Keynote Speakers

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'.

Industry Speakers

Esmaré Steinhöfel
Regional Director (Africa)
International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA)

Esmaré has extensive experience in the international marketing and sales arena. Before joining ICCA, she managed the International Sales portfolio at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), where she was awarded the Manager of the Year in 2012. Esmaré was also an exceptional in her other roles, most notably, the recipient of the SAACI Fellowship Award in 2017 as well as Top 40 Women in MICE in 2015 and 2017. She is a board member of the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) Western Cape Chapter. She was also involved in the opening team of the Cape Town Convention Bureau where she fulfilled the role of promoting Cape Town to the MICE industry with a focus on association marketing and research.

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