Brian Kelly is the founder and CEO of The Points Guy, a leader and influencer in the industry of points, miles and travel in general. As a passionate traveler since childhood, Brian used his knowledge and insight to start ThePointsGuy.com during his time as a Wall Street road warrior while traveling the globe for up to six months a year. Brian was able to book exciting and extravagant trips for next to nothing through his hard-earned points and miles, flying first class and staying at luxury hotels all for less than the cost of a coach ticket and a hostel bed. Due to the immense interest in his tips and advice, Brian left his Wall Street job in June 2011 to grow his site and travel the world full-time.
 
Through his earning strategies and travel savvy, ThePointsGuy.com now has grown to over 2.9 Million unique monthly visitors with 1.3 million followers on social media, with a growing staff of editors and writers keeping readers up-to-date on important points and travel news.
 
Brian has been featured in over 100 publications and news outlets including The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, The Los Angeles Times, The Independent, CNN, TED and The Today Show, among others. He has presented at various travel conferences including the LA Times and New York Times Travel Shows, and the annual Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars.

Arun is a Director within eCommerce group at Choice Hotels.His main responsibility is to ensure that Choicehotels.com, a $1B+ eCommerce site is optimized across web and mobile (including App) environments. He leads efforts to ensure that Choicehotels.com is applying best practices with respect to eCommerce, Merchandizing, Personalization, Content and Loyalty integration across Web and Mobile experiences.

Steven Sickel is Chief Executive Officer of Room Key. Steve focuses on setting company strategy, directing the venture’s financials and commercial performance, leading the board of directors function and process, and steering the organization’s leadership team through day-to-day operations. In just one-and-a-half years with Room Key Steve has made significant positive impact on the organization, overhauling the company’s financials, improving its cash position and bringing it to profitability in mid-2015 just three years post-inception. He also overhauled the company’s marketing approach through customer segmentation and redesigned the company’s customer value proposition.
Steve is a travel industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in senior-level roles across multiple marketing disciplines. One of the founding leaders who conceived of and brought Room Key to market in 2012, Steve previously served for more than 13 years at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), most recently on the executive team as Global Head of Sales, Distribution and Relationship Marketing. Steve departed IHG in late 2013 to launch his own consulting company, AsburyAve Marketing Advisors. He returned to Room Key in 2014 as CEO.
During his tenure at IHG Steve led the strategy and commercial performance for IHG’s main revenue platforms including Digital Marketing/e-Commerce, Loyalty Programs, Database Marketing, Pricing/Revenue Management and Corporate Sales Programs. Steve was recognized by Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) as one of the “Top 25 Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing.”
Steve also spent 10 years at Continental Airlines where he led their Relationship Marketing team globally with specific focus on Loyalty Programs, Database Marketing, Affinity Marketing and Data Analytics. Under Steve’s leadership the OnePass frequent flyer program was heralded year after year as “Program of the Year” and “Best Elite Program” in the annual Freddie Awards.
Steve holds an M.B.A. in Marketing from Boston College and a B.A. in Business Management from Gettysburg College. He and his wife live in Atlanta with their three daughters.

Since December 2016, Jennifer is the Associate Director of Digital Marketing for Lufthansa’s Miles and More, Europe’s leading Frequent Flyer Program currently working on implementation of the Adobe Marketing Cloud with Campagin, Experience Manager and Analytics. Previously, she served as the Project Lead on Lufthansa’s Project Personalized Marketing to where she handled pre- and retargeting and personalized email communication/anicllary sales. The project team with 100 people was set up to establish personalization for the Lufthansa Group, incl. Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian Airlines. Jennifer has also served as the Social Media Manager, handling Lufthansa‘s Social Media and Digital Innovations, including their YouTube channel and global social media campaign, #inspiredby.  

Cathy Tull is the senior vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).  The LVCVA is the destination marketing organization for Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, and its mission centers on attracting visitors by promoting the destination as the world’s most desirable destination for leisure and business travel. The LVCVA also owns and operates the Las Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Center.

As senior vice president of marketing, Ms. Tull oversees all of the organization’s marketing, advertising and sales efforts.  She joined the LVCVA in 2005 with extensive business experience in travel and tourism, health care administration and journalism. Ms. Tull began her career as the organization’s vice president of strategic planning where her responsibilities included providing strategic direction regarding issues facing the destination, including air and ground transportation, fuel infrastructure and government affairs.  She was promoted to her current position in 2009.

As a 19-year resident of Las Vegas, Ms. Tull previously worked as vice president of administration for MedicWest Ambulance.  Prior to moving to Las Vegas, she worked as a news reporter and in public relations.

Ms. Tull holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from St. Bonaventure University in New York and an associate’s degree in journalism from the State University of New York at Morrisville. She was recently named as one of the Skift 50, Top 50 Travel Marketers and led Las Vegas to being named Brand Steward: Top Eight Cult Brands in North America. She is active in many industry organizations, serving as a member of the Meetings Mean Business Coalition and a staff liaison for the U.S. Travel Association, the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (TTAB) and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI).

As a digital native and global business citizen, Megan brings a unique perspective to her role as Managing Partner at SYZYGY North America. She manages operations and business growth for the digital agency, which offers creative, technology, and media services to major travel, luxury, and financial services brands, including Avis Budget Group, Chanel and Paypal.
 
Prior to joining SYZYGY, Megan was Business Director and a member of the senior leadership team of Razorfish’s London office, running the full service media offerings in EMEA. Clients included Starwood Resorts, Holland America Lines, Ralph Lauren, and Mondelez. She spoke frequently at digital marketing and advertising symposia across Europe. 
 
Megan started her digital career in as an Account Manager in Razorfish’s Chicago office in 2006 after brief but enlightening stint in finance at Deutsche Bank. She earned a Journalism degree from the University of Oregon.

David is responsible for for business development, partnerships, strategic account management, sales, pricing, and other special projects at Turo. He joined Turo in 2015, via the acquisition of SocialStudio, the company he founded and led. Previously, David was VP Product at Yammer, Senior Director of Growth at Playdom, led platform marketing at YouTube, and advised management teams with the Boston Consulting Group. David holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from Yale University.

Steve Born, Vice President of Marketing Steve Born is vice president of marketing for Group Voyagers, the company that markets and sells the Globus family of brands (Avalon Waterways, Globus, Cosmos and Monograms) within the United States. Born began his marketing career outside the travel industry more than 20 years ago and now is responsible for guiding all marketing and call center initiatives for the Globus family. He spends his days bringing consumers the experience of travel--one of his true passions--and he could not be happier. A self-proclaimed people person, Born thrives on the daily interactions he has with travel industry colleagues, as well as with his staff--a group of individuals he fondly compares to NASA engineers. With the help of this “rocket science” crew, Born has helped grow the Globus family from two to four brands, including the introduction of Monograms and Avalon Waterways. Prior to joining the company, Born worked as vice president at Karsh and Hagan Communications, Inc., in Denver, Colo., overseeing the account services department. Born received a B.A. in advertising from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he graduated cum laude. When not "talking travel," he and his wife spend their time coaching and chasing their two children (and their buddies), engaged in every sport known to man, around the Denver area.

An almost 20-year thrill ride in advertising, digital marketing and technology implementation has fueled Amanda’s passion to pair unique consumer insights and database analytics with unique brand offerings to drive business.  She has delivered winning B2B and B2C strategies for Fortune 500 public, private and non-profit environments alike.  Amanda is currently enriching American summer fun by driving personalized, behavior-based marketing programs for Herschend Family Entertainment’s 26 theme park and attractions across the U.S.  When she is not analyzing and strategizing, she is making memories with her own family in Atlanta. 

Adam joined Turo in January 2015 and has spent nearly a decade in digital branding, user acquisition, growth, and analytics. Previously, he focused on healthcare clients (Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca) while at Publicis-owned agency Razorfish and began his involvement in the travel industry at Carat in San Francisco. There he managed user acquisition and new attraction launches for Disneyland and California Adventure as part of the Disney Parks & Resorts team, after which he transitioned to mobile marketing and acquisition, focusing on Expedia.

Adam is responsible for the Global Partner & Alliance organization at SessionM which includes industry leading Digital Agencies and Systems Integrators. Prior to joining SessionM, Adam served in both Sales and Channel leadership positions at Sitecore. In his last role as Global VP of Partners and Alliances at Sitecore, his team more than doubled the partner contribution to revenue and expanded the service delivery capabilities across Sitecore's global time zones to include net new products and technology acquisitions like commerce. Prior to Sitecore, Adam spent 8 years at Microsoft as part of the SharePoint organization including managing sales integration on the FAST Search acquisition and helping create Microsoft's Digital Marketing practice. He is a graduate of Florida State University and Northwestern Kellogg's Executive Education program.

Niklas Schlappkohl is the Senior Director, Travel Solutions in the Global Client Solutions team and in-house consultant for the Travel industry. His responsibilities include onboarding new Travel clients as well as strategic localization consulting for existing clients. Niklas joined Translations.com after 20 years in the global digital travel industry, having lead ecommerce and localization efforts at some of the leading hospitality brands including Starwood, Accor, NH Hotels and most recently Carlson Rezidor, where he was Senior Director, eCommerce. Since 2015, he has also been Chairman of the HSMAI Digital Marketing Advisory Board. A native from Germany, Niklas has a BA in Languages, and MA in International Relations and speaks 8 languages.

Charleen is an experienced content director, market researcher and published author with a passion for creative storytelling. She produces innovative b2b networking conferences that serve as platforms to help businesses and professionals create narratives that inspire and foster connectivity between industry thought leaders. Her portfolio currently focuses on events in the life sciences and travel, hospitality and leisure industries. She manages WBR’s Digital Travel Summit, PharmaForce, MedForce, and NGPX. When not developing awesome programs, you can find her working on her next novel, traveling with her husband, or Instagramming photos of her beloved French Bulldog, Marv.