Manager for Sturt’s Steps in Outback NSW, CEO of Outdoors NSW and General Manager of Visitor Economy Development.

Hi, I’m Hamish, CEO at Smarter Tourism Technology and founder of Booking Aggregator.  I love tech,  it fascinates, amazes, sometimes frustrates and occasionally terrifies me.  I have spent over 20 years working in a variety of roles in the tech industry.  For the past 7 years my focus has been primarily on Travel and tourism. 

When I started Smarter Tourism Technology it was with the aim of helping my clients make their technology work harder, so that they don’t have to.  From booking platform setup and integrations to off grid public Wi-Fi this remains our goal.

MyTravelResearch.com founder Carolyn Childs’ passion is empowering travel organisations to succeed. Her career spans 30+ years & 35+ countries including with Travel Research Centre, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) & heading research giant TNS’ Australian travel vertical(now Kantar).  She is a top-rated speaker; has published an e-book on emerging markets and white papers on Key Trends, Markets (e.g. India) and Tourism Sectors (Culture & Heritage, Luxury Travel) & Policy (Taxes). She is Immediate Past President TTRA Asia-Pacific Chapter, a Certified Member of the Market Research Society, a member of WTACH’s (World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage) Advisory Panel and was on the UNWTO Panel of World Tourism Experts.

Marcus has led the WA regional tourism organisation, Australia’s Golden Outback, since 2017, overseeing its transition from a destination marketing focussed entity to one that also focuses on targeted destination development initiatives to facilitate the implementation of local tourism strategies, experience and product development and capability building. This has also seen the development of innovative partnerships with local governments that has seen the development and LGA funded in-region Tourism Development Managers in Esperance and the WA Goldfields. Australia’s Golden Outback launched their Agritourism Strategy in 2023 and its implementation has included the formation of a new cross-regional WA Stations Stays Collective, which has seen the mentoring of a number of existing Station Stays and other pastoralists exploring diversification into tourism, attendance at ATE and expansion of the group into the North West of WA. Previously, Marcus has held senior positions at Tourism Western Australia, Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association, RTO Welcome to Yorkshire and UK treetop adventure company Go Ape. Before discovering tourism as Head of Marketing at Go Ape, Marcus had positions at brand and marketing agencies in the UK and Sweden.

Dr Sarah Gardiner has a PhD in Marketing. She is an Associate Professor in tourism and the Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism. Sarah has worked for the past 25 years in the Australian tourism industry, including working for over seven years as the Senior Industry Development Officer (Tourism) for Gold Coast City Council. Sarah was responsible for producing the city’s first tourism strategy, Our Tourism City, and has managed several key tourism industry projects, such as development strategies for the Gold Coast’s youth and backpacker, food and wine, and nature-based tourism markets. She also coordinated major research projects for Griffith University investigating the tourism and economic development strategies implemented by cities and regions throughout Australia to leverage the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and research into the travel behaviour of international students studying in Australia. She has provided consultancy services on several other industry and academic projects in the areas of tourism, events, marketing and community engagement. Her current research interests are tourism innovation and experience design, especially relating to the youth and Chinese tourism markets.

Specialties: tourism, consumer behaviour, economic development, marketing.

A marketing and communications consultant with more than 30 years experience spanning across a variety of industry sectors; tour operations (AAT Kings), marketing agencies (Carlson Marketing) national and state tourist offices (Tourism Australia and South Australian Tourism Commission), Education (Study Adelaide and Westminster School) and hotels (Hyatt).

In 2020, I launched a consultancy working with a range of clients across different sectors to guide them on strategy and business development. As a sole trader, I work with both retainer clients and deliver on specific projects on request.

I have global work experience having been based in Sydney, the UK and Asia in senior marketing roles for much of my career, returning to my home town of Adelaide in 2012.

An understanding of all elements of marketing including brand integration, trade marketing and conversion, digital marketing, public relations, social media and influencer generated publicity.

Strategic thinker and planner using broad research methods integrating industry insights, consumer behaviours and distribution channels. Able to drive strategic and organisational change at all levels of business whilst fostering empathetic cultural change.

Able to work independently (through freelance experience) and also manage large groups in both government and private sectors.

With over 25 years’ experience in the travel industry, Kate Shilling is on a mission to generate economic growth in regional Australia through the development, distribution and delivery of innovative tourism experiences to local visitors as well as to travellers from further afield.

Kate’s CV includes leadership roles at Flight Centre (in Australia and the USA), Tourism NT, Territory Discoveries, NRMA Travel, Qantas Holidays, Helloworld and Australian Traveller Media. Currently the Executive Officer of Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia (UWEA), Kate is the founder of Family History Holidays, an Ambassador for Australian Regional Tourism, and recently stepped down as the Chair of Destination Riverina Murray after 5 years on the Board.

Kate launched Straightforward Tourism Solutions in March 2017 and has recently worked on a range of side projects including establishing a Dinosaur Tourism Collective in outback Queensland and assessing ag-tourism grant funding applications for the Tasmanian Tourism Innovation Program.

With many STOs and RTOs currently launching agritourism strategies, taking farm tourism forward in a practical way is a particular area of focus for Kate in 2324! Discussions about the different ways to connect emerging and existing agritourism operators, collectively driving positive commercial outcomes community by community are underway!

Kate is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and on the Advisory Board of The Sigmund Project, travel and tourism’s first digital not-for-profit, dedicated to innovation and collaboration and open to anyone who has a great idea to advance the global tourism industry.

As the founder and Managing Director of Regionality, Rose is a highly experienced and respected strategist, facilitator, entrepreneur and mentor. Her career has spanned almost 40 years working at the coalface with businesses in agriculture, food innovation, tourism and hospitality; with industry groups, in private, government and research sectors. Rose’s work is impactful; always at the cutting edge of innovation and always championing change for the greater good, working collaboratively to achieve tangible and transformative outcomes for regional Australia. Agritourism and food tourism in Australia are examples of this, with more than 20 years of leadership advocating for recognition for the sector and directly supporting change to strategy, policy and regulation, directly resulting in catalytic outcomes like NSW Land Use Planning Reforms. Her life’s work has been developing and delivering Australia’s first agritourism business development program and masterclasses, working with thousands of farmers and agritourism businesses one-on-one and through countless workshops working across the dozens and dozens of regions throughout Australia’s eastern states. She is

- An alumni of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

- Graduate Certificate in Australian Rural Leadership from JCU

- A member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a graduate of the CDP

- Chair of Policy and Advocacy for the Global Agritourism Network

- One of the founding ART board members and has supported the establishment of Agritourism Qld