Educational Sessions

Access Summit Education Sessions

Educational Sessions

Hear from leaders from Brand USA and the U.S. Travel Association who will present federal updates and national priorities. Expedia Media Group will present how first-party data continues to revolutionize the way we capture and create demand. Listen to an entertaining and playful panel discussion with six of A-Level world class, award winning international journalists. And the final keynote couldn’t be better timed…

The American Hotel & Lodging Association is launching their joint venture with Green Key Global, the international standard for eco-ratings for hotels and events to have this program fully adopted here in the United States. Discover New England is one of the first stops post launch for sharing the details of this program. Learn about Green Key Global’s certification criteria and how it will help hotels improve their fiscal performance, speak to the values of international travelers and all while doing good for the planet.

About the Speakers

Discover New England Welcome
Speaker: Michele Cota, Executive Director, Discover New England
About: Hear a brief update of DNE activities, tourism data, and a teaser of what’s ahead for Summit & International Marketplace
Bio: Michele Cota began working for Discover New England in 2022 and brings 18 years of business and tourism experience. Most recently, Michele worked on business, economic development, workforce and broadband policy for U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Prior to 2019, Michele had 13 years’ experience working for the New Hampshire Division of Travel & Tourism Development in various capacities and was recognized as the 2012 New Hampshire Travel Council’s Mildred Beach Travel Person of the Year. Her latest role was as the Trade Relations Manager for New Hampshire responsible for international strategy and partnership, as well as domestic trade marketing.

BrandUSA National Marketing & Arrivals Update
Speaker: Dani Campana, Manager of Partner Engagement
About: As the destination marketing organization for the United States, Brand USA’s mission is to increase incremental international visitation, spend, and market share to fuel the nation’s economy and enhance the image of the USA worldwide. We are here to support all 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, and there are many ways to work with us in the international market. Tune into Brand USA’s update on international visitation, consumer sentiment, and the international efforts that Brand USA and Discover New England have collaborated on over the years.
Bio: Dani works on the partner engagement team at Brand USA, primarily working with Northeast and Southeast partners in supporting their international efforts and amplifying their reach. Prior to joining Brand USA, Dani worked at two county DMOs in Maryland before joining the Destination DC team as a Membership Manager for 5 years. In 2021, Dani was recognized as a U.S. Travel Association Emerging Leader. In her free time, she loves traveling, exploring cities including her own, Washington, DC, and spending lots of time with family and friends. Her parents are true Bostonians so you’ll always find her watching the New England Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics.

Speaker: Jonas Onkelinx, Senior Manager of Research & Insights
Bio: Jonas Onkelinx is the Senior Manager of Research & Insights at Brand USA, the nation’s destination marketing organization dedicated to promoting international visitation to the United States. In his role, Jonas provides data and research insights to empower the team to make data-informed decisions, ultimately driving the organization’s strategic initiatives forward. With 20 years of research experience spanning macroeconomics, pharmaceuticals, and insurance sectors, Jonas brings a wealth of expertise to his role. Before joining Brand USA, Jonas worked for Experience Kissimmee, Florida. Jonas holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from KHLim and a master’s from KULeuven in Belgium. Committed to giving back to his community, Jonas served on the Board of Directors of the Osceola Chamber’s Hospitality and Tourism Council and has also served on U.S. Travel’s Research Advisory Committee. Outside of his professional pursuits, Jonas is passionate about soccer as a player and a fan of RSC Anderlecht and the Belgian Red Devils. He enjoys immersing himself in different cultures through travel and is fluent in Dutch, English, French, and German.

U.S. Travel Association Federal Policy Update
Speaker: Ellen Davis, Executive Vice President, Business Strategy and Industry Engagement
About: Hear national and local policy priorities including their work on tourism infrastructure, workforce, DEI, sustainability and more.
Bio: In her role at USTA, Ellen Davis is responsible for uniting the travel industry’s stakeholders, strengthening the association’s value to members and driving organizational growth through events and other initiatives. Davis has more than 20 years of association experience uniting stakeholders, diversifying value propositions and creating thoughtful growth strategies. She joined U.S. Travel from the Consumer Brands Association, where she built a strong community of industry CEOs, substantially grew membership and created new educational offerings – efforts which drove a 50% increase in revenue in three years.

Maximize Opportunities with your OTA Partners
Speaker: Derek Price, Director, Business Development, Expedia Group, Media Solutions – North America
About: Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) are at the intersection of culture and commerce, facilitating new experiences and connections for our mutual travelers. While the last few years have presented new opportunities for our industry, destination marketers have demonstrated a remarkable spirit of strength against external forces. Expedia Group’s 70+ Petabytes of first-party data continue to point to traveler resilience and reassuring signs of the enduring enthusiasm for travel. As we look at outside forces such as current economic headwinds, it’s important for marketers to appreciate that travelers are closely evaluating every aspect of their travel experience. It’s for these reasons, insights into traveler behavior are essential for capturing demand. New research about the traveler’s path to purchase can help destination marketers identify the motivations and mindsets behind purchasing decisions. This session examines those factors that influence traveler spending habits, helping attendees reach and engage with consumers at these critical points. Through the exploration of these insights and current traveler trends, attendees will discover how the power of partnerships can drive results.
Bio: Derek’s focus as Director of Business Development for North America at Expedia Group Media Solutions is working with his team to develop and deliver on custom designed digital media campaigns. The team’s strength comes from their deep partnerships and relationships with DMOs, Airlines, Car Rental Companies, Attractions and non-traveler advertisers. Their extensive knowledge of the Expedia Group’s Audience and ecosystem, allows them to be able to exceed their partner’s expectations utilizing the vast network of trusted Expedia’s travel brands and global points of sale. Derek has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. The last 10+ within the online space, much of it at OTAs, including Travelocity, Orbitz, and now Expedia. Derek has previously held roles from travel product manager, hotels sales director, market management to media sales at travel marketing companies like Sojern. He has lived and work in locations from Vermont, Arizona, San Francisco, New York City, Las Vegas, South Florida and now Maine. When not traveling with his team, Derek splits his time between Ft. Lauderdale and Coastal Maine. Spending much of the time in his kitchen. He graduated from culinary school in 2015 and is a trained Pastry Chef.

International A-List Media Panel Discussion
About: For the second year, DNE has directly invited a very targeted and select group of A-List Media to travel to New England to experience our region’s beautiful landscapes, downtowns, and tourism businesses while making an important stop at the Discover New England Summit & International Marketplace to participate in a panel discussion. These editors and journalists are among the most influential in the world and have wisdom to share and stories to tell.

Moderator: Steve Hartridge, Editorial Director, Selling Travel
Steve Hartridge is Editorial Director at BMI Publishing, whose titles include the leading trade magazine Selling Travel, the trade/consumer USA Travel Planner and, for bookers and arrangers of corporate travel, The Business Travel Magazine. Over the years he has attended several US trade shows, including 12 Pow Wows (now IPW) and regional counterparts such as Discover New England, Go West, International Round-Up and Travel South. He has long been interested in all things USA and studied an American Studies degree at Kent University which included a year as an exchange student at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. After an unenjoyable year working in the City in London he returned to the USA to do a Political Science Masters at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. His interests include (no surprise) travel, golf, collecting cookbooks from as many countries as possible and following Brighton and Hove Albion FC.

Eoghan Corry, Travel Commentator, Travel Extra
The lead travel commentator in Ireland, as well as being a historian, author and broadcaster, Eoghan Corry has extensively traveled as a journalist and travel writer and has been a speaker and moderator at tourism and aviation conferences across Europe, USA, Africa, Asia and Australia. Formerly he was features and literary editor of the Irish Press and sports editor of the Sunday Tribune and is the author of more than 40 books on travel, history and biography. Events moderated by Eoghan Corry include the World Tourism Forum, Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, Sri Lanka, Thailand Tourism, AVEA, Munster Vales, Travel talk at the RDS Simmonscourt and Let’s Talk Tourism.

Adrian Bridge, Journalist, The Telegraph
More than 20 years experience, writing mainly for The Telegraph, a daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by the Telegraph Media Group and distributed internationally. It was founded in 1855. Adrian is fascinated by ‘the journey’ when writing about his travels. His articles are an exploration, not only of the adventure, but of the experience of travelling. He is particularly passionate about train journeys and has been travelling in Vermont this year already for the Sunday Times.

Ralf Johnen, Journalist, Boarding Complete, American Journal
A freelance writer and blogger particularly fond of the US, a country he has written ten books and many articles about. Recent outlets for his publications include news agency DPA, newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten, magazines such as America Journal and 360 Grad USA as well as his own travel blog boardingcompleted.me, which has been voted into the Top 5 of all travel blogs in Germany for four consecutive years. Ralf has a special bond with Boston, as it is the place, where he first set a foot on US ground, as one of his uncles lived there when he was a child. He has fond memories of trips to Mount Washington, Lake Winnipesaukee and the Boston skyline.

Heather Lowrie, Travel Editor, Scottish Sun
Travel editor of The Scottish Sun and the Scottish Sun online travel section for 10 years and previously, deputy news editor of the paper from 1997-2022, doing both roles simultaneously. Since January 2022, Heather has been working solely on travel taking on a production role too on my weekend pages – three on Saturday and same on a Sunday. She decides where our writers go, how big their reviews are and sub them etc. The Scottish Sun is the biggest selling daily in Scotland and its website is Scotland’s No1 with over 7 million UMVs.

Carlos Tomasini, Journalist, El Universal
Carlos has been a journalist for almost 25 years and for more than a decade he has been an independent journalist who has worked for different Mexican media such as the prestigious newspapers El Universal, Milenio and El Financiero, as well as important magazines such as Expansión, Chilango, Quién, Grazia, Entrepreneur, Cambio and Glow. He also has experience in digital media such as lopezdoriga.com and yotambien.mx. He has been a radio collaborator in a company in companies such as MVS and currently hosts the program “Multitask”, specialized in technology on the Abejorro Media channel on YouTube. He has worked as an editor at the Reforma newspaper, editor-in-chief at the Prodigy MVS portal and deputy editorial director at the newspaper Novedades de Quintana Roo. In his journalistic work, he writes on topics of Travel, Lifestyle, Technology, Business, Health, Real Estate and Politics, among others. He graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and studied a master’s degree at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

Launch of the Green Key Global Program Joint Venture with the American Hotel & Lodging Association
Speaker: Anick Levesque, Managing Director
About: Launching in the United States on April 1^st by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Green Key Eco-Rating Program is a graduated rating system designed to recognize a wide range of hotels and lodging facilities for their commitment to improving environmental and fiscal performance. This is the industry’s sustainable certification program of choice. Its certification criteria are aligned with all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative, which provides certifications to hotels around the world, puts hotels through an assessment and audit to measure their performance in areas such as energy and water conservation, land use, hazardous and solid waste management, air quality, and more.
Bio: Anick is a senior business leader with over two decades of experience helping leading brands across the retail, hospitality and financial sectors drive business growth. As an industry expert in customer loyalty, Anick is adept at leveraging market insights to transform how brands go-to-market. With international experience, she served among an advisory team responsible for scaling a newly launched customer loyalty operation in Brazil, consulting on matters related to customer acquisition & growth, regional expansion strategies and partner management. As the Managing Director at Green Key Global, Anick is now able to combine her business acumen with her deeply-rooted passion for environmental matters to deliver credible, accessible, and value-add solutions that assist hotels in their sustainability journey.