Smart Conference Speakers
- Keynote Speaker: Dimitrios Buhalis, Ph.D., Bournemouth University, England; Title of Presentation: Smart Tourism and the Re-engineering of the Tourism Industry
- Keynote Speaker: Gary Daniels, Vice President, Digital Experiences, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
- Keynote Speaker: Sajal K. Das, Ph.D., Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Keynote Speaker: Daniel R. Fesenmaier, Ph.D., Modul University, Vienna; Title of Presentation: Designing Smart Tourism for the Future
- Keynote Speaker: Timothy Jung, Ph.D., Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; Title of Presentation: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Smart Experience
- Keynote Speaker: Satish V. Ukkusuri, Ph.D., Purdue University; Title of Presentation: Smart Mobility Analytics in an Era of Accelerated Technological Change
Scroll down for more information on each speaker.
Keynote Speaker: Dimitrios Buhalis, Ph.D., Bournemouth University, England; Title of Presentation: Smart Tourism and the Re-engineering of the Tourism Industry
Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He is the Head of Department of Tourism and Hospitality, Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University in England. In 2018 Bournemouth University was ranked 8th in the QS World University Rankings for Hospitality & Leisure Management. He is also the First Vice President of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, an Executive Board Member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Affiliate Members and the Editor in Chief of the most established Journal in Tourism: Tourism Review, now in its 73rd volume. Dimitrios is a Founding Member and past President (2010-2014) of the International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT). Professor Buhalis’ work is referenced widely, being the 3rd most cited for tourism and 1st most cited for hospitality on Google Scholar with more than 31500 citations and h-index 76. Dimitrios current research focus includes: Smart Tourism, Social Media Context and Mobile Marketing (SoCoMo), Augmented Reality, Experience Management and Personalisation, Reputation and Social Media Strategies, Accessible and Special Diet (Alergens) Tourism. He frequently delivers keynote presentations, speeches, seminars and workshops in both academic and professional conferences globally. He has close collaborations with industry, governments and international organisations worldwide.
Keynote Speaker: Gary Daniels, Vice President, Digital Experiences, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
In his role as vice president, Digital Experience, Gary Daniels leads teams that create end-to-end, digital-plus-physical experiences for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts globally. Gary is also responsible for digital efforts at Walt Disney World Resort across both marketing & sales and Guest experience, serving as a member of the resort’s steering committee.
With over 20 years’ experience at Disney and over 25 in the hospitality industry overall, Gary has played a leading role in numerous large-scale transformational initiatives totaling over a billion dollars in investment. Notable initiatives include the development, implementation and now evolution of the MyMagic+ digital transformation at Walt Disney World, including the My Disney Experience app, FastPass+, Mobile Order, Disney Parks Play App, and MagicBand, which is currently the fourth-most-popular wearable in the world.
Keynote Speaker: Sajal K. Das, Ph.D., Missouri University of Science and Technology
Sajal K. Das is a professor of Computer Science and Daniel St. Clair Endowed Chair at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla where he was the Chair of Computer Science Department during 2013-2017. He served the NSF as a program director during 2008-2011. His research interests include smart environments (such as smart city, smart grid and smart health care), cyber-physical systems and IoTs, wireless sensor networks, mobile and pervasive computing, security and trustworthiness, cloud computing, and social networks. Dr. Das has published extensively in these areas with over 700 papers in high quality journals and refereed conference proceedings. He holds 5 US patents and coauthored 4 books – Smart Environments: Technology, Protocols, and Applications (John Wiley, 2004), Handbook on Securing Cyber-Physical Critical Infrastructure: Foundations and Challenges (Morgan Kauffman, 2012), Mobile Agents in Distributed Computing and Networking (Wiley, 2012), and Principles of Cyber-Physical Systems: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Cambridge University Press, 2018). His h-index is 83 with more than 28,500 citations according to Google Scholar. Dr. Das is a recipient of 10 Best Paper Awards at prestigious conferences like ACM MobiCom 1999, IEEE PerCom 2006, IEEE SmartGridComm 2012, and IEEE SmartComp 2016. He also received numerous awards for teaching, mentoring and research including the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Achievement Award for pioneering contributions to sensor networks and mobile computing, University of Missouri System President’s Award for Sustained Career Excellence, and UT Arlington’s Academy of Distinguished Record of Research. Dr. Das serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier’s Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal, and as Associate Editor of several journals including IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, and ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. Dr. Das is an IEEE Fellow.
Keynote Speaker: Daniel R. Fesenmaier, Ph.D., Director, National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce (NLTeC), Modul University Vienna; Title of Presentation: Designing Smart Tourism for the Future
Dr. Daniel R. Fesenmaier is Director, National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce (NLTeC) and teaches in the MBA program at Modul University Vienna. Dr. Fesenmaier is author and co-editor of books focusing on information technology and tourism marketing including: Tourism Information Technology, Design Science in Tourism: Foundations of Destination Management and Analytics in SMART Tourism Design: Concepts and Methods.
As director of NLTeC, Dr. Fesenmaier has directed studies for tourism organizations throughout the United States and elsewhere and has designed several marketing information systems including SMART Destinations, which has been implemented by several destination marketing organizations. Additionally, Dr. Fesenmaier has worked with several tourism marketing and development agencies throughout the United States in conducting advertising and branding studies. NLTeC has partnered extensively with industry leaders including Nichols Tourism Group and Madden Media in developing consumer-based tools that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising in both online and offline channels.
He is curator for a series on Smart Tourism Design in the Annals of Tourism Research; co-founding editor of Tourism Analysis; past Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Information Technology and Tourism and founding editor of the Foundations in Tourism Research Series, Journal of Travel Research. Dr. Fesenmaier is a Fellow and incoming First Vice President, International Academy for the Study of Tourism, the Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Surrey University and the James Whyte Fellow, the University of Queensland Business School. Dr. Fesenmaier has received awards for excellence in research including the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Lifetime Achievement Award, Hannes Werthner Tourism and Technology Lifetime Achievement Award (IFITT), The Michael D. Olsen Research Award (University of Delaware), the Medal of Exceptional Scholarly Achievement (CPTHL) and Faculty Research Award, Temple University.
Keynote Speaker: Timothy Jung, Ph.D., Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; Title of Presentation: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Smart Experience
Dr. Timothy Jung is the Founder and Director of the Creative AR & VR Hub and Head of MMU AR & VR Research Group at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He has been involved in a number of funded AR & VR research projects at national and international level. He is an advisor of BirdHIVE VR & Drone project led by Lake District National Park, UK and Co-Director of AquaTravellers, social enterprise to help raise funds for WaterAid. His research interests include AI, IoT, Big Data and 5G powered immersive technology innovation for well-being and quality of life. He is renowned for his work in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in tourism, cultural heritage, education & training and health care and he extensively published in these areas with over 100 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. Dr. Jung co-authored of 3 books including Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality which was the most downloaded book in Business and Management in 2018. He is a recipients of several best paper awards at international conferences as well as journal paper of the year awards including Emerald Literati Award in 2018. His research work has been covered by Manchester Evening News, TechNorth, VRFocus, TechRadar, Independent and Huffington Post and he is a regular invited and keynote speaker in major international conferences. He is the Conference Chair of International AR & VR Conference 2019 in Munich.
Keynote Speaker: Satish V. Ukkusuri, Ph.D., Purdue University; Title of Presentation: Smart Mobility Analytics in an Era of Accelerated Technological Change
Satish V. Ukkusuri is a Professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Director of the Urban Mobility, Networks and Intelligence Lab, Director of the Centre for Smart Mobility and Co-lead of the Sustainable Communities Cluster at Purdue University. His research is in the area of interdisciplinary transportation networks with current interests in data driven mobility solutions, disaster management, resilience of interdependent networks, connected and autonomous traffic systems, shared mobility platforms, dynamic traffic networks and smart logistics. He is a University Faculty Scholar (2017-present), Fulbright Fellow (2015-16), Discovery Park Fellow (2013-15), a selectee of the NAS Arab American Frontiers (2017), a selectee of NAE Japan-US Frontiers of Engineering conference (2016) and a CUTC/ARTBA Faculty Award (2011) among other awards. He has published more than 250 peer reviewed journal and conference articles. He is an Area Editor of Networks and Spatial Economics and an Academic Editor of PLOS One among other editorial duties. He is a member of several national and international committees, including the TRB’s Freight Logistics and Planning Committee, Emergency Evacuation Modeling Committee and a past member of the Network Modeling Committee.
