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We were delighted to welcome the following guest speakers to our virtual launch:
Robin is director of Services for Tourism Ltd, a consultancy/service company with a focus on delivering tourism projects requiring involvement from multiple partners.
This follows 35+ years in travel and tourism, including 6 years at Saga Group, 12 years in consultancy, 2 years at National Maritime Museum Cornwall and 5 years at South West Tourism where Robin headed up marketing, research, quality development, tourism awards, visitor information and membership.
Robin’s company runs the tourism awards for South West England (including the county schemes for Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset) and also manages the Beautiful South Awards. It also runs the West Country Tourism Conference & other tourism development projects.
Robin is a regular conference speaker and is a spokesperson for the South West Tourism Alliance, is a former President of the Tourism Management Institute, Board Member of the Tourism Alliance and Board Member of VisitDevon.
Chris, director of A Grain of Sand, co-founder of Surfers Against Sewage and former Sustainability Director at the Eden Project has been working and campaigning for the environment for 30 years and revels in inspiring positive change.
He was a co-founder and then Director of Surfers Against Sewage from 1990 till 2000. Regarded as “some of the Government’s most sophisticated environmental critics” by the BBC and “Britain’s coolest pressure group" by The Independent, SAS helped deliver massive environmental improvements. Chris was then Sustainability Director at the Eden Project for 5 years. This included conceiving and delivering “Waste Neutral”, an early version of the circular economy and helping embed the triple bottom line of sustainable business practice throughout the organisation.
He’s given evidence to the UK parliament, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, the European Commission, briefed the President of the European Parliament, been a special advisor to the Minister for the Environment and appeared on a wide range of media from BBC World Service and Panorama to CNN.
In 2008, he was awarded an MBE for Services to the Environment in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Plymouth. He is also a winner of global award, Surfers Path Inaugural Green Wave Award.
He has given presentations to a wide range of groups and organisations from BMW Guggenheim Future Lab to the Dutch Tax Office, Bombay Sapphire, Lonely Planet, the National Grid and the Global Surf Cities Conference and International Schools in the Hague and Geneva.
He now aims to deliver positive change by working with clients with a shared vision, including sitting on the BBC’s Sustainability Advisory Group.
Chris works on strategic planning, communications, leadership and embedding sustainability principles as part of a profitable business, and strongly believes that business can be a force for good in a challenging world.
Malcolm led the creation of the new private sector led Visit Cornwall CIC and managed the transition from the public sector to an industry led body in 2014, with the new organisation coming into existence in April 2015.
Prior to the transition, Malcolm had been appointed Head of Tourism for Cornwall on the 1st January 2010. Previous appointments included CEO South West Tourism the Regional Tourist Board for eh South West of England (1999 to 2009), Director of Economic Development Devon and Cornwall Training & Enterprise Council (1994 to 1999) where he progressed strategic activities on economic development, tourism, inward investment, and rural and urban initiatives.
Malcolm is a Cornishman, married with two daughters, and a keen dinghy and yacht sailor. He is a Fellow of the Tourism Society, Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, Fellow of the Tourism Management Service and a Fellow of the Academy of Food and Wine Service.
He was an expert advisor to the European Commission and a member of the EC’s Tourism Sustainability Group and is leading a working group to establish a core set of indicators to measure sustainable tourism, from 2004 to 2015.
Other appointments include membership of Advisory committees for the Tate St Ives, National Trust Regional Advisory Board, a Trustee South West Lakes Trust.
Callum Deveney has been Head of Nature Reserves for Cornwall Wildlife Trust for over 20 years. He leads the nature reserves team that look after over 5000 acres of wildlife habitat across Cornwall including Looe Island the Trust’s only marine nature reserve.
Callum’s talk 'Looe Island, helping visitors enjoy a wildlife haven' focused on Looe Island and its credentials as one of the UK’s most stunning marine locations.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust protects Cornwall's wildlife and wild places on land and in our seas. They are passionate about conservation and have helped people enjoy nature for over 50 years. They are proud to count more than 17,000 members and 1,000 volunteers across the county, all committed to protecting Cornwall's nature and make wildlife part of life, for everyone.
The Sanctuary Cornwall is an offgrid, eco lodge & retreat space, offering the opportunity to switch off, relax and connect to nature. It is set in 12 acres of wood & pasture on a steep slope above the Fowey River, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Sanctuary Cornwall has won Gold for Ethical, Responsible & Sustainable Tourism in both the Cornwall and South West Tourism Awards, along with a special award for Water Conservation from South West Water.
Sustainable Tourism is at the very heart of the business and aims to inspire and encourage guests to understand and adopt some of The Sanctuary's ideas when they return home.
In her talk 'Inside out - embracing sustainable tourism' Karen shared her passion for zero-carbon living and explained why sustainability is proving such a magnet for guests.
Our panel of speakers also provided answers to questions that we ran out of time to answer live in our webinar.
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