MAIN SPEAKERS

Josep Rodríguez (Responsible for International Relations, Tourism Department, Barcelona Provincial Council and Coordinator of the MED Sustainable Tourism Community) Engineer, degree in Humanities and postgraduate degree in Tourism Destination Management. He has more than 20 years of experience in the management of European and international projects and, for the past four years, he has focused his work on the tourism sector. Coordinator of the MED Community for Sustainable Tourism, a project funded by the European program INTERREG MED, which integrates twenty-two projects and more than two hundred entities working in the field of tourism sustainability in the Mediterranean.

Ana Moniche (Area of Statistics and Market Research (SAETA) of Andalusian Tourism, public company of the Junta de Andalucía) Master in Urban Planning and Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University and a degree in Economics from the University of Malaga. Her experience ranges from tourism statistics, implementation of surveys and exploitation of results, supply and demand analysis. tourism, impact of cultural or sports events, econometrics and time series, tourism indicators systems, sustainability and tourism. Within its functions for the Regional Government, she participates in numerous European projects and initiatives such as the Tourism of Tomorrow Lab, an investment proposal for the European Commission related to the provision of data for decision-making by tourism stakeholders.

Manuela Bigi (Manager in charge of European projects and digitisation, Tourism and Trade Department, Regional Government of Tuscany) She is involved in the MED community as project manager of PANORAMED (Tuscany Region id the co-leader of WP5 in partnership with Croatia). She is representing Tuscany Region in Necstour, a network of 34 European regional tourism authorities and 30 associated members ommitted to sustainability – economic, social and environmental - as a crucial driver of destination competitiveness. She is also involved in different initiatives dealing with tourism digitisation for Tuscany Region both at local and european level, including the RIS3 European Partnership for tourism digitisation.

Dario Bertocchi (Postdoc Research Fellow - Ph.D. in new technologies for the city and the environment) Dario Bertocchi is a research fellow and adjunct professor of E-tourism at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is trying to understand how the tourists behave in the destinations thanks to the data analysis, ranging from the ones produced in the social networks to those ones available by the telco companies.Attentive to the issues of the tourism sustainability in the environmental, economic and social perspective, he studies bottom-up and top-down solutions in order to mitigate the negative effects of tourism bringing his knowledge inside the Med community. He is collaborator of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice for several European projects in the field of tourism and cultural assets, studying destination carrying capacity in particular. He lives and works in Venice where he confronts himself on a daily basis with the touristic phenomena.

Laura Aalto (CEO Helsinki Marketing) She is a Marketing and Communications professional with 20 years of experience in international marketing, brand building, sponsorship and event marketing. Laura was appointed CEO of Helsinki Marketing in September 2017. Previously she has worked as Development Director in Helsinki Marketing leading the company's transformation from Tourism Marketing to City Branding and Marketing Organization. Laura has also worked as Marketing and Communications Director at the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project and Marketing Manager for Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture. Laura has a MA degree from Helsinki University.

Petra Stušek (Managing Director of Ljubljana Tourism) Managing Director of the Ljubljana Tourist Board. She holds a degree of Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and has completed a post-graduation study on Faculty of Economics for Master’s degree in Tourism and the second one in Sales. Ms. Stušek is also a Board Member of an international European Cities Marketing. Prior to these roles, she had a leading role in communications for the foreign and domestic public in Ljubljana Tourist Board, reporting directly to CEO.

Hildegard Assies (Managing Director of Breda Marketing) She has a background in the positioning and development of shopping areas at Schiphol and many international airports, among others. Hildegard has 'unique knowledge and expertise' that she has used many times to strengthen the appeal and attractiveness of other municipalities.

Emmanuelle Legault (Vice President of Marketing Montreal) For more than 15 years, she has been developing her expertise in tourism marketing in key positions. For the past three years, she has been responsible for setting the strategic direction for the ten priority international markets at Destination Canada by leading the teams in these markets and managing a budget of over $60 million. Previously, Emmanuelle was at Tourisme Montréal from 2005 to 2015.

Lola Buendia (Digital Communication and Marketing Manager at Hosteltur) Communication and digital marketing specialist. More than ten years of experience in content marketing projects, social media and lead acquisition strategy design for different companies, especially in the tourism and technology sector. He currently directs the digital identity strategy of Hosteltur, a leading communication medium in the professional tourism sector in Spain, and collaborates in the creation of content and development of online marketing campaigns for other projects. His specialties include content marketing, copywriting, tracking digital audiences, presentations and lectures, journalism, social media, email marketing, paid media and podcasting.

Dr. Joan Miquel Capell Manzanares (Head of the Prevention and Safety Cabinet at Diputació de Barcelona) Degree in law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1995) and Doctorate in law from the University of Barcelona (2004). He works at the Barcelona Provincial Council as head of the Prevention and Security Office and is an Associate Professor of Police Law at the University of Barcelona. He has worked for thirty-two years in the Generalitat Mossos d'Esquadra Police Force, where he has worked in all professional categories, from aspiring young man to commissioner.

Manel Casals (Director General del Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona) General Director of the Gremi d'Hotels in Barcelona since 2008, he was also Director of Expansion of the Gremi from 2003 to 2008, and General Secretary of the Confederación Empresarial de Hostelería y Restauración de Cataluña, ConfeCat, since 2011. He has been working as a mentor for various business projects since 2013.

Dr. Jordi Serra Cobo (Researcher at Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat de la UB) Doctorate from the University of Barcelona. He has been researcher at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and the CSIC. He created and directed the Balearic Islands Viral Infection Research Center. He is a distinguished researcher at the University of Barcelona and a member of the Biodiversity Research Institute. He works in ecoepidemiology and global health with the collaboration of European, African and American institutions. He has been studying coronaviruses for 10 years and has been working with teams at the Pasteur Institute in Paris for 30 years. He has carried out more than 150 projects and published more than 100 articles. He is currently involved in the study of the reservoirs of dengue virus, Zika in the Amazon and in the invitation project to develop a biosensor that diagnoses coronavirus.

Pablo Soto Rodriguez (Innovation Manager Corporate Segment Vodafone España) Vodafone Innovation Manager who, as he defines himself, is "a specialist in landing technology to business models and a fan of collaboration and innovation"

Francesc Vila Albet (Head of Tourism at Diputació de Barcelona) Degree in Philosophy and Education Sciences from the University of Barcelona. He is currently Head of Tourism of the Barcelona Provincial Council. He has been coordinator of Culture, Youth and Education of the City of Vilanova y la Geltrú and Secretary General of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In Barcelona Provincial Council he has held the following positions, before being Head of Tourism: Deputy Director of the Center for Cultural Studies and Resources, Director of the Office of Artistic Diffusion, Director of Services in the area of Culture, and Commissioner of the Tourism Delegation.

Juan Daniel Núñez (Editor and Editor-in-chief at SmartTravelNews) He is editor of SmartTravelNews, the first online medium in Spanish specialized in innovation and technology for the tourism and travel sector.