Aradhana Khowala is a global expert and one of the world's leading voices on travel, tourism and hospitality. Over the past 24 years, she has worked across five continents and with over 85 countries, at the intersection of luxury hospitality, wellness and regenerative growth. She spends much of her time engaging with presidents, prime ministers and global leaders to harness tourism as a catalyst for economic vitality, climate action and human progress.
She is currently the CEO of Aptamind Partners, the leading strategic consultancy for governments, emerging destinations and public and private organisations seeking regenerative tourism development solutions. Prior to her current role, she was Managing Director of Tourism at NEOM – the $500 billion project conceived as the land of the future, specifically designed for a sustainable and innovative way of living – as well as Chair of the Advisory Board of Red Sea Global in Saudi Arabia for seven years, another multi-billion dollar mega project under Vision 2030, which is setting new standards in environmental management through innovative models of international tourism.
An active member of several boards, she has an impressive portfolio of non-executive positions and is currently on the Board of Patrizia SE, a German-listed real estate company with €70 billion in assets under management. She is also a member of the Board and Chair of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of Elaf Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of multi-asset real estate company SEDCO, the market leader in religious tourism in the MENA region and South Asia. She is also on the Board of the Global Wellness Institute in the US, the world’s leading authority on the $6.3 trillion wellness economy. Her previous experience includes Jones Lang LaSalle, where she covered the UK, Benelux and Scandinavian markets; strategic consulting roles in Europe and Asia; and operational roles in the hospitality sector in India.
A multi-award winner, she was named one of the 25 Most Influential South Asians in London by Asian Standard in 2025, in recognition of her pioneering role in tourism and public leadership. From 2021 to 2025, she was recognized for five consecutive years as one of the Most Inspiring Leaders in Global Hospitality by the International Hospitality Institute, which also ranked her among the 100 Most Powerful People in Travel and 25 Most Influential Women in Travel and Tourism. In 2021, she received the Chairman's Award from the Global Chamber of Commerce (USA) for her outstanding leadership among peers and was recognized by City Nation Place (UK) as an Inspiring Woman Rethinking Sustainable Tourism. In 2017, she won the 21st Century Icon Award from CNBC and the London School of Economics as an Inspirational Game Changer. And in 2014, Swiss business magazine Bilan included her among the 50 most influential emerging leaders of the new generation shaping the future of luxury hospitality.
A sought-after speaker, she speaks weekly at high-profile events around the world, captivating audiences of 100-5,000 people. She has delivered high-impact talks at TEDx (nearly a million views), the Future Hospitality Summit, the Global Wellness Summit, and FIBO, among many others. A prolific thinker, she has published over 200 articles in leading global media outlets and is regularly interviewed on international television. She is also a regular presence at the world’s most influential policy decision-making tables, from the United Nations and the G20 to the World Economic Forum, where she helps shape the narrative on redefining the future of travel, tourism, and leadership.
She holds a professional doctorate in Tourism Leadership and Sustainability from EIU Paris, a certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and an MBA from the prestigious École Hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland. She also holds an international certification as a consultant from INSEAD and has completed executive programs at both Cornell University in New York and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
She divides her time between London and Abu Dhabi.
Bernat Casañas Masip is CEO of Becama Consulting and co-founder of ENID (Escuela de Negocios e Innovación Digital), one of the most important AI academies in the Spanish-speaking world. Author of the bestseller “AI: La Última Revolución Humana”, he has trained more than 50,000 professionals and collaborated with organizations such as the Government of Andorra, Telefónica, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid. A prominent speaker at AI events and with a presence in media such as El Mundo, La Vanguardia and Forbes España, he works to democratize artificial intelligence and lead digital transformation with practical methodology and measurable results.
Dr. Alex Connock He is an academic specializing in the media business and artificial intelligence, and is the author of a trilogy of books covering the contemporary media business: Media Management and Artificial Intelligence (2022), Average Management and Live Experience: Sports, Culture, Entertainment and Events (2024), i Entrepreneurship in Media and Entertainment (2025), all published by Routledge.
He is also a leading international speaker, both in the academic and professional sectors, on the media business and its transformation through artificial intelligence.
Academically, he is a Senior Fellow at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, where he teaches AI, marketing and media business on undergraduate, MBA and EMBA programmes. He co-founded and directed the Oxford Business Postgraduate Diploma in AI from 2021 to 2023, and is Professor of Management at St Hugh's College, Oxford. In 2025, he received an Oxford Prize for Teaching Innovation.
Alex is also Professor of Media and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Exeter, and Professor of Media Innovation at the University of Sunderland. He holds a PhD in Video Optimization for E-Commerce and holds degrees from the University of Oxford (PPE), Columbia University (Journalism) and INSEAD (MBA).
As an entrepreneur, he has created and developed several media companies. Between 2012 and 2017 he was CEO of the television and digital production company Endemol Shine North (now Workerbee). Between 1998 and 2011 he co-founded and led, as CEO, the media group Ten Alps (now Zinc Media) with Bob Geldof, producing hundreds of programmes for UK and international channels, as well as a significant activity in digital and branded content, including the British Government's Teachers TV project. He has worked directly for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and the magazine People.
He has been a finalist six times for the Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Jessica Fischer is the founder and CEO of GuestOS, an AI-powered communications platform that helps destinations, hospitality and tourism operators, and government agencies deliver clear, real-time information in multiple languages. She grew up working in family-run hotels near Yosemite National Park, where she saw firsthand how access to information, connectivity, and security shape the experience of remote mountain destinations. After losing two homes to wildfires, she experienced firsthand the consequences of communication systems collapsing in high-risk emergencies.
Currently, his work focuses on the development of resilient and people-centered communication infrastructures, serving tourism, public safety and trust in complex environments.