Jessica Adamson is a presenter, facilitator and one of South Australia’s most sought after MC’s.

Jess forged a reputation as one of the state’s finest journalists after 24 years in television news.

Jess is a board member of the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation and the Adelaide Crows Foundation.

She’s also a passionate ambassador for CanTeen – the Australian organisation for young people living with cancer, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Alex Brown is a tourism development consultant, marketing advisory and content writing service. Alex’s experience is diverse and exciting after working with urban and regional destinations, leisure attractions, retail precincts, start-ups, small and big business on tourism development and marketing initiatives.

Alex knows what it takes to align and pitch projects to specific grant programs from her experience securing funding, sitting on State and local funding panels and administering grant funding for infrastructure and experiences projects. Alex has written grant applications for community, local, State and Federal funding programs across a variety of industry sectors including tourism, arts and cultural, entertainment, food, wine and export programs.

Peter Clay is a tourism and research specialist with over 25 years’ experience across cruise, aviation, and destination development, including projects with the UNWTO and UNESCO. He is General Manager of Insights at the Caravan Industry Association of Australia, lectures at Monash University in the Graduate Tourism program, is completing a PhD on tourism in regional smart economies, and sits on Tourism Research Australia’s forecasting advisory panel.

Shaun de Bruyn is the CEO of the Tourism Industry Council of South Australia (TiCSA) and a dedicated industry advocate with 20 years’ experience delivering strong outcomes across the leisure, travel and tourism industry within South Australia.

John Hart is Executive Chair of Australian Chamber – Tourism, Chair of Australian Grape and Wine, Tourism Training Australia, Capacity Optimisation Group, Ondeen, Restaurant & Catering Australia and on the Board of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand and Rangelands NRM.

He was Chief Executive of Restaurant & Catering Australia between 1999 and 2017. John holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Business Law), a Master of Business Law and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2021 for service to tourism.

John also served as Chair of the Commonwealth Vocational Education and Training Advisory Board and was previously on the Prime Ministers Business Advisory Council.

Ryley Heap is an experienced economic development professional, specialising in regional and remote tourism development and economic diversification. Through his role at the Town of Port Hedland as Principal Economic Development, Ryley is responsible for working collaboratively with the government, industry and community stakeholders to improve liveability and economic diversification in one of Australia’s largest regional economies.

Ryley was appointed Deputy Chair of Regional Development Australia (RDA) Pilbara in July 2025, having served on the board since November 2023. He holds a Master of Tourism, Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing), Grad. Cert. in Data Science, Grad. Cert. in Business (Behavioural Economics) and is currently studying towards a Master of Economics.

In 2020, Ryley was awarded the Economic Development Rising Star Leadership Award by Economic Development Australia for supporting post-mining futures in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, through tourism development.

​With a passion for promoting and facilitating sustainable economic development, Ryley is dedicated to fostering equitable prosperity throughout regional Australia through innovation, collaboration and a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities facing regional economies.

Dave Hockly is the founder of Data Story, a digital agency based in Queenstown, New Zealand, that helps tourism brands grow by using data to drive smarter marketing and better customer experiences. He’s worked with many of New Zealand and Australia’s leading tourism operators — including Destination Queenstown, RealNZ, Lake Wānaka Tourism, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Ultimate Hikes, the Tasmanian Walking Company, and the West Coast Wilderness Railway — contributing to hundreds of millions in attributable tourism revenue through data-led digital strategy.

Dave played a key role in helping Destination Queenstown pioneer its approach to regenerative tourism, aligning data, brand, and impact to support a more sustainable visitor economy. Back for his second time speaking at the Australian Regional Tourism Convention, Dave brings sharp insights, clear takeaways, and a passion for helping regional destinations thrive in a fast-changing digital world.

Inspired by Jurlique’s unique brand story, Adelaide Hills born and bred Tourism and Farm Manager Cherie Hutchinson’s affiliation with Jurlique has spanned more than a decade. What started as a Production Manager position then transitioned into the role of Farm Manager at Jurlique’s Biodynamic Farm in the Adelaide Hills. After a decade at the helm as Farm Manager, and 12 years within the Jurlique business, 2024 saw Cherie step into the newly created position of Tourism and Farm Manager. This pivotal role for the Jurlique business spans both local and global tourism opportunities, education, Brand Ambassadorship and stakeholder engagement across sponsorship, partnerships and collaborations.

Cherie enjoys nothing more than sharing Jurlique’s biodynamic farming practises with visitors at the farm, stretching back to our ancestors and the deep connections to what each season brought. Being able to represent Jurlique in the area of education, from healing herbs to biodynamic and organic farming techniques, sustainability, organic composting, and soil enrichment without the use of chemicals, and with a shared goal to be the worldwide leader in natural skincare, Cherie is proud to work for a skincare company that own each part of their process, or as Jurlique refer to it, the seed to skin journey.

Outside of The Farm, Cherie is a Mum of two young boys and her interests include keeping fit – Cherie is a keen lacrosse player, visits the gym regularly and enjoys mediative walks in nature.

Despina Karatzias, a certified trainer, business coach, and author of Adventures of a Balloon Girl, has over two decades of experience driving innovation in tourism and small business operations. As founder of the Institute of Excellence, she has transformed industry training since 2014, specialising in areas like customer experience excellence, business and product development, partnership marketing, crisis preparation, leadership, social media and and digital marketing to name a few. Her leadership roles at Navii Digital, Tourism Tribe, and Global Ballooning Australia highlight her expertise, earning her the ‘Outstanding Contribution by an Individual’ award at the 2022 Victorian Tourism Awards. Currently pursuing a Master’s in Digital and Social Media, Despina continues to inspire excellence through her dynamic programs, including the current VTIC Quality Tourism Business Program and growing catalogue of online self-paced learning experiences to make continual learning and development accessible to all small business leaders across Australia.

Adele Labine-Romain is a respected voice in the tourism sector and a trusted thought leader, with a career including executive roles at Tourism Australia and the Tourism & Transport Forum. Until recently, Adele was the Travel Sector leader for Deloitte and a partner with Deloitte Access Economics where she worked with public and private sector businesses across the tourism spectrum—including aviation, hotels, business events, cruising and major attractions—delivering critical insights, forecasts and an extensive range of studies and evaluations to help shape the sustainable growth for the sector.

Adele has helped shape national and state, territory and destination tourism strategies engaging with industry leaders, operators and stakeholders across the country and beyond.

Now Head of Travel & Tourism at Roy Morgan, Adele leads efforts to deliver the data and insights the sector needs and to shape the policies and strategies that will enable the tourism sector to evolve, innovate and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

Adele has served on key industry panels, including the Tourism Forecasting Reference Panel and Thrive 2030’s Industry Data and Expert Analysis committee, and is a passionate advocate for tourism’s capacity to drive economic growth and enrich lives.

She is a frequent presenter at industry conferences and has been the author numerous thought leadership reports.