Keynote Speakers

We are delighted to announce two confirmed keynote speakers who will share their latest research and thoughts in festivals and events research! 

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Dr Bernadette Quinn
Technological University Dublin, Ireland

Dr Quinn has a number of research interests and has published extensively about arts festivals, being interested in the roles that they play in transforming places and in shaping community and place identities. She studies heritage studies, particularly in understanding how memories are constructed and represented in heritage settings; and how children experience heritage. Dr Quinn is also interested in gendered nature of tourism activity, influenced by critical approaches to the study of events, heritage and tourism.

Dr Tom Hinch
​University of Alberta, Canada

Dr Hinch's research interests focus on sport and event travel and sustainable tourism development more generally. He has studied the way that people who travel for sport events connect to the places that they visit. His research has shown that characteristics such as embodiment, emotional engagement and celebration of community make events a strong tourist attraction. Such characteristics tend to foster meaningful connections between event visitors and host destinations and can be used as 'place makers'. 

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We are currently confirming with a few other keynote speakers for the conference. Stay tuned!