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.
Dr. Christian Baumgartner is a professor of Sustainable Tourism at the FHGR – Graubünden University of Applied Sciences, in Chur (Switzerland), and founder of response & ability.
Christian Baumgartner researches, publishes and develops projects in the field of sustainable tourism development and transformation and sustainable regional development, and has led specific tourism development projects in Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. His activity focuses particularly on certification and monitoring systems, and he acts as an auditor and member of advisory boards for several national and European Union labels. He has published several books on sustainability assessment in tourism and is a member of the expert group Tourism for Tomorrow of the European Commission. He has taught at several universities in Europe and Asia.
Giorgio Grussu has been Project Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since 2012. He holds a PhD in Environmental Biology, a Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering, a Master's Degree in Environmental Policy and a Postgraduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Before joining FAO, he worked as an environmental advisor with the Italian Development Cooperation and as a project manager with IUCN, UNEP and various NGOs in Morocco, Angola, the Republic of North Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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.
Jordi Urbea is CEO of Ogilvy Spain. Previously, he held the position of Senior Vice President of Ogilvy Spain and CEO of Ogilvy Barcelona. He was responsible for the company's digital transformation in Barcelona, as well as the creator of the international hub of Customer Engagement & Data of Ogilvy in Europe and driver of Ogilvy Mobile and Ogilvy Upcelerator, the first Ogilvy group startup accelerator in the world, a pioneering initiative in the sector.
Urbea is one of the pioneering professionals in digital advertising in Spain, a sector in which he has worked since its inception. The CEO of Ogilvy Spain founded his own agency in 1996 and is a regular speaker at conferences, companies, universities and institutions, as well as a disseminator to the media on new trends in marketing and advertising and on the digital transformation of companies, businesses and brands.
An investor in several startups, he is coordinator of the master's degree in Direct and Digital Marketing at Pompeu Fabra University and author of several books, such as Success (Planeta Group) or Recreate, how to win in the game of life (Editorial Platform).
José Estévez de Cáceres, senior project manager of the Intelligent Destination Platform of the SEGITTUR Institutional Relations Directorate.
An architect by training, he has been working as an ICT consultant for more than fifteen years, with extensive experience in the design and development of solutions and projects in the field of smart cities and smart tourism.
He is currently responsible for the development of the PID Central Node project at SEGITTUR, and has participated in the implementation of all the actions of the Intelligent Destination Platform initiative.
Melanie Tamborini works as a project manager and professor at the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences in Chur (Switzerland), where she leads and participates in projects aimed at generating evidence-based knowledge in the field of tourism awareness and acceptance, sports tourism and regional development. She also directs a Living Lab, a transdisciplinary research laboratory that aims to foster collaboration between academic research, local actors and communities to support sustainable regional development. Melanie Tamborini teaches at the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences and has international teaching experience.
Simonida Kordić has developed an outstanding career in the public sector, with extensive experience in international cooperation, parliamentary activity and the media.
She holds a law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, specializing in public international law. She later expanded her education in the United Kingdom, where she completed an MBA at the University of Sheffield.
In July 2024, she was appointed Minister of Tourism of the Government of Montenegro. Previously, she served as a member of the Parliament of Montenegro, where she also held the position of President of the Constitutional Commission.
She was also co-president of the Women's Club of the Parliament of Montenegro, a member of the delegations to the NATO and OSCE Parliamentary Assemblies, as well as president of the Francophonie Parliamentary Group.
Her career in public administration began in Herceg Novi, where she worked as an advisor for cooperation with international organizations.
She was subsequently appointed head of the Department of International Cooperation, deepening her expertise in international relations and diplomacy.
Before joining public administration, she worked as a journalist, author and editor in some of the most influential media outlets in the federal state.
He speaks English and French fluently and has an intermediate level of Chinese (HSK3).