Leigh Dawber Chief Marketing Officer Cape Town Tourism

Leigh has worked on an extensive range of brands from across the globe, from the first world countries of Europe to the developing countries of Africa. She has been with Cape Town Tourism since 2012 and is passionate about her city and people.

Leigh has played a significant role in creating marketing platforms and campaigns that not only get visitors into Cape Town, but support the education and up liftment of the local tourism industry and communities. These include the City Twinning Marketing Agreement with NYC & Company; the development of the visitor-centric Love Cape Town brand; and the SMME Marketing Incubator in partnership with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

She believes that, even in this highly digitally-driven world, real honest experiences lie at the heart of travel.

Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir Director Visit Iceland at Promote Iceland

Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir has been an integral part of branding and promotion for Iceland for over a decade, now as the Director of Visit Iceland at Promote Iceland. Promote Iceland is a public-private partnership promoting Iceland internationally for trade,tourism, foreign direct investment, and culture. Visit Iceland is the destination marketing office for Iceland and works under the brand of Inspired by Iceland. She serves on the board of NATA – North Atlantic Tourism Association and is a part of the reference group to the Nordic Council of Ministers on Nordic branding. She’s given numerous presentations internationally on the topics and writes regular articles. 

Adam Joyce VP of Acceleration Calgary TELUS Convention Centre

Adam loves experiences where people come together, get connected, and share what is important to them. Adam has been a builder and creative contribution to many companies, events and teams across multiple disciplines and various industries. He has been a part of many unique ventures and initiatives in roles such as VP of Sales & Marketing, Director of Marketing & Business Development, President and CEO, and is now the VP of Acceleration for the Calgary Convention Centre. A visionary sales and marketing executive, he is known for his authentic boldness, experiential inquiry, creative problem solving, entrepreneurial approach, Socratic dialogue and his love for people. His years of accomplishments and many learnings have culminated in creating a unique viewpoint, and set of experiences, which he brings to his leadership in advancing the boutique Convention Centre and its neighbourhood in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Cat Leaver Director Brand Scotland

With a remit to establish a team and infrastructure of cross-agency talent, Cat heads up Brand Scotland and leads the #ScotlandIsNow campaign, looking to deliver a strong nation brand that positions Scotland for sustainable growth, resilience and future prosperity. With talent from across VisitScotland, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, Brand Scotland aims to activate partnerships across the public and private sectors to drive reputational value and awareness of our progressive nation. Formerly, Cat ran the strategy and marketing teams for a multi award-winning digital agency, After Digital, for seven years and outside of her day job she is one of five who lead on TEDxGlasgow, one of the world's most established TEDx organisations.

Claus Lønborg CEO Copenhagen Capacity

Claus Lønborg has been managing director for Copenhagen Capacity since 2011. Copenhagen Capacity is the official inward investment agency for the “Greater Copenhagen” metropolitan region. They advise foreign companies and investors on establishing, expanding and retaining their activities in the region. Further to this consultancy role, Copenhagen Capacity is also active in developing the regional attractiveness for foreign investors through a number of projects and activities ranging from cluster development to talent attraction.

Prior to his job with Copenhagen Capacity, Claus spent 4½ years in Shanghai, setting up and leading an innovation center to advice Danish companies on research and high tech collaboration with Chinese companies, organisations and universities and to provide general establishment services for knowledge based Danish enterprises.

Most of Claus’ career is however from the private sector, where he had held international sales and marketing positions Rockwool, Arla Foods, Maersk and IBM. Through these jobs, Claus has built his international experience from activities and responsibility areas spanning across America, Europa and Asia.

Claus holds a masters degree in International marketing and has supplemented his education with training programs from IMD, INSEAD. He is married and has 4 children.

Daniela Montiel Strategic Planning & Partnership Development Marca Chile

Daniela Montiel is a Strategy and Partnerships Coordinator at Marca Chile, a public-private foundation that manages Chile’s country brand. She proposes strategy and establishes partnerships which aim to position Chile’s nation brand internationally and provide support for international efforts carried out by members of the public and private sectors. Prior to this she spent six years developing communication strategy for economic development projects at the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds a master’s degree in public diplomacy from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in literature from Loyola Marymount University. Originally from California, she is currently based in Santiago de Chile.

Martin Reeves CEO Coventry City Council

Martin has been Chief Executive of Coventry City Council since April 2009.  He was the Chief Executive and the Head of Paid Service of the West Midlands Combined Authority from March 2016 to September 2017.  He had previously been with Bedfordshire County Council for three and a half years as Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive.  

Martin spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher, and has a PhD in applied economics.

In 2018 Martin was once again included in the top 50 of the Local Government Chronicle’s list of most influential people in local government.

Consol Vancells Casanovas City Branding Project Coordinator City Promotion Department, Barcelona City Council

As Barcelona City Branding Coordinator, Consol is responsible for the definition of the strategy, planning, implementation and follow-up of the City Branding project within the City Promotion Department of the Barcelona City Council, working closely with all local and metropolitan, public and private stakeholders.

Prior to joining Barcelona City Council, Consol was the Communication and Marketing Director of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Catalonia National Theatre), the public theatre of the Government of Catalonia for 14 years. In that role, she was in charge of a multidisciplinary team of 21 people, responsible for communication, marketing, public relations, rental of spaces, ticket sales and relationship with the public.

Consol has developed her career in the field of public, non-governmental, marketing and communication institutions. He was the founding creator and director for 5 years of the Enriqueta Villavecchia Foundation for children with cancer and was also responsible for advertising and sponsorship of the Turisme de Barcelona Consortium for 3 years.

Consol Vancells is a professional with more than 20 years’ experience in executive and strategic management in the field of branding, corporate communication, and digital marketing.

Expert project manager in online and offline communication projects and in designing client-acquisition and customer-loyalty strategies focused on improving the brand's positioning and its engagement.

Consol was Born in Barcelona and speaks Catalan, Spanish, English and French. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a graduate degree in Administration and Management from Harvard University and a master’s degree in Social Media, Branding and Strategies from Ramon Llull University – La Salle.

Edith Wong Chief Marketing Officer Invest Hong Kong

Edith Wong is Chief Marketing Officer at Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), a government department tasked to attract, facilitate and retain foreign direct investment into Hong Kong. The department works with companies of all sizes, from startups and SMEs to multinationals, and supports them in every stage from planning, setting up to promotion and expansion. 

She joined InvestHK in 2005 and took up the CMO position in 2015. Her division oversees content marketing, events, public relations, social media, market intelligence and strategic research. Her teams work closely with 31 offices in key markets worldwide to reach out to potential investors and to strengthen and promote Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s premier business location. Recent campaigns launched and spearheaded by InvestHK include the StartmeupHK Festival and Hong Kong Fintech Week.

Prior to joining InvestHK, Edith worked with the Airport Authority Hong Kong and Hong Kong Productivity Council.