Laura Jones is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC), a non-partisan organization dedicated to the prosperity of the province and its people. BCBC has represented B.C.’s leading businesses across all sectors for 60 years.

Laura is a nationally recognized public policy leader with a strong belief that a healthy economy is the foundation for prosperous communities. She has authored and co-authored numerous research reports and policy briefings on a wide range of issues and is widely recognized for her thought leadership on regulatory modernization, including the creation of Canada’s annual Red Tape Awareness Week. Her work has been published by the OECD and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Her research and advocacy have contributed to meaningful policy improvements, including the adoption of taxpayer fairness codes by governments in B.C. and across Canada, the reduction of interprovincial trade barriers, and the implementation of regulatory measurement and budgeting practices nationwide.

Laura has chaired the federal External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness and has served on several advisory bodies, including the B.C. Expert Panel on Tax and the B.C. Small Business Roundtable.

Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia

Amber Papou is the CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia (TIABC), bringing more than 20 years of leadership experience across tourism, education, technology, real estate and economic development.

Her work spans government relations, board governance, strategic planning and advocacy, with a focus on building partnerships and turning ideas into practical results for businesses and communities. Amber holds a Bachelor of Education, an MBA in Global Leadership and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Eagle Wing Tours

Brett Soberg has spent nearly three decades exploring, working on, and advocating for the waters of the Salish Sea. A lifelong mariner, entrepreneur, and conservation-focused tourism leader, Brett is the former co-owner and current General Manager of Eagle Wing Whale & Wildlife Tours in Victoria, British Columbia.

Throughout his career, Brett has worked to demonstrate that tourism can be much more than an experience—it can be a meaningful force for conservation. That philosophy helped shape Eagle Wing around four interconnected pillars: Conservation, Sustainability, Research, and Education, and a simple belief that Eagle Wing is a conservation organization that happens to offer whale watching.

Today, Eagle Wing is entering an exciting new chapter as part of Pursuit, bringing together the company’s deep local roots and conservation legacy with Pursuit’s commitment to creating iconic and inspirational experiences in some of the world’s most remarkable places.

Brett continues to help advance Eagle Wing’s Net Zero & Nature Positive strategy, building on years of carbon-neutral operations while embracing a broader vision of regenerative tourism. The ambition is no longer simply to minimize tourism’s footprint, but to explore how tourism can actively contribute to healthier ecosystems, stronger communities, meaningful conservation, and a deeper connection between people and place.

As a licensed Master mariner, Brett brings an authentic, on-the-water perspective to conservation and sustainable tourism. At the heart of his work is the belief that lasting stewardship begins with connection—that the most powerful experiences are those where people arrive hoping for a wildlife encounter and leave with a relationship to the wildlife, the ocean, and the place itself.

After selling his first company, Hugh Culver was invited to speak on stage and share the remarkable story of how his team had started an airline, built the only private base camp, and launched the only private company on the Antarctic continent. The event planner assured Hugh he could simply show up, share a few stories, and that would be it. At the time, he had no idea what, as Paulo Coelho wrote, the universe was “conspiring to make happen.”

That day, an audience of 1,000 people gave him a standing ovation. He was hooked and never looked back.

Since then, he has been invited to present to more than 1,200 audiences, including Suncor, BC Lotteries, Investors Group, Imperial Oil, and Shoppers Drug Mart. Hugh has also led strategic planning retreats, launched his own conferences, and taught presentation and business skills to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Destination Canada

Jennifer Horsnell is Senior Director of Destination Development & Investment at Destination Canada, driving growth in the national visitor economy. With leadership background at Destination Greater Victoria, Destination BC, and Tourism Kelowna, she has spearheaded major initiatives, including Kelowna’s $2M waterfront visitor centre and the Central Okanagan destination strategy. Jennifer’s passion for creating authentic visitor experiences began during her studies at the University of Victoria and Selkirk College, where she specialized in Resort and Hotel Management. Based in Kelowna with her husband and two daughters, she enjoys exploring the Okanagan’s natural beauty and sampling its renowned wineries.

Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association

Destination British Columbia

Jessica Huxtable is a Brand Strategy and Planning Senior Specialist at Destination British Columbia, where she plays a key role in shaping brand strategy, brand implementation, and brand engagement for a portfolio of global place brands within the Super, Natural British Columbia family. With 16 years of experience spanning agency and in-house roles across Canada and Australia, Jessica has built her career in brand strategy, communications, stakeholder engagement, and cross-functional leadership across the tourism, real estate, and consumer tech sectors. Prior to Destination BC, Jessica held senior roles at Edelman in both Vancouver and Sydney, leading strategy for brands such as Dubai Tourism, Hamilton Island, Audi, QuadReal and Telstra. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Technology Sydney.

Destination British Columbia

Monica Leeck is Market Development Manager, Asia/Pacific & Mexico with Destination British Columbia, where she works to strengthen international tourism opportunities and connect British Columbia’s tourism industry with key markets around the world.

With 30 years of experience in tourism, Monia has built her career across sales and market development, with previous roles at TPT Canada, Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Whistler, and Rocky Mountaineer. She holds a business degree from the University of Alberta and a Tourism Marketing diploma from Capilano College in Vancouver. Throughout her career, Monica has developed strong relationships with travel trade partners and tourism industry colleagues, giving her a unique perspective on international tourism and the connections that bring travellers to British Columbia.

Destination British Columbia

Fiona Tso is the Senior Social Media & Content Lead at Destination British Columbia, where she leads global social media strategy and storytelling across platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. With more than 20 years in tourism and marketing, she brings a deep understanding of how destinations can connect with travellers through relevant, audience-first content.

Fiona has helped shape the organization’s approach to social media—from community building and content strategy to integrated campaigns, real-time communications, and global brand storytelling. She has led social media for major campaigns and moments, including Destination BC’s work around FIFA World Cup 2026™. She’s passionate about how social media continues to evolve, what makes people stop scrolling, and how audience insights can inspire stronger storytelling and more meaningful connections.

Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen

Erick Thompson is the Senior Manager of Communications and Engagement for the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) where he oversees communications and engagement initiatives. He joined the RDOS EOC as a contractor in 2018 during region-wide flooding and wildfires. Erick previously owned and operated a communications company specializing in video production. He spent more than 20 years as a television and radio broadcaster.

He is an avid trail runner and has produced and directed several short documentaries.

Symphony Tourism Services

Amy Kneller is the Operations Manager with Symphony Tourism Services, where she oversees client relationships, project delivery and the day to day coordination of the Symphony team. She works closely with tourism organizations, communities and industry partners to move projects from initial planning through to implementation.

Her experience includes a Bachelor of Business Administration, extensive hospitality training, destination marketing, stakeholder engagement sessions, project management, budgeting, MRDT planning and Destination BC Co-op marketing program projects. Amy brings a practical understanding of how tourism organizations operate and works to keep projects organized, collaborative and focused on client needs.

What Amy enjoys most about her work is bringing people and ideas together. She likes seeing a project move from an early conversation or challenge into something tangible that a community or tourism organization can put into action.

Symphony Tourism Services

Charnley Van Wyk is a Research Specialist with Symphony Tourism Services, where she translates data into action. Her experience includes destination management and marketing, project management, tourism strategy, and working with communities and organizations across Canada.

With an education in Travel and Tourism from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Charnley brings a practical understanding of both the visitor economy and the needs of destinations. Much of her work involves bringing together different datasets, research sources, and local context and turning them into clear, accessible information that supports marketing, strategy, and destination management decisions. She has a particular strength in understanding what a client or destination needs to know, identifying the most relevant information, and communicating findings in a way that makes the next steps easier to understand.

Charnley also has experience developing and delivering training programs for tourism industry professionals, helping participants build practical skills and apply new ideas within their own organizations. Her work with communities also includes supporting governance groups in refining and implementing tourism strategies that complement local priorities and strengthen the destination over the long term.

Charnley enjoys helping clients make sense of complex information and turn it into something practical. Whether that means understanding a market, strengthening a tourism organization, or building industry capacity through training, she looks forward to helping clients move from information and ideas to confident decision-making.

Symphony Tourism Services

Leonardo Arroyo Trejo is a Research Specialist with Symphony Tourism Services, where he focuses on the Value of Tourism, Data Modelling and Automation and Dashboards. He brings experience in economic research projects and statistical analysis. Leonardo’s most recent work was at the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (Mexican CRA), where he coordinated multidisciplinary research teams on a wide range of economic studies.

With a background in Economics and Data Science, Leonardo helps clients turn complex datasets into clear, actionable findings that support strategic planning, marketing, and investment decisions. She specializes in managing large-scale databases, building customized interactive dashboards, and developing economic impact models to track changing tourism patterns. Leonardo translates research into practical insights that drive smart planning, marketing, and investment decisions.

What Leonardo enjoys most is taking a complex web of data and synthesizing it into simple, clear indicators that tell a compelling story about the region. His background in economics brings an objective, grounded point of view to the team, stripping away false optimism or pessimism to reveal what is genuinely happening in the sector. Personally, He is deeply connected to the Thompson Okanagan and its communities; He takes pride in working directly with local regions to turn technical research into practical, accessible information they can use to navigate changing tourism patterns with confidence.

Canopy Collective

Elizabeth Clark is a fractional CMO and founder of Canopy Collective, a marketing practice based in British Columbia. She has led marketing strategy and management for CDMOs, industry organizations and tourism businesses, from cooperative marketing programs to partner and civic engagement. Her Value of Tourism work with Tourism Delta reflects her focus on turning data into strategy that communities and decision-makers can act on.

CIPR Communications

Christina Pilarski is CEO and co-founder of CIPR Communications, a digital PR, marketing, and AI consulting agency that's grown to a team of 20+ working with destination marketing organizations, hospitality brands, and tourism boards across North America. Her career has centred on tourism from the start, including a role as Special Advisor to the Minister at Alberta's Department of Tourism, Parks and Recreation, and she's since worked directly with DMOs and RDMOs across BC and beyond on their Value of Tourism programs and advocacy efforts. Through CIPR and its AI division, the Tourism AI Network, she helps destinations both make the case for tourism's value to the communities and governments that fund it, and market themselves effectively to the travellers they're trying to reach.

City of Kamloops

Bill Sarai is a City of Kamloops Councillor and a strong advocate for tourism as a driver of economic diversification, community investment and regional growth. As Board President of the Kamloops Airport Authority Society, Bill brings a local government perspective to the Value of Tourism conversation, with a particular focus on how municipalities and tourism can work together to create stronger communities, improve connectivity and generate lasting benefits for residents and visitors alike.

Trilogy Solutions Ltd & Salmon Arm Tourism

Jenna Robins is a Shuswap-based tourism and marketing leader, founder and CEO of Trilogy Solutions Ltd., and Tourism Marketing Coordinator for Salmon Arm Tourism. Jenna has been closely involved in Salmon Arm’s recent Value of Tourism work, helping translate new economic impact data into stronger community awareness, local government conversations and longer-term tourism planning. She brings a practical perspective on how destinations can use data, communications and community engagement to demonstrate tourism’s value and build support for future growth.

Beverley DeSantis is a tourism strategist, entrepreneur and former CEO of Tourism Kamloops with extensive experience in destination development, government relations, business leadership and community engagement. Through her consulting work, she supports destinations, governments and tourism organizations in turning strategy, data and partnerships into practical action, with a strong focus on economic growth, advocacy and long-term community benefit. Her career has also included senior leadership in travel, tourism, education and business development, giving her a broad perspective on the role tourism can play in building resilient and prosperous communities.

Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association

Symphony Tourism Services