Innovation expert specialized in the digital transformation of tourism for public administration and for businesses. President of Turismi.ai the italian Association for Artificial Intelligence in Tourism dedicated to the promotion of innovation in the tourism sector through the use of artificial intelligence, which has organized Gatewai the first national conference on artificial intelligence in tourism. He is part of the experts of the European Capital of Smart Tourism and has been a scientific technical expert for tourism of the Intelligent City Challenge. He collaborates with ITA Academy Turismo Veneto, Anci Association of City of Motors, is a director of Trentino Holidays the Tour Operator of UNAT the Hotelier Union of Trentino. He is a contract teaching holder for the Digital for Sustainability course at the IULM – Department of Business, Law, Economics and Consumption “Carlo A. Ricciardi” He is advisor of some national tourism events such as BTO in Florence, BTM in Bari.

Susana Garrido is the Program Manager in charge of Digitality, General Education courses, Intraining and Faculty Development. She has taught and continues to teach different courses within the Marketing Pathway. Susana Garrido has an MBA by the San Telmo International Institute in Malaga, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Translation and Interpretation by the University of Malaga. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Business and a Masters in Golf and Country Club Management. She has been teaching in Les Roches Marbella since 2012 and before that she developed her career in hospitality industry both in the US and in Spain. Her last role before joining Les Roches was as the Hotel Manager and Spa Manager at a 5-star Golf Resort Property in Southern Spain. Susana Garrido is fluent in English and Spanish.

Manuel Luís Au-Yong Oliveira was born in London. Manuel has two daughters and two step-children and currently resides in Porto, Portugal. Manuel did his post-doctoral studies at the University of Aveiro (2016-2019) with the title “Elements that contribute to organisational competitiveness” – with a special focus on tourism. Manuel has a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management, from FEUP (University of Porto, 2012; distinction awarded to the thesis), an MBA from Cardiff (Cardiff University is a prestigious, research-focused, Russell Group University in the UK) (distinction awarded to the dissertation) (equivalence given to a Master’s in Management by Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in Lisbon), and an undergraduate degree in Management Information Processing, from Universidade Portucalense (1991). Manuel is an Associate Professor with Habilitation (in Management – Marketing – April 2022) at the University of Aveiro (DEGEIT) where he has lectured at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels on marketing, innovation, strategy and research methods. Manuel is currently a researcher affiliated to GOVCOPP (full researcher) and INESC TEC (collaborator) and is the coordinator or principal investigator for four ongoing Erasmus+ projects at the University of Aveiro – including TourX, which aims for a more sustainable and forward-looking tourism effort by the 23 international partners and their stakeholders. Manuel has won numerous awards including an honourable mention in the University of Aveiro Researcher Awards 2022 – for the area of Social Sciences.

Elisa Piras is Senior Researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research in Bolzano/Bozen (Italy). Having a background in international relations and political philosophy, she earned a PhD in Politics, Human Rights, and Sustainability from Sant’Anna School for Advanced Studies. She held research and teaching positions at the University of Bologna and at Sant’Anna School in Pisa, where she served as Didactic Coordinator of the Master in Human Rights and Conflict Management from 2019 to 2022. During her academic career, she undertook research stays abroad at the London School of Economics and at Goethe Universität in Frankfurt. Her current research focuses on human rights and social inclusion in the tourism sector, issues of social justice within and beyond states’ borders, inclusive socio-ecological transformation, public opinion and disinformation. She has contributed to various academic projects and publications, including co-editing books and writing articles on topics like epistemic injustices, disinformation, and gender-based violence.

Alexandros Sainidis holds a degree in International Studies and is a Knowledge Manager at the International Department of AKMI. He is responsible for managing organizational knowledge and data, as well as the coordination of educational material and instructional design. Among other projects, he is in the project teams of AI4VET4AI CoVE on Artificial Intelligence, focusing on education and industrial applications of AI, as well as TourX CoVE for Tourism. He firmly believes that knowledge management is the key for the strategic use of AI in traditional sectors. He is the founder of Pecunia et Bellum, a blog on international affairs and economics, and is the Lead Educational Program Designer of Mercury Negotiation Academy, a youth initiative with the mission of promoting negotiation skills in the Greek and European ecosystems. He has trained educators, SMEs, professionals of various occupations and is an intercultural education expert in global settings, including Sub-Saharan Africa.