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.

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.

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.

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.

Coralie McCarthy is a respected leader in business advocacy and regional economic development, with extensive experience across both the NSW South Coast and regional Australia. She has worked in large and small businesses, run her own business, and held leadership roles in local government, giving her a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing regional communities.

As Director of Business Illawarra and former Chair of Australian Regional Tourism, Coralie has led transformative initiatives, shaped national tourism policy, and championed growth across diverse regions. She is a passionate Visitor Economy Strategist and Advocate, known for her genuine engagement, solutions-based thinking, innovation, and strategic leadership.

Paige is an enthusiastic driver of change: bringing a values-led approach to all areas of tourism. She’s a respected strategist and mentor who has supported all levels of government and industry across Australia with visitor economy planning and industry capability building across her 18-year career.

After growing up on a farm in Eyre Peninsula and now managing a generational mixed farming enterprise with her family in the Clare Valley, she has a genuine love and drive for developing thriving local communities across Regional Australia.

Paige takes responsibility in being able to connect the dots between tourism potential and the lived reality for people in regional and rural Australia. She is dedicated to inspiring change with all parts of the tourism ecosystem to ensure tourism has the best chance of supporting the wellbeing of local people and places, so future generations can continue to thrive across regional Australia.

At The Tourism Collective, our vision is to enable tourism for a better future. We’re committed to demonstrating how tourism can be a force for good and help to enable communities and the special places they love thrive for generations to come.

Susan Stone is the Credit Union SA Chair of Economics at UniSA, where she provides expert analysis and new thinking about South Australia’s economic position and how global economic factors impact the local economy. Prior to joining UniSA, Ms Stone was a division head at the OECD, a Director for the UNESCAP, a Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, and a Research Manager at the Productivity Commission in Melbourne. Ms Stone is a frequent guest on radio and television and her opinion pieces have been published in InDaily, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian. Ms. Stone holds a PhD in Economics.

Grant Wilckens is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of G’day Group, Australia’s largest regional accommodation provider with more than 330 properties around the country.

After a career in corporate finance, which included stints in London and Sydney, Grant established the Group in 2004. Starting with three caravan parks and a vision to transform the industry, the Group has brought comfort and quality amenities to the affordable accommodation sector with cabins, lagoon pools, jumping pillows, waterparks and safari tents.

Today, G’day Group is home to Discovery, a network of 90 owned and operated holiday parks and resorts, including iconic destinations such as Kings Canyon, Rottnest Island and the world famous El Questro. The company also owns G’day Parks, a network of 240 independently owned licensed parks and more than 240,000 G’day Rewards members, and Australia’s number one regional travel community, Wikicamps.

With the backing of majority shareholder, Australian Retirement Trust, and an engaged board, Grant has played a leading role in the transformation of Australia’s holiday park sector into a $27 billion contributor to the national economy. Today, G’day Group has property assets valued at $2 billion and is on track to become a $2.5 billion business by 2026.

Grant is passionate about the tourism industry and is a Board Director of the South Australian Tourism Commission and former Chair of the Caravan Industry Association of Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, an Associate Member of the Financial Securities Institute in the United Kingdom and previous recipient of an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.