Speakers and Events

Roger Dow

Roger Dow of the Travel Industry Association of America will speak on the Power of Travel, with a focus on international travel.

Roger Dow is the President & CEO of the Travel Industry Association of America, the national umbrella organization that represents the entire U.S. travel industry. TIA's headquarters are in Washington, D.C. with overseas offices in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. "Travel and tourism should be one industry with one voice in Washington and around the world," Dow urges. He joined TIA in 2005 after a career at Marriott that spanned 34 years. Most recently he was Senior Vice President, Global and Field Sales for Marriott International, leading Marriott's 10,000-person worldwide sales organization.

Roger Dow believes that the travel industry has a unique opportunity to lead the nation's efforts to improve our image around the world. The key, he says, is people. "Americans are our secret weapon. And no one is better suited to bring Americans face to face with people from other countries than the travel industry."

Peter C. Yesawich

Peter Yesawich will provide delegates a summary of the most relevant insights from the 2005 National Leisure Travel Monitor, entitled, "Emerging Lifestyles and Travel Trends:  Implications For Marketing Alaska."  Peter C. Yesawich is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, America's leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients. The agency represents clients in every category of the travel industry through seven offices across the United States and Europe.

Yesawich is a frequent commentator on travel trends in such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Newsweek and Business Week, on the CNN, CNBC and MSNBC cable television networks, and on National Public Radio. He serves as a featured columnist in several industry trade publications and has authored numerous articles on marketing and advertising strategy in professional journals. Listed in Who's Who in America, Yesawich is the recipient of the World Travel Award from the American Association of Travel Editors, The Albert E. Koehl Award from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, and the Silver Medal from the American Advertising Federation. He is also a member of the HSMAI Hall of Fame, and former member of the board of directors of the Travel Industry Association of America.

Yesawich attended both Cornell and Yale universities, and holds a doctorate in marketing and applied psychology.

Keith Bellows

Keith Bellows, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Traveler, will comment travel trends and indicators of his audience. Along with the publication, Mr. Bellows serves as a vice-president of the National Geographic Society. Previously Mr. Bellows was executive producer of Excite, launched Babycenter.com., and ran his own companies, the Media Development Group and WestWorld Media. He created and edited more than 30 magazines for Whittle Communications and Meigher Communications; worked for Sports Illustrated (writer), Disney (magazine developer), ESPN (color commentator), and Reader's Digest (editor); and has written for AARP: The Magazine, Washingtonian, Parenting, and many other publications.

He is the author of  "The Canuck Book" and the 1998 Winter Olympics ACCESS Guide for ABC-TV. A board member of the American Society of Magazine Editors and Dartmouth's alumni magazine, he speaks extensively at home and abroad, has appeared on television more than 100 times, and teaches photography workshops and writing seminars around the country. A Canadian citizen, Bellows was born in the Congo, and was schooled at Gordonstoun in Scotland and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Rick Hendrie

Rick Hendrie of Remarkable Branding in Cambridge, MA, presents a talk on the "How of WOW, moving from the service era to the experience era."

Krista Rahe

Krista Rahe, Rahe Hospitality Services, Denver, CO, has worked as a curriculum developer for the Western States Tourism Policy Council. She offers her "World Bridge" program with techniques on serving and marketing to international visitors