SITE Academy 2007 22-25 July 2007 London, England

Education Presenters and Panelists

Ali Al Saloom Founder & Chairman Embrace Arabia

Ali Alsaloom is an Emirati National from Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates , who has chosen to live his life differently than most. From an early age, Ali's passion for traveling and his interest in cultural studies was ignited by his opportunity to travel with his father, an academic and avid traveler. In the year to follow, Ali embraced new cultures and languages such as English, South Korean and German.

Ali is a passionate presenter with a personal style that is both fiercely patriotic and at the same time, open-minded. His profound cultural and religious awareness gives him a distinctive insight into Gulf culture, which he applies to every project he immerses himself into.

A University of Central Florida Hospitality Management & Tourism graduate, Ali pursued many areas of the tourism industry while living in the USA , including launching a unique Middle Eastern themed restaurant in Orlando , Florida . His next international experience was in Canada where he completed his MBA specializing in Brand Management from Wilfred Laurier University , in Waterloo . There, Ali lectured fellow colleagues on Cross Culture Management.

Ali joined the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority's MICE department, (Meeting, Incentives, Conference and Exhibition) in Dec 2005 until May 2007. His strong connection to his country's history and culture has given him the expertise to take on the very specialized role of presenting to, and guiding the countries VIP guests on exclusive tours.

Ali's interests and creativity in Brand management made him to be part of the marketing strategy industry as he began to work on building brands from scratch and provide corporate websites development services as well as Ad campaigns ideas and consultancy.

return to top

Brenda Anderson CEO Society of Incentive and Travel Executives

Brenda Anderson is CEO for SITE (Society of Incentive and Travel Executives) and is a senior executive with Smith Bucklin, the world's largest association management company. Anderson holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from the University of Chicago and has been named an honorary professor of Shanghai Normal University. (Her favorite accreditation is in Improvisational Comedy from Players Workshop in Chicago.)

Anderson is incoming Chairman for the CIC (Convention Industry Council) and has been named one of the 10 most influential women in the Incentive Industry.

Anderson is an author and “Playing the Quantum Field, How Changing Your Choices Changes Your Life” is her first book and is already in it's 3 rd printing.

She lives in Chicago and lectures internationally. Anderson is a frequent guest on TV and radio including Fox News, NPR, and Oprah and Friends Radio.

return to top

Jon Bradshaw Senior Sales Manager IMEX

Having played football semi-professionally and enjoyed success in a variety of athletic disciplines in the past Jon has always had a passion for physical and mental performance. This passion led to him establishing his own personal training and performance improvement business in 2000 through which he has worked with groups and individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds both professionally and personally. Whilst initially helping clients set, achieve and surpass their fitness goals over time his interest spread to include the psychological aspect of performance and has led to the setting up of Equinox – his performance improvement consultancy.

Jon has spoken on a wide variety of topics within the performance improvement field at numerous events including SITE's ESNEP conference in Dubai , SITE's international conference in Barcelona and The Motivation Show in Chicago . Early in 2007 he returned from a series of 6 seminars in Mexico at the invitation of the SITE Mexico chapter. Topics covered include the issues surrounding choosing an extreme physical and mental challenge as an incentive tool as well as more mainstream motivational sessions. He is currently studying as a master practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) having achieved practitioner status with the internationally acclaimed NLP training company International Teaching Seminars

In October 2004 Jon was a member of a team who successfully completed a 6 day trek to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro , the world's highest freestanding mountain at 19,800ft/5985m the experience of which he has used to create one of his presentation.

In May 2007 Jon embarked on a 3 week trek to Mt. Everest in Nepal with a group from University College London's Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme environment medicine (CASE). The 3 month project helped scientists understand more about the effects of low oxygen levels on the body and culminated on 12 team members summiting Mt. Everest itself at 8848m.

Jon first entered the incentive industry in the late 1990's and returned to it three years ago as Sales Manager of IMEX, the European based international meetings and incentive exhibition. In his IMEX role as Senior Sales Manager he helps destinations understand the latest trends in the incentive/meetings industry and assists those who wish to use IMEX to promote themselves to buyers internationally.

return to top

Cosimo Bruzzese Director of Sales Briggs Inc

Cosimo brings with him almost a decade of experience in the hospitality field. Prior to joining Briggs, Cosimo held sales positions in various sectors of the hospitality industry including Airlines, Hotels, Cruise Lines and International Travel Companies. He was the International Development Manager at Bateaux New York & Spirit Cruises, where he was responsible for managing the international sales force for the company's entire fleet. Cosimo has worked and studied extensively in Europe, and converses fluently in Italian, Spanish and French.

return to top

Carolyn Dow Managing Director The Dow Consultancy

Carolyn Dow is based in Edinburgh, Scotland , and has worked in the meetings industry for more than 25 years, heading up the Scottish Convention Bureau, and helping establish EventScotland. In the course of work she has traveled extensively internationally, and has been a speaker/presenter at conferences, seminars and industry events in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

In 2004 she set up her own company, the Dow Consultancy, offering destination marketing advice and consultancy services particularly where the target markets are meetings and incentives.

She is active in both SITE and MPI, being Chair of the SITE European University in Istanbul in1998, and serving as President of SITE International in 2001.

She was a member of the SITE Chapter Council for 3 years, and in 2005 and 2006 acted as SITE's trade show education co-coordinator and liaison. In February 2006 she was delighted to be appointed as Director of SITE's first ever regional office, charged with increasing membership and awareness of SITE in Europe.

In MPI she has been a member of the Host Committee for the PEC-Europe 2004 in Edinburgh, the MPI International Brand Marketing Committee and the International Research Committee.

She is honoured to have received the EIBTM/ITME Incentive Travel Personality of the Year 1998 Award for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

return to top

Padraic Gilligan Partner and Director of Marketing Ovation Group

Pádraic Gilligan holds a masters degree in Italian from University College Dublin and a post graduate qualification in tourism marketing from Boston College . Following a 13 year career in education, teaching at second and third levels, he started Delaney Marketing Consultants in 1994 with Patrick Delaney. In 2002 Delaney Marketing acquired Ovation and re-branded as Ovation Group. Employing over 50 people, with offices in Dublin and Belfast, Ovation is Ireland 's largest and only all-island specialist for meetings, incentives, conferences and events.

Gilligan has written and spoken extensively on many aspects of meetings and incentives, regularly contributing to SITE , MPI and other industry bodies. For the past two years he has been focusing on Regulations in the Pharma Industry and ROI and has held seminars on these topic in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, the US, China and South Africa.

He is a Past-President of SITE Ireland and in 2002 was selected by the international membership of SITE as its “Member of the Year”. In 2004 he was elected to the International Board of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE) and is President Elect for 2007.

Gilligan is married to Rita Smyth and together they have 6 children. He is a passionate supporter of Arsenal Football Club, plays guitar and walks 3 miles every day. His ambition in life is to live long enough to be a burden on his children – a perfect model for ROI!

return to top

Lucy Horan Lecturer in business tourism School of Hospitality Management and Tourism Dublin Institute of Technology

Lucy Horan lectures in business tourism at the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha Street, Ireland . Lucy has had an extensive career in the hospitality sector in Ireland and overseas. Her teaching and research specialisms include hospitality management, strategic management and conference and incentive management. Lucy has organised a number of conferences, the most recent being in business tourism, the ATLAS European business tourism educators conference held in Dublin in December 2005. A member of MPI and PCMA for 10 years, and a Fellow of the Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI) since 1999, Lucy is the course coordinator for DIT's Event Management degree – a course which has received huge interest since its launch in September 2005.

return to top

David Hornby Commercial Director Visit London

David Hornby joined Visit London as Commercial Director in September 2003.

David has overall responsibility for the business tourism element of Visit London's marketing and sales activity.  Business tourism income accounts for roughly 20% of the capital's £15 billion visitor income and a quarter of all visits (currently approximately 26 million overnight visits a year).

David is responsible for Visit London's private sector revenue and partnerships with commercial businesses, including commercial revenues from all media platforms such as visitlondon.com and London TV.

During his time at Visit London, he has led the redevelopment of the London Convention Bureau into a dynamic sales, marketing and venue enquiry service, which is now winning significantly more business for London.

David spent the previous 15 years of his career working in the hotel sector. Immediately before Visit London, he worked for Thistle Hotels for six years, most recently as Director of Meetings and Events, where he was responsible for overall strategic management and direction of the function. His other posts at Thistle included General Manager of a number of London hotels and Director of Regional & Agency Sales. He has also worked for the Marriott, De Vere and Crowne Plaza groups.

David is also involved with the London 2012 Olympics. He led the Visit London support for the bid, and was part of the team that presentation to IOC members during the evaluation committee visit.

return to top

Martin Lewis Managing Editor Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine CAT Publications UK

Martin Lewis is Managing Editor of Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine and Managing Director of CAT Publications Ltd, a unique organisation that specialises solely in magazines, directories and a web site portal serving the conference and incentive travel markets.

Martin gained his experience as a journalist in a broad spectrum of positions, as news reporter, court reporter, sports writer, sub editor and news editor, before leaving consumer newspapers to join Travel Trade Gazette as Deputy Editor.

He arrived in the conference business by accident when he joined Conferences & Exhibitions magazine in 1981 and liked the market so much he stayed. With colleagues he launched Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine in 1987 and formed his own company, Conference And Travel (CAT) Publications.

CAT Publications now also publishes Association Meetings International magazine, the Worldwide Convention Centres Directory, www.meetpie.com and organises The Meetings Industry Marketing Awards and The Meetings & Incentive Travel Industry Awards.

In 2005, The Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) presented Martin with the industry's first ever Profile & Power Award for services to the meetings industry.

return to top

Louise Lowe Head of Sales Conference Care Ltd.

Louise Lowe is a graduate from Birmingham College of Food in 1990 and with 17 years industry experience, joined Conference Care as Head of Sales in April, 2005. Instigated and managed a tactical restructure of the company sales force, with a clear focus on client management together with a procured approach to business.

In the past 17 years, I have enjoyed a varied career working for luxury hotel chains, the worlds brand leader and a full travel management provider. I love the diversity of the Agency world and bringing something new to our clients - finding that hidden gem!

return to top

Paul Miller Managing Director SPECTRA

Paul Miller started his career in the service industry at the Royal Household in Buckingham Palace after finishing his studies in hotel and catering management. After 4 years in Royal service and a brief period of work abroad, he returned to the UK and started his career in the incentive travel industry in 1988 with a London-based Destination Management Company. He is married with 3 young children.

Over the years he has been involved with many prestigious incentive and meetings in the UK to include the Young President's Organisation, American College of Trial Lawyers, and the American Bar Association with many distinguished guests and politicians in attendance. Paul has a broad knowledge and experience of the incentive industry from small board meetings of blue chip companies to events in excess of 7,000 people.

Prior to joining SITE, Paul was an active non-member for some years, attending SITE international universities and various Great Britain Chapter events. After becoming a member in 1999, he continued to support SITE by attending the European universities and ESNEP. He was elected to the GB Chapter board in 2003 and served as its President in 2005 and 2006, holding the current position of Immediate Past President. He was voted SITE Member of the Year in 2006. He also chairs the British Committee for The Motivation Show with some 45 exhibitors attending in Chicago each year.

Paul joined the Board of Directors of SPECTRA in 2005 - SPECTRA is a full-service Destination Management Company, with offices in London and Edinburgh – created in 1951. It handles only business events: incentives, association and corporate meetings, conventions and deluxe special interest group programmes

return to top

Stephen Powell Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, (IHG)

As SVP of Worldwide Sales, Stephen is a member of IHG's Executive Committee and leads the Group's Worldwide Sales and Marketing team.  Stephen's key responsibilities include the creation of a common sales platform for IHG as a worldwide company with global customers.

The development of a common way of delivering the IHG sales experience is also an integral part of Stephen's role; linking the IHG brand proposition to the outside world from a sales standpoint.

Stephen Powell joined InterContinental Hotels Group in December 2003 as VP Sales, UK & Ireland and was soon promoted to SVP, Sales & Marketing for EMEA where he was instrumental in linking brands and sales together to drive tangible business results. Most recently, he has taken up the role of SVP, Worldwide Sales.

Stephen has over 30 years experience in the hotel industry, receiving recognition and a number of awards for industry leadership. He graduated from the University of Texas and has worked in various senior positions for a number of companies in the US . He was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Sheraton Hotels & Resorts – North America and Regional Sales Director for Loews Hotels in America . He has also established global sales teams for hospitality industry software companies, namely PlanSoft Corporation and Certain Software.

Stephen has served on committees and boards including the American Society of Association Executives, Hospitality Sales Management Association International, Convention Industry Council, Meeting Professionals International and the Institute of Directors . He participates in public speaking at industry events and has published several articles on industry trends on sales and marketing issues.

Stephen is a former Worldwide President of Meeting Professionals International and has also held the title of MPI's Supplier of the Year.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. InterContinental Hotels Group owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 3,650 hotels and 540,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental ® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza ® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn ® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express ® , Staybridge Suites ® , Candlewood Suites ® and Hotel Indigo ® , and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club ® Rewards with over 28 million members worldwide.

return to top

Colleen A. Rickenbacher, CMP, CSEP, CPC Colleen Rickenbacher, Inc.

Colleen Rickenbacher is a business owner, author, speaker, consultant and television personality.

Speaking engagements have taken Colleen around the World, and she can be seen and heard regularly on national television and radio. Presently she is appearing on Country Music Television (CMT) with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Fox News, CBS, the Joni Show and Make Your Day Count.

Colleen has also been named as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry by Meeting News Magazine. She has won numerous other awards and serves on industry boards and committees.

Her book Be On Your Best Business Behavior covers all areas of practical business and dining etiquette. Her tips strengthen the image of organizations and individuals, and separate them from their competition. You never want to leave money on the table because you did not have the proper business and dining etiquette skills to close the business deal or to make a better first impression.

Colleen's next book Be On Your Best Cultural Behavior will be released soon providing protocol tips for 30 countries covering dining and business etiquette, meeting protocol, and avoiding those embarrassing international faux pas.

Colleen has achieved her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), the Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP) and just recently to be one of five people in the country to receive her Certified Protocol Consultant (CPC). She serves on the Education Council and Board of the International Association of Protocol Consultants.

return to top

Susan Sexton
Sales Director - Travel & Events
P&MM Travel Ltd.

Susan Sexton is a pioneer of the MICE industry in the UK with more than 30 years experience in worldwide logistics. She has held various director positions notably at agencies, BI and Maritz. She is currently Director of Sales at P&MM, one of the UK's leading performance improvement agencies, specialising in incentive travel, events and motivation. Susan oversees the creative development of P&MM's travel and event department's high profile client portfolio. Susan is widely known and respected across the industry for her creativity, wealth of experience and client/supplier relationships.

return to top

Sebastien Tondeur CEO Corporate Division MCI

Sebastien Tondeur is currently the CEO of the Corporate Division at MCI . He graduated from Northeastern University in Boston , USA with an MBA. He has been with MCI for eight years in various roles in operations and management. He is a frequent speaker at industry events on topics covering mergers and acquisitions, experiential marketing, procurement, and trends in the MICE industry. Sebastien is the 2006-2007 president of the MPI European Council and chair and co-founder of SITE 's Young Leaders Program for 2006 and m ember and learning Chairman 2005/2007 of the Entrepreneur Organization (YEO).

return to top

For more information on the SITE Young Leaders Program please click here.

The SITE Young Leaders Programs is partially funded by the contributions of: