Convention Speakers
Amanda Winwood
Made for Life Organics
Amanda Winwood is the pioneering founder of Made for Life Organics, an ethical, award-winning, and B Corp-certified skincare and wellness brand. For over 24 years, Amanda has championed the power of herbs and aromatherapy to nurture wellbeing, inspiring a movement that bridges nature, science, and compassion. Her vision is to connect people with the healing power of plants and create a happier, healthier world. This underpins every aspect of the brand.
Made for Life Organics was the first UK spa brand to achieve B Corp certification and, in 2024, received the prestigious King’s Enterprise Award for Sustainable Development. Amanda’s groundbreaking Cancer Touch Therapy training has empowered over 3,500 therapists to provide holistic, heart-led care to people living with cancer and other long-term health conditions.
A true innovator and advocate, Amanda is Chair of the Made for Life Foundation, a Trustee of SATCC, a published author, TEDx speaker, and respected wellness industry leader.
Emily McGuirk
Emily McGuirk is an award-winning business owner, public speaking coach, and trained actress with a passion for helping people show up with confidence, clarity, and impact.
With over 15 years’ experience across performance, coaching, and facilitation, Emily is known for delivering vibrant, practical workshops that create real, lasting change.
Through her company, Small Steps Big Vision, Emily works with young professionals, business owners, and teenagers who want to feel more confident in themselves and their voice.
Drawing on her background in acting and public speaking, she helps clients manage nerves, build presence, and communicate with authenticity, whether they’re presenting in the boardroom, pitching an idea, or speaking up in everyday life.
Emily’s approach is grounded, empowering, and refreshingly human. She believes you don’t need to be born confident to be an impactful speaker. Her sessions blend practical tools with encouragement and accountability, creating safe spaces for people to grow.
Alongside her coaching work, Emily is the head of acting at Stagecoach Theatre Arts, supporting young people in developing their stagecraft.
Kevin Millington & Jess Watkins
Directors, T-Stats Solutions Limited
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Mary Harris
Director Bird Global
Mary brings with her 25 years of expertise in international branding and communications. She is a specialist in travel and place branding and marketing with skills honed at London’s leading agencies on blue chip clients. Agencies include Euro RSCG London, Ogilvy, Cheil and M&C Saatchi where she spent nine years as a Managing Director. Mary has worked extensively with international governments and quasi-governmental organisations across tourism, FDI and talent attraction. She also set up and led the specialist place marketing team Destination M&C Saatchi.
Mary’s work has included everything from developing nation brands to tourism campaigns to navigating complex and high-level stakeholder landscapes. Some stand outs include: developing a new tourism brand for the Kingdom of Bahrain; nine years working with Bahrain EDB on investment promotion; launching a tourism campaign for Oman to benefit from the Qatar World Cup; developing a new festival brand, creating an extensive culture change programme for Oman Air, and working with London and Partners to reboot international tourism post the pandemic.
The work Mary has led is multi-award winning and has been recognised at Cannes, the Kinsale Sharks, the Campaign Big Awards, the Webby Awards, The One Show Awards, the Creative Circle Awards, Precision Marketing Group Awards, The Andys, The Lovie Awards, The Influencer Marketing Awards and the British Arrow Awards. She is proud to have been invited to judge a number of awards including five years of the Lloyds National Business Awards, The City Nation Place Awards and the World Media Awards. Mary has spoken at City Nation Place and Race for Place and has been invited to speak at Arabian Travel Market and AIDCA in Nigeria.
Mary founded the HER[E] network, the place for women who put places on the map, a group to increase diversity within place marketing. She has also trained many place marketing organisations including Bahrain Economic Development Board, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, The Cabinet Office, The Croatian Branding Group, London Stansted Airport and Oman Air. She co-leads the City Nation Place Accelerator training programme for place marketers.
Shaon Talukder
CEO Geotourist
Shaon first joined the TMI in 2017 after his company, Geotourist had been cited by Visit Britain as building “the Future of Travel-tech” in their “Future Trends” Report.
Geotourist was created to be, “Your personal guide to the world”, mapping personal, hyper-local stories of people and places for posterity to guide people seamlessly from location to location, connecting places together, and explaining what makes our world meaningful.
The immersive technology has been adopted by local community groups, all the way through to regional & national DMOs, tourism consultants, attractions, academia and international brands including National Trust, Visit Scotland, Historic England, TFL and many more in the UK and abroad.
Geotourist’s latest innovation, “Destination Intelligence” is a data platform which uniquely informs destination organisations, strategically and tactically on how to bring different visitors right to their doorsteps, using behavioural insights to influence where people go, creating new discovery & economic opportunities in real-time.
Shaon’s leadership roles include, Director of The Tourism Society, & Founding Member of Phocuswright’s TravelTechNation Fellowship, The World Travel and Tourism Council, The Male Allyship Group, a number of advisory boards & Startup Accelerator Mentor. He is also guest-lecturer at several UK & international universities and is a research partner at the Artificial Intelligence Labs at the Future Institute at Edinburgh University.
Dr Natalie Semley
Falmouth University
Dr Natalie Semley is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Tourism Management at Falmouth University whose work focuses on destination management, sustainability and regenerative tourism. Her research and consultancy projects have explored visitor perceptions of sustainable tourism, the role of technology in destination storytelling, and practical approaches to destination development. Natalie works closely with industry partners to deliver applied research that supports destination managers and tourism practitioners across the UK.
Dr Peter Robinson
Head of Subject: Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management
Peter is Head of Subject for Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University. His expertise covers visitor attractions, transport operations, heritage and museums management, tourism landscapes, urban and rural regeneration and placemaking, business development and Cold War tourism. He is also an award-winning author who has published academic books and peer-reviewed journals, as well as books covering a range of transport, tourism, and landscape histories.
Peter is a Fellow of the Tourism Management Institute and the Yorkshire and Humber representative, a Fellow of the Tourism Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is Co-Chair of The Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE), a Director of The Institute of Travel and Tourism and represents ATHE on the Tourism Society Board. He is also Chair of The Tourism Society Consultants Network and is a member of the ABTA Tourism Skills Working Group.
He is Chair of a charity co-delivering a multi-million-pound regeneration project for the historic house and country park at Elvaston in Derbyshire. He is also the Education and Outreach Officer for The Airfield Research Group, a Trustee for his local Scout Group, and the Founding Director of The Cold War Network – a membership organisation for managers, curators, associations and researchers with publicly accessible Cold War collections and buildings.
Previously, Peter worked as Head of Marketing, Leisure, Innovation and Enterprise at the University of Wolverhampton, and also managed the institution’s Arts Council funded Arena Theatre. He was also formerly Vice-Chair of The Museum of Carpet. Before working in academia, Peter managed EU-funded projects in the Peak District and tourism projects in Oxfordshire, and spent several years working for The National Trust.
Becky Frall
Head of Tourism (VA) West Midlands Growth Company
Becky Frall is the Head of Visitor Attraction at West Midlands Growth Company. She has over 20 years’ experience in the visitor economy sector, from an economic development and research focus through to strategy, policy and attracting project funding for delivery across the region’s destinations. She is passionate about curating the visitor experience and linking the many agents involved with this across the region.
She has a strategic aim to drive overnight stays through a positive change in perception of the region, and increased international awareness, to increase dwell-time and value to the West Midlands’ destinations. The past 2 years have seen a focus on this through the inaugural Business & Tourism Programme, a partnership between government, national and regional agencies, to leverage the impact of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will bring the increased exposure on the national and international stage, and in longer-term planning for delivery post-B2022 Commonwealth Games and Coventry City of Culture. Becky’s focus is to ensure that shareholders and partners are in a position to support, and benefit from, this visitor economy sector growth.
With thanks to our event speakers.