Expert tourism, travel and events panel event join us next month

Our panel of experts:

• Jane Ashton – Sustainability Director at easyJet
• Zina Bencheikh – Managing Director (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) at Intrepid Travel
• Danielle D’Silva – Head of Sustainability at Booking.com
• Theo Lomas – Head of Public Policy, Partnerships and Government Relations (Northern Europe) at Airbnb
• Teresa Moore – Director at A Greener Festival (AGF)

This event will be facilitated by Prof. Marina Novelli from the School of Business and Law and Centre for Change, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (CENTRIM) at the University of Brighton, plus Judy Kepher-Gona – Founder and Principal Consultant at Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda, Kenya.

Maybe you’re a specialist or an aspiring professional in this field, a traveller, tourist or an event-goer who wants to know more about sustainable tourism and events. Come along and broaden your understanding of how the sector can operate more sustainably and responsibly, and learn how these companies are making a difference.

It’s not one to be missed, so what are you waiting for? Book your ticket and join us for an inspiring evening!

This event is free, but you do need to book a ticket. Refreshments will be provided.

More about our experts

Judy Kepher–Gona – Founder and Principal Consultant at Sustainable Travel and Tourism Agenda, Kenya

For more than 20 years, Judy has championed sustainable development of tourism in Africa and beyond, with a focus on social and environmental accountability of tourism and interests in systems of acknowledgement of contribution of host/resident communities in tourism, systems of integration of communities in the tourism value chain, equity in benefit sharing and accelerating integration of small, medium and micro-enterprises in the tourism supply chain. Matters of inclusion, equity and diversity define her engagement in sustainable development of tourism.

She’s co-editor of the 2021 book ‘Sustainable Tourism Dialogues in Africa’ and is featured in the recently released film ‘The Last Tourist’. She’s recipient of the 2019 Sustainable Citizen Award by Forbes Woman Africa and the 2020 Responsible Tourism Award by the Centre for Responsible Tourism. In 2020 she was named among 40 global shakers in sustainable tourism.

Judy has been a judge for the World Travel and Tourism Council Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, onsite evaluator for Nat Geo Unique Lodges of the World and Nat Geo World Legacy Awards, and currently serves as judge for the UNWTO Best Villages Awards and International Tourism Film Festival Africa.

Jane Ashton – Sustainability Director at easyJet

Jane is responsible for developing and implementing sustainability and ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategy across the easyJet Group. Jane joined easyJet in early 2020 from TUI, where she’d been leading sustainability for over 15 years.

During her time at easyJet, Jane has guided the company to sign up to the UN-backed Race to Zero pledge, and subsequently model and launch a transformational net zero pathway to 2050, aligned with the Paris Agreement and the Science-based Targets initiative, and embedded in the strategy and operations of the Group.  Jane also leads easyJet’s ESG agenda, with the business having seen an upswing in its scores on major rankings and ratings over the past year.

Jane is a trustee of the world’s first sustainable tourism charity, the Travel Foundation, and a board member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. She holds a BA(Hons) from Bristol University, a post-graduate diploma in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University Programme for Industry, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Bedfordshire University in 2018 for services to tourism. She is a Fellow member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (FIEMA).

Zina Bencheikh – Managing Director (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) at Intrepid Travel

Born in Marrakech and educated in France and the UK, Zina started her career in finance before joining Intrepid as Finance Manager in Morocco in 2010. She progressed rapidly through financial and operational leadership roles with the company and is now the EMEA Managing Director of Intrepid Travel. She’s responsible for achieving Intrepid’s dual goals of growth and balancing purpose and profit in the EMEA region.

Zina is driven by her passion for making the world a more inclusive and equal place. She’s used the company’s global reach to create economic opportunities for women through tourism, breaking down gender barriers in countries where women have been traditionally excluded from paid work and equal access to education, such as Morocco.

Danielle D’Silva – Head of Sustainability at Booking.com

Born and educated in the USA, and having lived in five countries across three continents, Danielle leads the development and execution of Booking.com’s holistic global sustainability strategy. This covers sustainable operations, making it easier for travellers to book sustainable trips and collaborating with partners and peers to catalyse sustainable travel growth.

Danielle was instrumental in the creation of Booking Holdings’ inaugural Climate Action Plan, using her deep topic knowledge to oversee Booking.com’s progress against the targets set out in the plan. A passionate advocate for all aspects of sustainability, Danielle is also leading the integration of sustainability into the company’s culture and its products.

Previously, Danielle led Booking.com’s operational sustainability programme and was responsible for a number of important milestones – including Booking.com becoming carbon neutral in its operations in 2020, overseeing the removal of single-use products from the company’s global office infrastructure and the sourcing of 100% renewable electricity for Booking Holdings’ operations.

Theo Lomas – Head of Public Policy, Partnerships and Government Relations (Northern Europe) at Airbnb

Before joining Airbnb, Theo worked in Facebook’s Government Relations (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) department from 2014 to 2017, and as Head of Communications – Global Public and Social Sector Practice at McKinsey & Company from 2017 to 2018.

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home. It’s since grown to over 4 million hosts, who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe, with considerable policy and planning implications to be managed, which is part of Theo’s role in the organisation.

Teresa Moore – Director at A Greener Festival (AGF)

Teresa leads on education, training and research at A Greener Festival and created AGF’s online Assessor Training and Development programme and the company’s short course portfolio. She also delivers in-house workshops on sustainable event management for organisations such British Council, Manchester City Council, RHS, Royal Parks, Without Walls Arts Association, Mela Partnership.

As well as undertaking event and arena audits for AGF, she is a consultant, author and speaker on sustainability and event management advising a diverse range of organisations such as Greenpeace and Download Festival, British Council Mexico, and Great Run Company.

Teresa has been researching the problem of abandoned tents and behaviour change at festivals for a number of years as part of her PhD research. Her published work includes being:
Co Author of “Cultura Circular Sustainability Toolkit for Festivals’ (2022); Author “Greening the Live Industry” chapter in “Present and Future of Music Law” (2021); Co- author of “A Case Study of the A Greener Festival Initiative” (2019); Author of “Live Music Census of Bristol”, UK. She presented findings to the UK Parliamentary Committee for Music in 2016.