Piotr Zmyślony, employee of the University of Economics. He deals with management of tourism in cities, functioning of Destination Management Organisations and development of night-time economy. He has co-created tourism policies of Warsaw and Cracow. He writes articles, sometimes monographs, co-runs the turystykawmieście.org portal.
Alexandra Szalay-Bobrovniczky, graduated from Pázmány Péter Catholic University in 2012, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, from 2010 to 2014 member of the General Assembly of Budapest, since November 2014 deputy Mayor of Budapest for human affairs.
She is responsible for performing duties related to culture, education, health care, social policy, youth policy, sports, environmental protection, tourism and city image. In this broad area it falls within her competence to supervise the operation of theatres, museums, sports centres, old people’s homes and various other institutions. She pays particular attention to duties related to city image with the aim of making Budapest a popular and more visible city for its residents and its visitors.
Musician, cultural manager and cultural politician, was until the end of 2016 one of the promoters for the application of the cities of the Austrian Rheintal (Bregenz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch and Hohenems) as European Capital of Culture 2024 and until the middle of 2016 CEO of Bregenz Tourism & City Marketing. In 2014, on the initiative of Thoma, Bregenz was awarded the “City Brand of the Year/Stadtmarke des Jahres” at the Kulturmarken Award in Berlin. Previously, he worked for Jeunesse Austria in Vienna, as well as managing director of Grazer Spielstätten and Bludenz Kultur. From 2011 to 2016, Christoph Thoma was chairman of ASSITEJ Austria, the national organization for professional children’s and youth theatre in Austria. In autumn 2016, Thoma founded Culturelab, a consulting firm at the interface of art/culture, city marketing and tourism. He is currently supporting the bid process of the city of Chemnitz to the European Capital of Culture 2025 and is a lecturer in music management at Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium in Feldkirch. Since July 2015, Thoma has been involved in municipal politics in his hometown Bludenz/Austria as a city councilor for culture and associations.
Iva Carević Peković, graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb. Immediately after the graduation, she began working in construction companies as part of the project preparation team. The knowledge gained in this way she applied later in the field work at all levels of leadership. As a project manager, she completed a series of projects, including projects of residential character and in the area of cultural heritage. In addition to professional work, she completed her postgraduate specialist studies, in the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb, Department of Construction Organization. She studied risk management, limitations and changes in the reconstruction of cultural heritage sites.
In 2014, she became the director of the Institute for the Restoration of Dubrovnik. As a director, she managed numerous projects for the reconstruction of buildings in the historic core. She was appointed a co-ordinator for the development of a Management Plan for the historic core of Dubrovnik. As part of the Management Plan, she coordinated the systematization of many databases for the historic core on: the constructive elements of the buildings, legal status of properties, research status, microzoning layers of the soil, space systematization, sociological and demographic studies, central heating and cooling studies. Throughout the process of drafting the Plan, a series of workshops and focus groups with the civil sector as well as with the professional community were conducted. She also became the lead project manager for a large infrastructure project for the heritage renewal funded by the European Union.
Mirik Milan is the current Night Mayor of Amsterdam, and longtime creative director of some of the Dutch capital’s most celebrated events.
Since 2012, he has played an instrumental role in the reshaping of Amsterdam’s nightlife scene into one of the most vibrant and economically robust in the world, and his innovative position is fast becoming replicated in major nightlife-focused cities around the world, like New York, Paris and London.
Mirik’s start in nightlife came in 2003 as the promoter of electro night Rauw. Along with DJ Joost van Bellen, Mirik introduced artists like Erol Alkan, Boys Noize, Justice, Busy P, Crookers, Brodinski and Gesaffelstein to the Dutch dance scene, and lead to him producing events for Stedelijk Museum, Spotify, DIESEL, PAX, Aids Foundation, Amnesty International and the City of Amsterdam.
His vast experience and familiarity with the Amsterdam scene made him the perfect candidate to head the city’s new nightlife office. As the inaugural Nachtburgemeester, Mirik is the figurehead and spokesperson for all things concerning nightlife in the Dutch capital. His team’s major achievements include working with the hotel and catering industry to introduce of 24-hour venue permits and bringing innovative approaches to dramatically reducing crime in the city’s once troubled Rembrandtplein district.
Mirik also launched the Nacht voor de Nacht, a citywide, multi-venue club festival where partygoers can go between 20 different nightclubs with just one ticket. The event was a huge success, and as well as bringing valuable revenue to the clubs, Nacht voor de Nacht encouraged healthy discourse between clubbers, promoters and local residents, something which has become a hallmark of Mirik’s work in Amsterdam.
In 2017, Mirik gave over 25 international talks to city governments and planners, advising them on how to better deal with their Late Night Economy; and came on board as a key advisor for the Creative Footprint—a global civic initiative that measures and indexes creative space. Founded by his Berlin counterpart Lutz Leichsenring, the Creative Footprint sees Mirik work more intimately with major global cities looking to monitor and stimulate their creative and nightlife economies.
The CEO of Poznan Tourism Organization, an association of local governments and tourism sector, which also includes Poznan Convention Bureau – a branch dealing with the acquisition of congresses and conferences for the city. POT’s main goal is the promotion of Poznan as an attractive tourist destination as well as the support of the development of the tourism market in the region. Poznan Tourism Organization is the platform of cooperation between the administration and the tourism industry, cultural institutions and business entities whose activities is of vital significance to the local tourism market. Currently, the association has nearly 80 members. Before assuming the management of POT, Mazurczak was working as a journalist. Under his leadership, the organization has been actively cooperating with the media, both in terms of information distribution and organizing study visits for journalists, bloggers and travel agencies from all over the world. The creator of Poland’s and Europe’s first ever marketing campaign utilising the idea of a sale in promoting the city – the “Poznan Half-Price” campaign (so far, there have been 10 editions of the event, copied by multiple other Polish cities). He introduced and implemented the Poznan Tourist Barometer – Poland’s first ever system for constant monitoring of tourist traffic. Poznan Convention Bureau has been successfully supporting the acquisition of congresses for Poznan, such as the FDI World Dental Congress, the IPSA World Congress of Political Science or the CISH International Congress of Historical Sciences. The winner of the 2015 MP Power award in the Convention Bureau category; awarded with a medal “For services to tourism”.
John is Chief Executive of Marketing Edinburgh, assuming the role in July 2013 and is responsible for the running of the body created to promote the city to the world.
Prior to this his most recent role was as Commercial Director for Glasgow 2014. John created and launched the Glasgow 2014 brand, and directed all commercial strategies including sponsorship, ticketing, licensing/merchandising and international broadcast rights sales.
Prior to joining Glasgow 2014 John was Managing Director at three integrated agencies, two in London, and one in Edinburgh, in a career spanning 20yrs: KLP EuroRSCG; The Marketing Store Worldwide; and bd ntwk; and a director at iris, the independent worldwide agency network.
Clients included Coca Cola, Peugeot, Sony Philips, Unilever, and significant achievements include launching T in The Park and managing bd ntwk to the MCCA Agency of the Year, and over industry 40 awards.
President of Toulouse Nocturne association and Occitanie Nocturne, Toulouse’s mayor of the night 2014. He is also editor of the magazine Minuit (Midnight) in Toulouse. He has been elected Nightmayor at the end of 2013 (independant of any political party). In 2014, Toulouse Nocturne has organised the first Estates General of Toulouse, published a book of the night with 80 workers testimonies in all professional sectors. It has also organised the Night Ceremony which reward night workers. Christophe Vidal met all election municipal candidates in 2014 in order to raise awareness them to the issues related of the night. He also did it for the last Regional elections. In 2015, Toulouse Nocturne has published a prevention guide Your guide to risks at night and in 2017 a second one “La Haute-Garonne en mode nuit”. He also has implemented “Your Driver”, transport at night, every Thursday, Friday ans Saturday since february 23rd.
Chris works as Director of the Core Cities UK, a collaboration between ten cities that sit at the centre of the largest economic areas outside London.
Chris is also a visiting Professor of Practice at Newcastle University, an Honorary Fellow of the Heseltine Institute at Liverpool University, sits on the Advisory Board of the Prime Ministers’ Regeneration Investment Organisation and is Chairman of award winning social enterprise company Fusion21. Prior to this he has had a long association with economic development, regeneration, culture and public policy.
A member of the national Egan Task Force on Skills, during 2005 Chris was seconded to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to establish the Academy for Sustainable Communities, a national regeneration skills agency based in Leeds.
Prior to this he worked as a Director of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the Government’s watchdog for urban design, and before that in local government for 10 years.
Earlier in his career he worked in education, community work and as a psychiatric social worker. Chris holds qualifications in art and design, teaching, business and marketing and European cultural planning.
He is author of several publications and books, the latest being ‘Psychology & The City: The Hidden Dimension’, jointly authored with Charles Landry in 2017.
An international place marketing expert, passionate about branding and cities. More than 15 years associated with territorial marketing and tourism consulting. Graduate of Lodz University (Poland), with the major of “special economy – managing the city and the region”. A student of the The Chartered Institute of Marketing (London/Warsaw). Between 2001 – 2003 consultant for the Polish Agency of Tourism Development and a cofounder of the first tourism marketing strategies for cities and regions in Poland. From 2010 co-founder and President of Best Place – European Place Marketing Institute – consulting organization (think-and-do tank) that aims to professionalization and popularization of place marketing and branding in Central and Eastern Europe. Also Initiating Founding Member at International Place Branding Association. Speaker at dozens of conferences in Poland and abroad, including the first conference in Russia devoted to the city marketing (City Marketing and Development Congress, Moscow), the first congress of tourism marketing in Lviv (Win with the Lion, Lviv, Ukraine), and the first place branding conference in Brazil (Place Branding Seminar Directions). Engaged by the British Council to the international group of experts ‘City Idea Bakers’. A jury member of many competitions, for example for the ‘Polish Advertising Competition KTR’, ‘EFFIE Awards’, ‘Best Tourist Product.’
Carlo Francini was born in Fiesole on December 21, 1963.
Since 2005 he has been the Head of the World Heritage Office of the Municipality of Florence and the site manager of the Historic Centre of Florence, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 2009 he has been the Scientific Coordinator of the Association of the World Heritage Sites in Italy.
Since 2015, he has been co-ordinating, with the Director of the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence, the Heritage CityLab Laboratory of the World Heritage Office of the Municipality and the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence, which is dedicated to projects on World Heritage.
As an art historian, he has published essays and monographs, in addition to curating exhibitions dedicated to museology and the history of art between 16th and 20th centuries and on the theme of UNESCO World Heritage Site management. Internationally, he has followed projects focused on World Heritage Sites and organized activities in support of international projects for heritage protection.
He is a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, he is also an Academic of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, a member of the Scientific Committee of “Casa Buonarroti” and from 2013 to 2016 he was member of the ICOMOS Italy board.
Dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Recreation at the College of Tourism and Ecology in Sucha Beskidzka. A graduate of the Academy of Physical Education in Kraków and IREST at the Sorbonne. Specialist in the field of tourism marketing and tourism policy. Between 1996 and 2017, professionally connected with the Polish Tourist Organization, first as the director of the branch office in Paris and then as the Vice President. He is the author of the concept of Poland’s marketing strategy of tourism for the years 2012-2020, the brand strategy of the Prestige Hotels group, he participated in the team works of the urban and regional tourism development strategy. Author or co-author of books, scientific articles and scientific-implementation works, carried out on behalf of the government and self-government administration as well as the private sector.
She’s been teaching tourism economics and regional economics at the University of Venice and she’s also the author of many articles and books as well as of a “Manual on tourism economics” used in many Italian universities
She is a member of AIEST (Association Internationale des Experts de Sciences Touristiques) and of the World Tourism Organization Steering Committee on Statistics and Macroeconomic Analysis of Tourism and Tourism Satellite Accounts.
She is a consultant to many national and international tourism institutions and Commission Directorate Generals and member of the ETIS pool of experts.
Associate Professor in Tourism Department, Warsaw School of Economics (WSE). Member of Tourism Research Working Group at the Polish Ministry of Sport and Tourism. Expert of Hotel Market Institute and consultant of regional tourism organizations.
Member of the Scientific Council of e-TravelForum and the “New.Tech.New.Travel Award” contest. Leading consultant at the opening stage of 25 hotels. Till 2010 the president of Efekt Hotele Co, General Manager of Best Western Krakow Premier Hotel, General Manager of Express by Holiday Inn Hotel. Till 2012 member of Supervisory Board at the European Mortgage Fund (managing 4 hotels in Poland).
“Folia Turistica” and “Journal of Easter European and Central Asian Research (JEECAR)” Scientific Councils’ member.
Associate Professor at The Poznań University of Economics and Business in Poland. An expert in the area of place marketing, destination branding and brand management. Co-founder and Member of the Board of Best Place – The European Place Marketing Institute. Vice-president of International Place Branding Association. Senior Fellow at The Institute of Place Management in Manchester, UK. In 2006/2007 senior lecturer at Marketing Department, University of Otago in New Zealand. A scholarship participant of Fulbright Foundation at Northwestern University and Kellogg School of Management in USA. Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal, American Journal of Modern Hospitality Management. A consultant in terms of brand strategy, city and region promotion. Co-author of over a dozen brand strategies for cities and regions in Poland.
Economist, for more than 30 years in the tourism and hotel industry, in the management team of Almatur, Logostour, Cracow Tours and Symposium Cracoviense. Since 1995 assiociated with Jan-Pol S.A. as Vice-President of the Board. Involved promoter of integration processes in the hotel industry. Since 2016 President of the Polish Prestige Hotels Foundation. Co-founder of the Krakow Chamber of Tourism and a long-time member of the Polish Chamber of Tourism. For his considerable achievement for Cracow in 2007 he was awarded the Honoris Gratia Presidential Medal.
Managing Partner at Destination Poland. Member of the Supervisory Board, Regional Representative (Kraków, Katowice) at French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland. Member of the Board at Cracow Chamber of Tourism. Member of the Communication Committee at MPI Poland Chapter
Campaign Ambassador « I want to live here. Kraków 2030 » organised by Kraków City Hall as part of the City Development Strategy 2030 « Kraków Future Lab » think tank leader, a working group operating in the « Krakow Network » Project aiming to increase the number of meetings & events organized in the city. Local Correspondent (Kraków) at Lepetitjournal.com/varsovie
Ewelina Szczech-Pietkiewicz holds a PhD in economics from Warsaw School of Economics (2007) and works there as an Assistant Professor at Institute of International Economic Policy. She does research and publishes in the following subject areas: urban competitiveness, policies and growth, conception of smart cities, competitiveness of national and regional economies. She gained international research experience at the Department of Business and Social Sciences of Aarhus University, University of Barcelona (intership at Urban Creativity, Innovation and Transformation Research Group), University of Glasgow (Dekaban-Liddle Senior Fellowship) and Iceland University.
Armin Mikos von Rohrscheidt, born on 1966. PhD in management sciences (Jagiellonian University), philosophy, theology and culture. He specialises in researching urban and cultural tourism management. Professor of Management at the Faculty of Social Sciences of GSW in Gniezno. Author of numerous monographs of cultural routes. Author of a comprehensive methodology textbook of the modern city guide (2014 ), the only one of its kind Editor-in-chief of the scientific journal “Cultural Tourism”. A consultant of European military tourism projects. A co-owner of the KulTour.pl travel agency, and organizer of cultural trips. A lecturer of tour guides and tour operators, a theoretician and heritage interpretation methodologist.
Economist, expert in tourism, entrepreneur, consultant. Graduated from three universities in the area of international relations, tourism and sociology. Currently preparing his PhD on the tourism market in Krakow. For more that 15 year, he has been the co-owner of several companies operating on the tourism market, including Smart Hotels & Hostels owning seven hostels and a high-standard hotel in Krakow, Warsaw, Poznań, Bratislava and Innsbruck. A member of the Management Board of Krakow Chamber of Tourism, a councillor in the Krakow City Council, chairman of the Promotion and Tourism Commission.
