Vito Curalli, MBA, CHA, Hilton Worldwide Sales
As the Executive Director, International Sales and Industry Relations with Hilton Worldwide Sales, Vito oversees several teams with responsibilities for Group, Business Travel and Leisure Sales within Canada, the US and Latin America. In addition, he is responsible for Hilton’s industry relations with key strategy partners throughtout the Americas. Prior to joining Hilton Worldwide, Vito was the Vice President of Development for AFM Hospitality based in Toronto as well other roles within AFM including Sales and Marketing responsibilities for key brands under AFM.
Vito is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Hospitality and Tourism School (BComm.), University of Wales (Finance) and the University of Guelph’s Hospitality and Tourism Management School (MBA). He received his CHA designation in 2016. Vito has taught Sales and Marketing Courses at Ryerson University’s Hospitality and Tourism School and currently sits on several boards including the Hotel Association of Canada, Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School’s Dean Council and Humber’s School of Hospitality Advisory Board.
HILTON is one of the largest and fastest growing hospitality companies in the world, with 18 Brands, in 118 countries and more than 6,215 hotels, resorts and timeshare properties worldwide.
Presentation: The hotel and meetings industry in a post-pandemic environment
Cihan Cobanoglu, University of South Florida (USF)
Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu is the McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHRM) in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF), who also serves as the Director of the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation and Coordinator of International Programs for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He is a renowned hospitality and tourism technology expert.
Dr. Cobanoglu is a Fulbright Specialist commissioned by the Fulbright Commission (2018-2021). He is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP) commissioned by Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals (HFTP) and Educational Institute of American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). He is the Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (JHTT)(Indexed in SSCI IF=2.796), editor of Journal of Global Business Insights (JGBI), Journal of Global Hospitality and Tourism (JGBI) and a co-author of six books and ten conference proceedings. He is also currently serving as the President of Association of North America Higher Education International (ANAHEI). He is the founder of eReviewer.org, an open-access paper management system and AcademiaCentral.org, a portal for educators around the world.
Presentation: Experience and choice design for tourism
Paul Tuscano, B.Eng, MBA,Marriott, Vice-President Digital Products
Paul is an IEEE member since 1997 when he started his degree in Electrical Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Specialized in wireless communications and data networks, Paul started his career as systems engineer for Motorola deploying new cellular technologies for wireless carriers world-wide. He was responsible for enabling the first packet data calls in Peru, Philippines and Singapore. His first job led to his passion of travel and immersing himself into cultures. Paul has since spent over 10 years developing new digital and wireless products across multiple industries while at Verizon Wireless (Verizon/Vodafone) where he holds patent claims in areas of access controls, content identification, profile management, location management and security. His parental control and content rating products at Verizon was an industry first and became the industry standard that is still followed today by app store providers. Paul is acknowledged as a mobile payments expert and has presented in many forums including to the US Federal Reserve on payment technology, security and best practices. While he has attention to the underlying technology, his focus has always been on delivering the best customer experience that people want to use. Marrying his understanding of technology and user needs he has delivered over 40 new digital products, features and services for consumers and enterprises.
Paul continues that pursuit of product development at Marriott, where he was responsible for the Marriott Bonvoy App, which saw 2 iterations under his supervision and several new features. He is now responsible for evolving the guest experience across all the digital touchpoints on property (Web/Internet, Mobile App, Kiosks, Guest Room Entertainment) as well as the amenity software that property operators use to engage guests and operate their restaurants, spa, and golf businesses.
Presentation: “You’ve got them to book, Now what?” Digital and Technology Engagement for their Stay.
Urška Starc-Peceny, Ph.D.,Chief Innovation Officer, Arctur
Urška Starc-Peceny, PhD has gained an international education in Slovenia, Italy and Austria. Her Phd thesis in Business Communication with specialization in the New Media and Technologies entitled “Netlife” has paved the way in 2001 in research of collaboration design in the reality in which AI and big data play an increasing role. From Europe to Middle East, she has gained 20+ years of experience as entrepreneur by co-founding more companies and disruptive initiatives.
Presentation: TIM – Tourism Impact Model (PDF description)
From measuring the impact of tourism, boosting of data-driven strategic thinking to digitalisation of cultural and natural heritage, the Slovene Tourism 4.0 initiative has grown into a partnership of 150+ partners from all over the world. The partnership is paving the way toward tourism of tomorrow: a tourism respecting the quality of life of local residents and natural environment. And a tourism taking advantage of technologies from Industry 4.0 in order to create a future we want for us and future generations. Within this frame has been developed a system with crypto tokens, secure digital IDs and other disruptive tools, in which at least part of the data and profit is shared with the local communities.
Tomi Ilijas, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Arctur
Tomi Ilijaš is founder and CEO of Arctur and he holds a MSc degree from Ljubljana University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Mr. Ilijaš is an entrepreneur focusing on Hi-Tech innovation, who has shared his knowledge and experience to many start-ups and spin-offs in the region. He participated in several EU funded R&D projects, inventing new business models in HPCaaS and successfully breaking the barriers in bringing HPC to manufacturing SMEs. Recently, his research focus is on transferring new technologies like HPDA, IoT and Blockchain from Industry 4.0 to tourism. He is also a member of EUROHPC Research & Innovation Advisory Group (RIAG) and member of PRACE Industrial Advisory Committee.
Presentation: TIM – Tourism Impact Model (PDF description)
From measuring the impact of tourism, boosting of data-driven strategic thinking to digitalisation of cultural and natural heritage, the Slovene Tourism 4.0 initiative has grown into a partnership of 150+ partners from all over the world. The partnership is paving the way toward tourism of tomorrow: a tourism respecting the quality of life of local residents and natural environment. And a tourism taking advantage of technologies from Industry 4.0 in order to create a future we want for us and future generations. Within this frame has been developed a system with crypto tokens, secure digital IDs and other disruptive tools, in which at least part of the data and profit is shared with the local communities.
Cinzia Campanella, Vodafone Business
Cinzia Campanella is the 5G & Verticals Responsible within the Product, Services & Platform development team of Vodafone Business. Before taking up this role in October 2020, Cinzia was Education & Entertainment Sector Lead – 5G Program and was responsible for the development, launch and promotion of 5G products and services for the Education & Entertainment sector. Within the segment “Small Business Home Business”, she headed the Sales Operations & Monitoring unit with the aim of guaranteeing an efficient and coherent service to customer, as well as fast and efficient problem-solving of sales process issues. For the « Corporate » segment she was « Responsible of Channel Strategy – Direct Channel » unit drove and defined for the incentive and compensation plans. monitoring sales forecasting and results. Prior to joining Vodafone, Cinzia was Marketing Channel Manager – online magazines “Game On”& “il Nuovo” for Fastweb SPA and was responsible for the development of channel marketing programs for sales growth and revenue enhancement. Cinzia has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering (Telecommunication branch) from Naples University Federico II.
Presentation: TOURIST 4.0: New immersive experiences on 5G to travel through time to discover the Italian cultural heritage
Charalampos Z. Patrikakis, University of West Attica
Charalampos Z. Patrikakis is a Professor at the Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of the University of West Attica on the Design and Implementation of Interconnected Electronic Systems and Services, with emphasis on data collection and processing. He has been an adjunct lecturer at the National Technical University of Athens and the Agricultural University of Athens, while he has worked for 20 years as a researcher at various laboratories of the Institute of Communications and Computer Systems, the National Technical University of Athens and the Agricultural University of Athens. He is currently the Director of CoNSeRT (Computer Networks & Services Research laboraTory) of the University of West Attica, which researches on Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing and Networking, Web and Internet of Things and Blockchain technologies and for the design and implementation of mobile and network applications and services. He is also the Director of the MSc Program “Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning” offered jointly by the Dept of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Dept of Industrial Design and Production Engineering of UniWA. His research experience includes participation in in over 50 research projects, from which in more than 20 he has been involved as technical coordinator or principal researcher. He has over 200 publications in chapters of books, international journals and conferences, and has 2 contributions in national legislation. He has been a member of the editorial committee of more than 60 issues in international journals and conferences, and has acted as editor in the publication of special issues of international journals, conference proceedings volumes and coedited three books. E is currently the Associate Editor in Chief of the IEEE IT Professional Magazine, responsible for Special Issues, and a senior member of IEEE, a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, and counselor of the IEEE Student Branch of the University of West Attica.
Presentation: Cultural heritage preservation through active involvement of tourists.
The presentation will focus on the way IoT technologies and especially the concept of Digital Twin and mobile device crowdsourcing can contribute to the preservation of Cultural Heritage. In particular, the way tourists can be transformed from visitors of a cultural heritage site to active contributors to the preservation process, acting as human sensors and contributing the construction of a digital representation over time of the status of cultural heritage assets in sites. The use of photos from mobile phones towards the creation of digital representation which can be used to detect changes or alterations in monuments will be presented, giving examples of how this can be made possible.
Olivia Menaguale, Art Historian
Olivia Menaguale is an art historian and archaeologist, whose lifelong passion in her studies and career, over the last 30 years, has been to improve the communications and access to Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Europe and the US, working alongside experts in technology from digital photo-archives to the financial art world, from audio-video guides to 3D reconstructions. Olivia Menaguale has led and been involved in digital projects, including the 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome – in collaboration with the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA, USA), UCLA (Los Angeles, CA, USA), and the Italian Ministry of Culture. This remains the largest 3D model of any historical site. In 2008, Google Inc. (Mountainview, CA, USA) partnered the project, and together launched the first historical city, “Ancient Rome” on Google Earth which could be flown over in 24 languages and was explored by 78 million people worldwide in the first week of going public. Some other projects she has led, include the creation of a mini theme park on the Colosseum called “Rewind Rome” for tourists visiting the City of Rome; and a 3D CAVE inside the historical site of Pompeii offering the 2.5 visiting visitors with a 360° fully immersive reconstruction of a bustling street in 64 A.D. before the eruption. Olivia also led the team to create and manage the world’s first audio-video guide for a historical site, at the Colosseum in 2006. This service, providing over 100 minutes of videos, photographic explanatory materials and narration, is still offered to the 4 million visitors to the site today, available in 9 languages.
Vinod Bijlani, leads the AI and IoT Practice for HPE
Vinod Bijlani leads the AI and IoT Practice for HPE. He has contributed to the design and implementation of smart city projects and established intelligent public transportation and traffic ecosystems in India, Singapore, and the U.S. He has over 22 years of experience in creating solutions and is a distinguished inventor with 25 patents in AI and ML technologies. He actively shares his experiences by speaking at international forums, mentoring start-ups, and publishing articles. Vinod has been working with standards organizations, such as the IT Standards Committee Singapore (ITSC-SG) and TM Forum, building standards on AI Security and Video Analytics. He is also the lead mentor with IoT Tribe SG where helps nurture young, aspiring entrepreneurs. For more details on Vinod’s professional background, please refer to www.vinodbijlani.me
Presentation: The Best Time to Travel – Virtually!
Tourism has always meant big business. With the travel service sector being the economic backbone of several countries, heritage tourism becomes a key fiscal factor for growth. So far, technology in the travel and tourism industry primarily focused on customer engagement and service, aiming at a simplified digital experience from booking a trip and planning the itinerary to organizing payments and post-trip memories. However, with the world coming to terms with the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic, digital heritage tourism becomes critical to local economies mainly to revive global interest and to keep domestic businesses going. A sustainable transformation to digital heritage tourism can support nations’ vault over physical travel challenges during times such as these, and help governments collaborate with international organizations for positive future change.