Simon is one of the world’s foremost experts on short-term rental and vacation rental. He leads AJL Atelier, a specialized vacation rental, and business consultancy while also advising multiple companies as Board Member and Executive Chairman.

A sought-after speaker, panelist, and moderator, Simon loves to broach high-level and technical topics alike, from the future trends of short-term rental to the specifics of online distribution in the top 5 OTAs. Previously, Simon was the Co-Founder & Chairman of Vacasa Europe, former President of PhocusWright, and ex-Board member of HomeAway, to name but a few. He’s also an accomplished operator, having led Interhome as CEP, Hotelplan Group Deputy CEO, and Swissport as EVP.

Nils Mattisson has a degree in electrical engineering from Lund University, and spent seven years working in the Exploratory Design group at Apple in Cupertino. He founded Minut together with three co-founders in 2014 with the mission to make home-sharing work for everyone: hosts, guests and neighbors alike. As the CEO, he has been overseeing the company’s rapid growth over the past 7 years.

Bob Garner is co-owner of Casal dei Fichi, sustainable holiday apartments in Le Marche, Italy. He is a passionate advocate for the environment, working to inform, persuade and lobby all parts of the short-term rental industry to acknowledge that we each have a role to play in tackling the climate emergency.

His latest campaign centers on inviting all event and conference organizers in the short-term rental sector to take action to be more eco-friendly. Conferences have the opportunity to reach widely into our community,  setting the agenda and creating change for the better.

Marco Celani, 47, is the CEO of Italianway since 2016, the leading operator on the Italian short-term rental market for the number of destinations and properties managed. Since 2020 he is also President of the Italian Association of Short Rentals Managers, AIGAB (www.aigab.it), founded by the big players in the sector in order to provide institutional representation to property managers, analyze data and encourage the creation of a solid network of entrepreneurs that can help grow the market.

Thanks to his solid background in finance, Celani has held managerial roles at an international level in groups such as Citibank, BNP Paribas, and Asset Management Service, carrying out company valuations, mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations. In recent years, as an advisor, he has focused his interest on the sector of Small and Medium Enterprises, founding Sequor Capital Management, a company specializing in assisting companies in extraordinary transactions and in supporting start-ups in the growth process.

Graduated in Hospitality and Tourism Management in 2010, developed his career with expertise on Tourism consultancy, project management, M&A, PropTech and private investor.

In 2019, he merged his Portuguese company to form ALTIDO, a leading European property management service company, where currently he acts as CTO of the group.

His passion for developing projects that are disruptive, scalable, and focus on leveraging tech to support company wide-goals.

His ultimate goal is to seek structured scalability and work with high-efficient teams while having fun on the way.

A fun bit about him, he just moved to Italy with his family and he enjoys skiing, cooking and the “aperitivo” time.

Antoine is the CEO of Cocoonr, Hosting power a leading property manager in vacation rentals in France with more than 1500 exclusive and high level accommodations (urban / leisure).

Based on two brands, Cocoonr (full service property management) and Book&Pay (focus on distribution and revenue management), the company propose its services in 9 local agencies (Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, Saint Malo, Arcachon, Morbihan, Rennes) and all over France through strong partnerships with more than 150 local conciergeries. Launched in 2015, the company’s headquarter is based in Rennes (Britanny) and the full team is composed by more than 60 people, experts and passionnate with short term rentals! In the future, Before Cocoonr, Antoine launched several businesses in the digital marketing and ecommerce industry.

Ezio is a hospitality industry expert, with expertise in profit management and business intelligence architecture, customizing specific solutions to driving up revenue, optimizing the financial sustainability of the short terms rentals companies and hotels.

Ezio is an engineer by training. With a Doctorate in Managing Engineering from La Sapienza University, characterized by an entrepreneurial spirit and an immense passion for the hospitality sector; he initially capitalized on his engineering know-how and his analytical skills, working as a revenue manager for the hotel industry. In last years he has lent his knowledge to Vacation Rental, focusing on the development of technology.

Francois is the co-founder & CEO of Enso Connect, a venture backed guest experience platform that leverages AI, multi-channel communication tools, and smart home technology to deliver personalized guest journeys in over 15,000 properties across 32+ countries.

Francois graduated from the University of Toronto with an honors degree in Computer Science, and Cognitive Science, focusing in computational linguistics. He recently completed his Masters of Entrepreneurship with high honors at the University of Cambridge, writing his thesis on the convergence of hotels and short-term rentals.

He was recognized as the City of Toronto Entrepreneur of the Year by the Entrepreneur’s Organization (GSEA), voted the most innovative Proptech CEO of 2020 in the UK, was a finalist for the Royal Bank of Canada Innovation Award, and represented Canada at the G20 Summit for the Young Entrepreneur’s Alliance group.

Francois’ passion for technology and travel is central to his career and desire to create a global community.

Jessica is the founder and managing director of Abode PR, an award-winning B2B public relations and content agency focused on raising the profile of transformative technology solutions operating within the global short-term rental, hotel and ‘living’ property sectors. With over 20 years of experience in public relations, hospitality and technology, Jessica is also an advisor, leadership mentor and industry commentator. Her company sits at the heart of the developing intersection between work, life and play in the property and hospitality markets, and partners with technology solutions playing a lead role in this transformation.

James has worked with AirDNA for over five years in an account executive and director role working with clients ranging from VRMs, DMO’s and institutional clients across the globe. He has assisted clients with a number of the key issues faced in the industry, including – sustainably scaling inventory, implementing a more data-driven approach across operations, and best practices for using data in the STR world.

Sonia Chennoufi is the Senior Business Development Manager for EMEA at HomeToGo. With extensive expertise and knowledge of the short-term rental ecosystem, Sonia is passionate about vacation rentals and has built, over the past 10 years, a strong ability at forging strong and lasting partnerships with short-term rental tech companies.

Making partners successful is at the core of her mission at HomeToGo.

Prior to HomeToGo, Sonia worked in a variety of marketing and business development lead roles in the short term rental industry, including in vacation rental software companies.

After living for a year in a London Hotel and realised people would love to travel differently, Chema left Investment Banking to found Alterkeys.com, a vacation rental platform, that was acquired by Room Mate Hotels in 2015, operating in 42 countries and provides more than 100,000properties. This deal was the first (of many to come) M&A transactions from the hotel industry into the vacation rental sector.

He then founded Alterhome.es, a property management company specialized in well-decor apartments that today operates in several markets and launched a franchise program to expand Alterhome around Spain and LATAM.

He acts as chairman of the Madrid Vacation rental association, Asotur, and leads the Alterhome expansion into several LATAM destinations. Now he also tries to professionalize the Vacation rental industry by founding Alterschool.travel, the online university to know everything that there is to know about vacation rentals.

Leo became part of the founding team at SUPERHOG in 2019, after having spent seven years running the supply function at onefinestay. These experiences have given him a deep understanding of, and passion for, the vacation rental industry, and in his role he works closely with operators and hosts, helping them to unlock growth and streamline operations by using SUPERHOG, which combines guest screening with embedded insurance.

Having experience of the property management side has given Leo an acute understanding of the pain points which SUPERHOG sets out to solve, guest screening, deposits, chargebacks and property damage. He’s passionately committed to building tools to help improve and revolutionise the industry.

Part time runner, full time dad and Man Utd fan.

As Senior Manager for the Key Accounts in EMEA at Vrbo, Laura built and leads a multi-lingual team of (key) account managers. With her long-standing experience in hospitality, e-commerce and customer-centricity, her core focus in Vrbo is to increase her partner’s booking value from Vrbo through optimizing booking conversion, listing quality and value, whilst delivering exceptional travel experiences and powering the most trusted market place for travelers and partners.

Tom has been working in STR data for over 4 years now and has established himself as an expert in his field, building lasting relationships with key players in the Industry and respected tourism institutions. He would be happy to share some insights into your market and tell you a little more about the groundbreaking data solutions that Transparent has developed for STR professionals.

While doing his MBA at London Business School in 2014, Alexander experienced Airbnb as a traveller and also, through friends, as a host. Having identified the obvious issue of the hassle that Airbnb couldn’t solve for its hosts, Alexander decided to build a solution. He founded Pass the Keys in 2015 in London, scaled it to ten cities across the UK by 2018 and decided to franchise the business in 2019. Since then, the company has grown to 60+ territories across the UK, operating in both cities and the countryside. Alexander wants to build the most valuable holiday let ecosystem by constantly improving the experience for guests, hosts and franchisees.