Meet the Experts: eTravel Insiders Lounge at ITB Berlin

After you’ve partied hard at our kick off pre-ITB launch party and checked off all your industry appointments, check out the eTravel Insiders Lounge, our daily hangout in collaboration with Travel Dudes and iambassador. No registration required – drop by to grab a drink sponsored by Skyscanner and TripAdvisor.  Connect with travel experts in casual, Travel Massive-style from March 4-6. Check out the list of invited experts here and their bios.

Wednesday March 4 at 4pm

Time: 4pm
Place: Stand 131 (Hall 6.1)

Josi Mathar is the Social Manager Northern Europe for Skyscanner. She first joined Skyscanner in 2010 as a temp SEO copywriter alongside 70-odd members of staff at the time, some seven years into Skyscanner’s journey. Returning to Skyscanner in 2013 after ventures in other international marketing positions in eCommerce, Josi focused on social media as her main realm of expertise and source of energy. Josi now leads Skyscanner’s social media channels in Germany and the Nordics, working closely with the marketing team in this region to drive growth.

Meet Josi and learn about social media marketing, SEO building, community engagement, and brand marketing.

Sam Poullain is the Social Media Manager for Skyscanner in Europe. Born in Edinburgh and of dual Scottish/French heritage, Sam followed his digital nose until it led him to the heady scent of travel and tech at Skyscanner in 2010 following previous roles in public sector marketing and communications. During Skyscanner’s rapid growth in these five years, Sam has held various roles in marketing, PR and social media including a year based in Singapore leading the company’s media relations across the APAC region.  Sam returned to the UK in 2014 to lead the social media team in Europe, driving community growth and engagement across multiple channels and ensuring that social is at the very forefront of the marketing mix as Skyscanner continues in its mission to be the most used and most trusted online travel brand.

Meet Sam and learn about brand marketing, public relations, communications, community growth, and engagement.

Alex Kremer is a contributor to Tnooz, the leading travel technology publication, a serial entrepreneur and travel industry consultant. He co-founded Flextrip, the world’s largest B2B tours & activities distribution network, which was acquired by Nor1. He also founded 3 other startups in the Wine, Music and Technology industries. As a Techstars graduate, Alex is actively involved in the startup community via numerous advisory roles, mentorships and investments. Alex has spoken at notable travel industry conferences including WebInTravel, World Travel Market, ITB, EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit, the OpenTravel Symposium, and others. He is based in Denver, Colorado.

Meet Alex and learn about business development, travel trends and technology, and startups.

Stephen Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2007, he launched Rezgo.com, a cloud based software as a service tour and activity booking engine for small and medium sized tour operators. He is a Past Chair of the Open Travel Alliance where he served for over five years. Stephen speaks regularly at conferences around the world including Travelcom, PhoCusWright, Adventure Travel World Summit, and On-line Revealed.

Meet Stephen and learn about user generated content, web 2.0 application development, facebook application development, tourism technology, online booking engines, web reservation systems, blogging, and leadership development.

Valyn Perini is the Vice President of Strategic Relationships for Nor1, a technology provider serving the travel industry specializing in merchandising. She has spent her career moving through the travel industry distribution supply chain, working for hotel companies, consultancies, software providers and a standards organization. At Nor1, Valyn manages relationships with global travel providers, helping them offer the right products and services to their guests to drive revenue and guest satisfaction. She has served on industry organization boards, published widely and speaks often.  Plus she’s generally fun to be around.

Thursday March 5

Time: 4pm
Place: Stand 131 (Hall 6.1)

Bruce Poon Tip is the founder of G Adventures, one of the Top 100 Employers and 50 Best Managed Companies.

After returning from a backpacking tour of Asia, in 1990 Bruce was driven to share his passion and vision about experiencing adventures in an authentic and sustainable manner with others. Known for his leadership and entrepreneurial instincts, he has helped G Adventures grow 30% each year since its founding.

Meet Bruce and learn about the social revolution, how people interact with brands, responsible travel and how to use your brand to empower change in travel.

Tony Carne is the General Manager at Urban Adventures. He has had a long history of working in the Adventure Travel sector. He started as a wilderness guide with Adventure Tours Australia in 2000 before joining Intrepid Travel as a tour guide and then Ground Manager in the Middle East. During this time Tony negotiated, helped set up and oversaw the running of the destinations such as Morocco, Jordan, Syria and Turkey as well as the expansion of Egypt product lines from bases in Cairo, Istanbul and Marrakech.  Tony’s real passion for innovation and doing things differently was fuelled, eventually leading to him taking the reins of the Urban Adventures start-up Day Tour business. After 5 years, Urban Adventures is growing at 60% year on year and is moving into scale up mode in one of the most interesting sectors of the travel industry.

Meet Tony and learn about destination marketing, product development and adventure travel.

Sally Davey is co-founder of the Responsible Tourism Networking association with 10k members globally and founder of Tripbod.com – recently acquired by TripAdvisor and one of the original brands in the emerging local travel space. She is currently Product Director at TripAdvisor.

Meet Sally and learn about business development, project management and building communities on and offline.

Friday March 6

Time: 4pm
Place: Stand 131 (Hall 6.1)

Timothy O’Neil-Dunne is the co-Founder Managing Partner Global at VaultPAD Ventures helping launch start ups and new companies, as well as a contributing node to Tnooz. He writes about travel in particular aviation, technology, startups and innovation in long and short forms. Timothy was a founding management team member of the Expedia team where he headed the international and ground transportation portfolios, before founding T2Impact in 1998 and VaultPAD in 2012. He has worked in aviation and travel distribution for more than 30 years and is a permanent advisor to the World Economic Forum.

Meet Timothy and learn how to get your new startup or company off the ground and on the right track.

Gene Quinn, CEO and co-Founder at Tnooz. Gene has witnessed the birth of digital media and e-commerce and offers insight into travel tech analysis, online distribution, digital marketing, and social media in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Meet the Experts is part of the eTravel Insiders Lounge at ITB Berlin.

First time at ITB Berlin? Ready How to Prepare for ITB Berlin including tips and tricks for attending the biggest travel trade show in the world.