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GUEST SPEAKERS

Professor Gregory Ashworth, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Educated at the Universities of Cambridge, Reading and London (PhD.1974), Prof. Ashworth has taught at the Universities of Wales, Portsmouth and, since 1979, Groningen. Since 1994, he has been a Professor of heritage management and urban tourism in the Department of Planning, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen in The Netherlands. Prof. Ashworth's main research interests include heritage management, tourism planning and place marketing. He is author of the books "Tourist-Historic City" (Wiley, 1990), "Heritage Planning" (Geopers, 1992), "Dissonant Heritage" (Wiley, 1996), "European heritage planning and management" (Intellect, 2001).

Mr Nick Dodds, Managing Director of Festivals and Events International, UK
Nick Dodds is Managing Director of Festivals and Events International, a new company that provides advice and project management for festivals and public events across the world. Until recently Nick was Chief Executive of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival for eight years where he was responsible for the artistic and commercial operation of both the annual Festival and the year round venues. Nick oversaw the major capital refurbishment of the Brighton Dome and Museum, re-opened the Dome as the south coast's premier arts and conference centre and has developed the Brighton Festival as a major national event. Nick is a past Chairman of the International Festival and Events Association - Europe. Nick was previously Administrative Director of the Edinburgh International Festival where he was responsible for its financial, legal and operational success between 1990 and 2000. Over this time the Festival grew considerably and Nick established the Hub - the Edinburgh Festival Centre - a highly successful Lottery funded project, which was opened by HM the Queen in July 1999. Prior to the Edinburgh Festival, Nick ran Meteorlites Productions Ltd, an event lighting and technical production business, operating throughout the world, in the music and entertainment sectors. His early career was with Granada Theatres and as a production manager.

Professor Mike Robinson, Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
Prof. Mike Robinson is Chair of Tourism and Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University and Director of the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change - an international research body that carries out work on the changing relationships between tourism and culture. Mike's PhD was in Political Science / Environmental Politics (University of East Anglia) but for the past 17 years Mike's work has focused upon research in the field of tourism and culture. He has published books on Tourism and Cultural Conflicts, Literature and Tourism, Cultural Festivals and Tourism, and the Politics of Cultural Tourism, together with numerous articles and book chapters. Mike has worked with UNESCO on a major report on Tourism, Culture and Sustainable Development, and was commissioned to write on tourism and representation for the forthcoming UNESCO World Diversity Report. Mike is founder and Joint Editor of the Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, an Associate Editor of the Scandinavian Journal of Tourism and is on the board of four other international journals. He is also Joint Series Editor of the Tourism and Cultural Change Book Series and, Honorary Editor of Monographs for the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL). Mike is a Board member/Trustee of the Council for British Research in the Levant (an Overseas Institute of the British Academy), a former Director of a major heritage attraction in the North East of England, a member for the USA's Social Science Research Council Committee on International Collaborative Research, the founder of the research committee of the International Festivals and Events Association of Europe, and over the years has held various positions on regional and national committees.

Mr Michael Bedingfield, VisitBritain Marketing Director, UK
Michael Bedingfield joined VisitBritain in June 2003 as Director of the organisation's England Marketing Division, working closely with the England Marketing Advisory Board to create a brand strategy to complement the brands of Britain, Scotland, Wales, London and the English regions. In April 2007, he took on responsibility for Britain Marketing internationally and is now responsible for VisitBritain's marketing strategy to lead the world to Britain. In addition, he has responsibility for developing the Britain and London Visitor Centre, located at 1 Regent Street, London. Before joining VisitBritain he was Head of Brand Marketing at P&O Cruises, where he was responsible for marketing, communications and brand management strategy. Michael has also held senior marketing posts in the travel and tourism industry with Hertz, Avis Europe and Thomas Cook. He holds an MA in Marketing and is a Fellow of the Tourism Society, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Direct Marketing. He is a board member of East of England Tourism, Chairman of England's North Country and a Trustee of the Brighton Festival.

Professor John Tunbridge, Carleton University, Canada
John Tunbridge is a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge and received his Ph.D. from Bristol University. He joined Carleton in Ottawa, Canada, in 1969 and has since taught in Australia, the UK and South Africa. He is co-author of The Tourist-Historic City (Elsevier, London, 2000); Dissonant Heritage (Wiley, Chichester, 1996); A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture, Economy (Arnold, London, 2000); and Pluralising Pasts: Heritage, Identity and Place in Multicultural Societies (Pluto, London, 2007). His research is concerned with the various dimensions of the geography of heritage, including tourist-historic cities, the geography of heritage, and managing tourism in cities.