Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland Visitor Economy Conference 2022

Event Information

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After a challenging couple of years for the visitor economy sector, Lincolnshire County Council and Business Lincolnshire are delighted to invite Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland businesses to attend this flagship conference dedicated to the industry.

This invaluable event will showcase our region’s visitor economy offer, along with its achievements over the last two years; explore the opportunities that lie ahead in the post-pandemic world and provide a great opportunity for networking and leaflet swapping.

You will receive fascinating insights to help understand the new Covid-19 world from our keynote speaker, Ed Gillespie, Environmental Entrepreneur, Futurist and Author focusing on sustainability and innovation. This will involve ‘unlearning’ the mistakes of the past, asking the right (often awkward!) questions and moving beyond the discomfort of today into being the better, more resilient, responsible, sustainable and successful business of tomorrow.

Those of you attending will be the first to hear about our green tourism toolkit launched on the day. Enjoy engaging presentations on how to extend your season by tapping into lucrative business tourism spend, the latest news on the Tourism Commission recommendations and a DMO update, plus a selection of practical, interactive workshops ranging from digital marketing to how to green your business.

Book your place today to discover how to make the most of the opportunities and challenges ahead!

NB: We are delivering your conference as a hybrid event. We hope to see many of you in person at the Epic Centre to benefit from a more personal, interactive experience, but presentations will also be available for remote viewing simultaneously online.

Programme

09:00  Registration, Refreshments, Leaflet Swap and Networking

10:00  Welcome and Introduction

Cllr Colin Davie, Executive Councillor for Economy and Place, Lincolnshire County Council

10:05  Tourism Commission Recommendations: How’s Delivery Going?

Mary Powell, Tourism Manager, Lincolnshire County Council

10:25  The Future We Want

Ed Gillespie, Environmental Entrepreneur, Futurist and Author

11:00  Refreshment Break

11:20  Introducing the Green Tourism Toolkit – A New Resource for Tourism Businesses in the Greater Lincolnshire Area

Suzannah Newham, Senior Sustainability Advisor, Considerate Group

11:45  Business Tourism and the Future of Face-to-Face Meetings

Adam Bates, Director, Blue Sail

12:10  DMO Update

Charlotte Goy, Chief Executive, Visit Lincoln

12:30  Q & A Session                  

13:00  Lunch, Leaflet Swap and Networking

14:00  Workshop Session One – choose one from the following: 

1.       Integrating Sustainability with Tourism Business Operations

Suzannah Newham and Isaac Pellham-Chipper, Sustainability Advisor, Considerate Group

2.       Covid, Digital Adoption, and Consumer Expectations

Deborah Goodall, Director, CDI Alliance

3.       What Great Looks Like

Adam Bates

4.       Becoming Cycle Friendly

Helen Smith, Cycle Lincolnshire Project Manager, Visit Lincoln

14:30  Refreshment Break

14:45  Workshop Session Two – choose one from the following:

1.       Integrating Sustainability with Tourism Business Operations

Suzannah Newham and Isaac Pellham-Chipper

2.       Covid, Digital Adoption, and Consumer Expectations

Deborah Goodall

3.       Navigating Possible Futures

Emilija Zavadzkyte, Iulia Poama-Covaci, Dan Spence and Sergiu Badea

4.       Developing ‘Visitor Experience’ Opportunities

Hayley Toyne, Visitor Economy Sector Advisor, Business Lincolnshire

15:15  Final Chance to Collect Leaflets and Event Close

Workshop Summaries

Integrating Sustainability with Tourism Business Operations – Bookable Session One & Two

This interactive session will briefly introduce the People, Planet and Place pillars of the Green Tourism Toolkit and their associated thematic topics. Discussion activities will follow to help you to identify the key challenges and opportunities with ‘greening operations’, to prioritise business objectives for monitoring, implementing and communicating green initiatives in 2022 and will conclude with how best to use the Green Tourism Toolkit to support your next steps.

Covid, Digital Adoption, and Consumer Expectations – Bookable Session One & Two

The past two years have seen the world struck by a disease that has impacted upon everyone. In the UK digital adoption has accelerated and consumer expectations have changed. How can your business adapt to deliver a product or service that meets the changing needs of the consumer? 

What Great Looks Like – Session One Only

In this workshop, the business event organiser takes centre stage. We will share what ‘great’ looks like and involve you all in designing an incredible Lincolnshire experience for this market.

Becoming Cycle Friendly – Session One Only

Cycle Lincolnshire will attract new audiences to the county and create opportunities for local businesses to tap into a new, growing market. Join this workshop to discover what Cycle Lincolnshire is, the importance of the cycling market, the practical steps you can take to welcome cyclists and how to develop a cycle friendly business.

Navigating Possible Futures – Session Two Only

What if you could create your ideal future by using only three words? EVOLVE Lincolnshire is inviting you to a tailored interactive workshop that will enable you to build more sustainable ventures within the visitor economy. In 30 minutes, we will define ‘wicked’ problems and help you discover the path to your future horizons. 

Developing ‘Visitor Experience’ Opportunities – Session Two Only

An introductory look at the ever-expanding market of ‘visitor experience’ packages and the size of the opportunity for Lincolnshire businesses. We’ll explore how to build fun and engaging experiences for your customers and collaborate with complementary local businesses in your area.

During the session we’ll learn about the opportunity to add value to your product offer - and helping your guests to experience their destination ‘like a local’ or even by learning new skills.

Introducing our line-up of speakers …

• Cllr Colin Davie, Executive Councillor Economic Development & Tourism, Lincolnshire County Council

Colin has worked in the events sector for many years and was instrumental in setting up the Tourism Commission during lockdown. He established a grant pot of £11.5m which has supported around 900 visitor economy businesses, especially those who had been able to receive government support, and a further £500k to deliver the Tourism Commission Recommendations.

• Mary Powell, Tourism Manager, Lincolnshire County Council

Mary started her tourism career at Derbyshire Dales District Council before joining Lincolnshire County Council as Tourism Manager in 1991. She has secured tens of millions of pounds in external funding for initiatives to promote the county and its visitor attractions and successfully managed the £22 million restoration of Lincoln Castle over a ten-year period. Mary is leading on the delivery of the Tourism Commission Recommendations.

• Ed Gillespie, Environmental Entrepreneur, Futurist and Author

Ed specialises in helping audiences understand the complex changes facing the world - from climate change to disruptive innovation - and provides them with actionable insights for their organisation.

His book, Only Planet: a flight-free adventure around the world (2014), records his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane. The Independent said “[The book] allow[s] the world’s flaws and beauty to seep into your soul”.

Ed co-founded Futerra, a change agency that specialises in business transformation and creative communications and campaigns. Over the last eighteen years, Futerra has built a global reputation for its impactful and award winning work on some of the biggest corporate sustainability initiatives. 

Ed is also actively involved in several trail-blazing businesses as a director or investor, from Zero Carbon Food, a renewable energy powered, LED-lit, hydroponic farm in a disused underground tunnel in South London, to Loco2.com - a pan-European rail-ticket agency that makes it as easy to book a trans-continental train as a plane.

• Suzannah Newham, Senior Sustainability Advisor, Considerate Group

Suzannah has 17 years’ experience in international responsible hospitality and tourism. She has worked in a variety of roles: from in-house sustainability manager for a small UK hotel group, implementing award-winning, green tourism and ISO14001 recognised initiatives, to managing responsible visitor experiences in protected landscapes, to developing and implementing destination-level sustainable tourism strategies.

As Considerate Group’s senior sustainability advisor, she is responsibility for the successful delivery of all products, services and strategic projects; leading Considerate’s team of analysts and consultants and delivering major, multi-site, multi-partner projects. Suzannah is Considerate Group’s project sponsor for the design and implementation of the Green Tourism Toolkit for SME tourism businesses in the Greater Lincolnshire Area.

• Adam Bates, Associate Director, Blue Sail

Adam has over 20 years experience working in international tourism – including for Disney and VisitBritain – as well as in local economic development, destination management, service commissioning and organisational change during a decade at the visitor-economy helm in Brighton.

While his knowhow stretches across both leisure and business, Adam is perhaps best known nationally and internationally for his expertise in business tourism, venues and events. He was Head of Business Tourism for VisitBritain, and directed Brighton’s convention bureau and international conference centre, including major venue redevelopment. Adam has recently produced a business tourism study for Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland.

• Charlotte Goy, Chief Executive, Visit Lincoln

With over 15 years’ experience in destination marketing Charlotte leads the county’s official Destination Management Organisation, driving understanding of Place DNA and delivering award winning destination marketing campaigns that make a difference. 

Charlotte is pioneering Visit Lincoln’s future by establishing Destination Lincolnshire. 

Destination Lincolnshire will be business focused and house the DMO’s much-loved, consumer-facing marketing brands Visit Lincoln, Taste Lincolnshire, Cycle Lincolnshire and Meet Lincoln.

Supported by businesses and operators within the county who want to see a joined-up approach, Destination Lincolnshire simply labels the work already conducted by the team and will bring together like-minded businesses to create an interconnected, resilient and flourishing visitor economy community across the whole of Lincolnshire.

• Isaac Pellham-Chipper, Sustainability Advisor, Considerate Group

Isaac has a background in sustainability, eco-tourism and water-focused operational infrastructure improvements. As one of Considerate Group’s sustainability advisors, he is an experienced project coordinator. In particular, Isaac has worked on SRBI grant projects from the (UK Government) Department of Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS), led projects to support SMEs in reducing their energy consumption, and worked with accommodation sector clients to implement sustainability strategies.  Isaac is also the Considerate Group project lead for the design and implementation of the Green Tourism Toolkit for SME tourism businesses in the Greater Lincolnshire Area.

• Deborah Goodall, Director, CDI Alliance Ltd

Deborah has 25 years experience of growing businesses through effective marketing. She specialises in marketing strategy through understanding target audiences and their triggers and motivations. Deborah has worked as a consultant for 10 years.

Prior to this she worked client-side, so understands the difficulties facing marketing departments and business owners. She is commercially astute and has experience in B2B and B2C environments. Deborah has a passion for direct marketing, with a background in mail order. Deborah also runs workshops to help businesses make the most of their marketing potential. Deborah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

• Helen Smith, Cycle Lincolnshire Project Manager, Visit Lincoln

Helen’s career in tourism began in 1990 when she set up an office for VisitBritain (formerly BTA) in Taipei, Taiwan. Marketing Britain as a holiday and study destination to the Taiwan market. After 10 years she returned to her home county of Yorkshire and worked for Welcome to Yorkshire as International Marketing & Comms exec.

For the last 5 years Helen coordinated the Cycle England project, which was a Discover England funded project. Creating booking cycling holidays for the Dutch and German market. The project was extremely successful and created 16 bookable cycling holidays over Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Northumberland. Helen joined the Visit Lincoln team last December, taking up lead of Cycle Lincolnshire, which is a legacy of Cycle England.

• Hayley Toyne, Visitor Economy Sector Advisor, Business Lincolnshire

Hayley is the Visitor Economy Sector Advisor for Business Lincolnshire and has spent over fifteen years working as a self-employed consultant in the Lincolnshire food and tourism industries; after previously working in brand management roles for several multinational companies.

With a background in marketing and communications, Hayley’s particular interest and specialism is in product launch and brand management. One of her most recent projects included working on a £1million VisitEngland initiative to develop new bookable product with Lincolnshire tourism businesses and overseas travel trade; resulting in brand new tour packages coming to the market for the county.  

Hayley now works with visitor economy businesses in the county to support their growth aspirations through her role with Business Lincolnshire.

Secure your place

The conference is fully funded and places are limited so be sure to book yours today.

Apologies, no support intermediaries, public bodies, or financial sector businesses.

We would like to make all attendees feel as comfortable as possible on the day by providing a Covid-sensitive environment. We encourage delegates to take a lateral flow test prior to attending and, although face coverings are no longer a legal requirement, please feel free to wear one if you wish.

Am I eligible?

This event is available to businesses, partnerships, sole traders, and registered charities, with a trading address located within Greater Lincolnshire.

Sign-up here

Car Parking Information

Complimentary parking is available on-site