The Destination City

Laura Citron

CEO, London & Partners

Laura is CEO of London & Partners, the business growth and destination agency for London. She leads the organisation to promote London internationally as a leading word city in which to visit, invest, grow and meet. Prior to London & Partners, she was Managing Director of the Government & Public Sector Practice at WPP, the world’s largest marketing and communication services business.

Chris Fair

CEO, Resonance Consultancy

A futurist, facilitator and strategist, Chris holds a Masters degree in Studies of the Future and has married his tourism, economic development, real estate and and marketing expertise with futures methodologies to help a wide variety of clients envision and create development strategies, plans and brands that shape the future of places around the world. As President of Resonance Consultancy, Chris leads a team that has completed more than 100 visioning, strategy, planning, and branding projects for developers and destinations in more than 30 destinations.

He has been featured in Fast Company magazine and is a frequent commentator on lifestyle and leisure trends for leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Globe & Mail, Los Angeles Times, The Economist and Worth magazine. In 2013, Chris was recognized as the “Place Branding Thought Leader of the Year” at the World Sense of Place Summit.

Jeremie Fienblatt

Vice President, Strategy, Resonance Consultancy

Jeremie has more than 15 years of international experience in marketing, business development, and brand and business strategy. He’s worked in culture, hospitality, lifestyle, fashion, and destination brands—from Marriott to Equinox, Reebok to Airbnb, AccorHotels to Nespresso—for major agencies in Europe and North America, including Interbrand, FutureBrand and New York-based MATTE Projects.

Sharon Landes-Fischer

CEO Tel Aviv Global

Sharon Landes-Fischer is the CEO of Tel Aviv Global, a municipal company, directed toward making the city more accessible to the world and facilitating its quantum leap in the global arena, achieved in cooperation with municipal, national and private partners. The company focuses on three main pillars needed for global economic growth: Tourism, Economic Development, Brand Marketing & Communications as engines for global economic growth. Sharon’s position includes formulating the company’s global strategy and leading the Tel Aviv brand to new heights.

Scott Beck

President & CEO of Destination Toronto

Scott Beck is the President & CEO of Destination Toronto.He’s a champion of the visitor economy and a proven leader in the destination sales and marketing industry, spending 14 years as the President and CEO of Visit Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served on the Executive Committee of Destinations International for six years and as the organization’s International Board Chair from 2014-2015.

B. Joseph Pine II

Author

B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.

In 1999 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore wrote the best-selling book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage, which demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way. Published in fifteen languages and named one of the 100 best business books of all time by 800ceoread, in 2011 The Experience Economy came out for the first time in paperback as an updated edition with new ideas, new frameworks, and many, many new exemplars.

Sheona Southern

Managing Director of Marketing Manchester

Sheona Southern is Managing Director of Marketing Manchester, the agency charged with
promoting Greater Manchester on a national and international stage as a place to visit, invest, meet, and study. Her main aim is to raise the profile of Greater Manchester as a global city-region and position as Gateway to the north of England.

Marketing Manchester is the strategic lead for the visitor economy in Greater Manchester and includes Manchester Convention Bureau and Sport Bidding Unit whilst supporting the inward investment promotional agency, MIDAS on frontier sector marketing, and Greater Manchester’s Business Board on the city-region’s economic vision. It also provides a platform to promote Greater Manchester at major partnership events such as MIPIM, SXSW, as well as at overseas trade events in key markets such as the USA, China, GCC, and India.