Jens Thraenhart
Jens Thraenhart has over 15 years of international hospitality experience which includes hotel and restaurant operations, revenue management, sales & marketing, e-business, strategic planning, and hospitality consulting. He has worked with such companies as Fairmont, Four Seasons, Ian Schrager Hotels, Kempinski and Marriott.
Early in his career Jens's entrepreneurial edge was sharpened with him founding and operating a successful food catering company, starting a New York-based Internet leisure travel Internet company and managing an independent luxury golf resort in Germany.
Later in the corporate world, Jens has been instrumental in directing e-marketing and marketing automation programs in the hospitality and tourism industries, most recently with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in heading up E-Commerce as well as Marketing and CRM for Fairmont's Vacation Ownership and Residences division. Jens is today regarded as a thought-leader by his peers, as he is the founding chair of the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Organization and the HSMAI Hotel Internet Marketing Committee. Moreover, he co-founded and co-chaired the first Online Revealed Canada conference in May 2006, founded and chairs the Canadian E-Tourism Strategy Conference, Canada-e-Connect, which is held in conjunction with the first ever Canadian E-Tourism Awards, which he created.
He also established and chairs the Canadian E-Tourism Council, consisting of the "who's who" in travel and tourism marketing and e-commerce in Canada, spanning through all industry sectors and all over Canada. In addition, he is quoted and has contributed to numerous articles, white papers, and text books, and is a speaker at many industry conferences and events. Thraenhart has served on various industry boards, including both the Global Board and the Americas Board of Directors of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), as well as North America Board for the International Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT). In his spare time, he operates the "Tourism Internet Marketing Blog".
Originally from Germany, Thraenhart holds an MBA-accredited Masters of Management in Hospitality from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, and a joint Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University Center 'Cesar Ritz' at Brig, Switzerland. He was recognized as one of the 'travel industry's top 100 rising stars' by Travel Agent Magazine in 2003, and was listed as one of the '25 Most Extraordinary Sales and Marketing Minds in Hospitality and Travel' in 2004 and 2005.
Most importantly, he has a wicked sense of humour and can usually be spotted in some of the most exotic locations in the world helping to define the next great trend!
Gino Giovannelli
Gino Giovannelli is a proven leader in helping companies leverage the Internet to maximize business results. Giovannelli formally served as Vice President of Carlson Interactive, an interactive agency within Carlson Marketing Group, which offers Interactive strategy development, Interactive design and development, and Interactive marketing services to internal Carlson businesses as well as external clients such as The Home Depot, Saturn, General Motors, International Truck, Northwest Airlines, British Airways and AOL.
In prior roles, Giovannelli served as Vice President of e-Business Solutions at Carlson Companies, and was responsible for Interactive at Carlson Hotels Worldwide (Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Regent Hotels International), Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and TGI Fridays.
Other positions held at Carlson include serving as Sr. Director of e-Business Strategy for Carlson Consumer Group and Director of e-Commerce for Radisson Hotels & Resorts.
Prior to Carlson, Giovannelli served as Vice President of e.Media Group, a Minneapolis based Interactive services Company, specializing in website and CD ROM design and development.
Giovannelli began his career in the plant automation computer systems industry where he held various positions in Sales and Marketing.
Giovannelli received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University in 1990, and also attended the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria in 1989. He is a graduate of the MBA Program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and completed the Carlson Companies Executive Leadership Program at the University of Minnesota in 2000.
