The Founding Speakers
The founding team behind “30 Minutes Talks is focused on one objective in mind: providing access to the best possible expertise. As the COVID-19 pandemic rolled out across the world, we founded “30 minutes Talks” to bring insights and expertise to educators/students and industry practitioners around the world. Given our collective background in both the hospitality and tourism industries and education, we seek to not only provide insights on current issues relating to the industry or educational delivery but also to be a bridge between the two.
Meet our Speakers
Our speakers come from many different backgrounds, disciplines, and countries. To navigate the ever-changing operating environment facing the hospitality and tourism industries, we all need access to people who know the ins and outs of the current operating situation and can provide insights on the latest strategies, market trends, and more. Meet some of our experts below and see what they’re saying about the future facing the future of the hotel, restaurant, meetings, conferences/conventions, exhibitions, travel, tourism, and airline industries. Multinational and multi-disciplined, our experts are drawn from a wide-variety of backgrounds. All of our experts have all appeared on “30 Minute Talks” and are available for media interviews, guest lectures, webinars, workshops and also in-person appearances and events (depending on their availability) to share their expertise, insights, thoughts and views.
Professor Perry Hobson
Pro Vice Chancellor, Sunway University, Malaysia
Professor Perry Hobson holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford Brookes University (UK), a Masters from the University of Massachusetts in the USA, and a PhD from Southern Cross University in Australia.
• Editor-in-Chief of the SSCI indexed Journal of Vacation Marketing for over 20-years
• Member of Board of Directors of THE-ICE accreditation body
• Past President of ApacCHRIE • Fellow of CAUTHE, the
Council of Australasian Universities for Tourism & Hospitality Education
• Honorary Fellow of CHME, the Council for Hospitality Management Education, in the UK
Dr. Andy Nazarechuk is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on international tourism in the hospitality industry. He has over twenty-five years’ experience in the Las Vegas Hotel Industry.
• Senior Executive Hospitality Positions in Las Vegas
• 20 years University of Nevada Las Vegas
• Former member of Singapore’s Tourism Consultative Committee
• Past President ApacCHRIE
• Opening Dean - US University Branch Campus - Singapore
• Senior VP of International Relations, Taylor’s University, Malaysia
Mr Alan Williams
Senior Higher Education Consultant, Australia
Mr Alan Williams is a Senior Higher Education Consultant for the Higher Education Leadership Institute. He has over twenty-seven years of experience in the education industry and prior to that seven years in the hospitality industry.
• CEO of the Australian School of Tourism and Hotel Management (Australia)
• Past President of ApacCHRIE
• Fellow of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Education, International Centre of Excellence (THE-ICE)
• Past President of Australian Council of Independent Vocational Colleges (ACIVC)
• Treasurer of the Western Australian Private Education and Training Industry Association (WAPETIA)
Industry Programs
Travel & Tourism
We have followed and analysed the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on airlines, cruise ships and destinations. As the world moves into the crisis recovery phase, we will be considering the strategies for how tourism destinations can get back on their feet. In the post-recovery phase the industry will be needing to shift their focus towards health and sustainability.
Hotels
We examine the increasing need for innovation, the adoption of emerging technologies, and how we are going to need to re-define what we mean by ‘hospitality’ in the post-COVID age. We’ll be considering the skills that the manager of the future will need to manage operational environments that will need to be more technology based.
Restaurant
We discuss a number of operational considerations as to where, how and who we can eat with. We consider how the industry is going to have to adopt to the heightened levels of health and sanitation and social distancing in its operations, and what this means for the management of tomorrow’s F&B operations.
The Future
COVID is just one aspect in a constantly-changing landscape of issues facing the industry. We will be expanding our topics to meet the needs of not only students but also educators and the industry. While the focus is now on health – issues relating to changes in consumer behaviour, environmental sustainability and how to prepare for the next ‘black swan’ event will be looked at in more detail.