October 19-21, 2020
Las Vegas, NV – Wynn Resorts
THE EVENT
Connect THRIVE Summit
Connect THRIVE Summit is focused on community development through LGBTQ travel, sports, and entertainment. This one-of-a-kind marketing summit features dynamic general sessions and networking events alongside a series of pre-scheduled, one-on-one connections between destinations, resorts, hotels, attractions, domestic and international tour operators and travel agents, sports rights holders, media, marketers and brands.
THE LOCATION
HOW IT WORKS
Register and Pay
Registration is $1,495
Come to Las Vegas
Meet with a variety of domestic and international companies for pre-scheduled, one-on-one connections.
Network
Build key relationships between destinations, resorts, hotels, attractions, domestic and international tour operators and travel agents, sports rights holders, media, marketers and brands.
Learn from Experts
Enjoy in-depth sessions about relevant topics led by industry experts.
Unwind and Mingle
Build relationships while the networking continues at our entertaining and interactive receptions.
WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
“We firmly believe that the Connect THRIVE Summit presents an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen our communities by building strong connections between leaders within the LGBTQ travel, sports and entertainment industry.” – DJ Doran, Managing Director, Diversitas Media
“Attended Connect THRIVE Summit 2019 and was very impressed with the level of attendees and set up of the show. Tremendous experience and in depth knowledge sharing of this very important market, that encompasses the more discerning passenger who is looking to feel welcome in a majority luxury category. – Sean Bayliss, International Tourism Resources Group (ITRG)
2020 SPONSORS
2020 AGENDA
Monday, October 19, 2020
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Regiception (registration + reception)
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
General Session
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Chef Art Smith: How Important Restaurants are to Communities
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Opening Reception
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
8:00 am – 8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
8:45 am – 10:00 am
Thomas Roth, Community Marketing Inc.
10:15 am – 11:45 am
Connections
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Mayor Jane Castor, City of Tampa
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Connections
4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
General Session
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Reception
Open Night
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
9:00 am – 9:30 am
Coffee
9:45 am – 10:30 am
General Session
10: 45 am – 12:00 pm
Connections
12:00 pm
Farewell Reception
EVENT PHOTOS
2020 SPEAKERS
Jane Castor
Jane Castor is the 59th Mayor of the City of Tampa. Born and raised in Tampa Florida, Castor graduated from Chamberlain High School and attended the University of Tampa on an athletic scholarship.
Upon graduating, she joined the Tampa Police Department and worked her way up from serving as a beat cop to being appointed Tampa’s first female Chief of Police.
In 2019, Jane was elected mayor of the City of Tampa. In just her first few months in office, she successfully launched numerous initiatives, including the city’s largest ever water/wastewater infrastructure plan (PIPES); the Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow Advisory Teams to focus on building a strategic roadmap for the City’s top priorities; establishing a minimum wage of $15 an hour for full-time city employees; securing a federal grant for body-worn cameras; initiating a renewal of the City’s transportation master plan (Tampa MOVES); designating Tampa as a Vision Zero city; and originating a range of community-based initiatives such as Art on the Block, Crosswalks to Classrooms, and Bridges to Business. All of this was done while achieving unanimous adoption of the City’s one billion dollar budget – the first budget in the black since the create recession.
Chef Art Smith
Chef Art Smith is the executive chef and co-owner of Blue Door Kitchen & Garden in Chicago, Southern Art & Bourbon Bar in Atlanta, Art & Soul in Washington DC, Art Bird & Whiskey Bar at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, and Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Florida Kitchen & Southern Shine Bar at Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Art Smith has received two James Beard Foundation awards, the culinary profession’s highest honor, and has cooked for some of the world’s most famous celebrities.
Smith is the author of “Back to the Table; Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families”; “Back to the Family”; and “Art Smith’s Healthy Comfort,” with a focus on healthy cooking and healthy living.
Chef Smith is the founder of Common Threads, a non-profit organization teaching low-income children to cook wholesome and affordable meals since 2003.
In 2015 Smith launched a non-profit organization, Reunion, Florida Garden and Kitchen School, in Madison FL at the historic Wardlaw-Smith House near his childhood home in Jasper, FL.
Nadine Smith
Nadine Smith is the Executive Director of Equality Florida, the state’s largest organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. An award-winning journalist turned organizer, Nadine was one of four national co-chairs of the 1993 March on Washington. She was part of the historic meeting between then – President Clinton – the first Oval Office meeting between a sitting President and gay community leaders. She served on the founding board of the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization. She is s a Florida Chamber Foundation Trustee and served on President Obama’s National Finance Committee. Nadine has been named one of the the state’s “Most Powerful and Influential Women” by the Florida Diversity Council. She has recieved the League of Women Voter’s Woman of Distinction Award and in 2018 was named one of the 100 Most Influential Floridians by Influence Magazine. She currently serves as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Florida Advisory Committee.
Thomas Bömkes
Since 2010, Thomas Bömkes is Managing Director of Diversity Tourism GmbH, Munich, Germany. A consulting and marketing agency, specialized in LGBT and Medical Tourism worldwide. Offering strategic development, creative marketing solutions and MICE business activities
for tourism suppliers. Since 2010, Thomas is also the ITB Berlin advisor for LGBT Tourism and since 2016, he is also in charge of the development of the Medical
Tourism Segment at ITB Berlin. His company operates the online travel guide TomOnTour.com and other websites for Medical and LGBT Tourism. After graduating at Munich’s University with a Masters degree in economics in 1996, Thomas worked as a marketing consultant since then in different positions.
He has been a member of the board of directors of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) from 1999 – 2009.
Karen DeJarnette
Karen DeJarnette is an SEO Manager for the Lodging Operations team in Expedia Group and has worked there since December, 2013. In December, 2014, she had a moment of personal crisis, as many others like her face, and she finally accepted her truth that she is transgender. She came out to HR in March of 2015 and learned that she was the first person in Expedia history to come out and transition on the job! She came out to her team in July, then went full-time in October, 2015. She joined the LGBT diversity group that year, then got elected to the Board, and has been re-elected every year since. She’s driven many EG-wide D&I initiatives in her role as a strategic D&I leader in Expedia, and this year, her pet project for the past 3 years, the much anticipated, renewed LGBTQ Welcoming Hotels campaign, was launched for Orbitz in the summer of 2020. She’s also the author of articles like Traveling While Transgender In 2020 for the Expedia travel blog.
Billy Kolber
Billy Kolber is the founder of HospitableMe, the global leader in LGBTQ+ strategy and training for tourism and hospitality. He co-founded OUT&ABOUT, the first gay/lesbian travel magazine in the US, and ManAboutWorld, one of the first mobile-only magazines of any kind.
He and his team provide learning and training around issues of sexuality and gender diversity, empowering destinations and brands to provide authentic, welcoming service to diverse travelers, and more personalized service to everyone. Billy traveled and sang around the world with the Yale Whiffenpoofs and has visited 71 countries, but still lives in New York City, where he was born.
Thomas Roth
Thomas Roth, President and Founder of Community Marketing & Insights, launched the company in 1992. Tom is primarily dedicating his industry-leading expertise to head up Community Marketing’s Research & Development division. Tom and his team produce the annual LGBTQ Community Survey (45,000 participants in 150 countries; 14th year), and the annual LGBTQ Tourism & Hospitality Survey (24th year), as well as custom surveys and focus groups for a variety of market leaders in tourism, hospitality, retail, finance, beverages, real estate, insurance, health care, government, etc., and conducts educational training seminars for corporations and organizations.
Tom earned his MBA at Maharishi International University in 1985. He is a long-time instructor of the Transcendental Meditation program, and volunteers teaching meditation to people living with HIV.
David Paisley
David Paisley is the Senior Research Director with Community Marketing & Insights (CMI). He has been with CMI for over 24 years. David coordinates the company’s LGBTQ quantitative and qualitative client research projects. With decades of experience, organizations utilize his expertise that comes from coordinating over 200 LGBTQ-specific survey initiatives and personally moderating CMI’s focus groups and consumer interviews. David is also a featured speaker at research and marketing conferences, and conducts training webinars for corporations, destinations and hospitality groups.
Ravi Roth
Roth comes with prior experience in LGBTQ+ travel as a blogger, vlogger, content creator, and influencer, exploring the Queer culture in 31 countries with his travel brand Ravi Round The World. Ravi fearlessly captures and discovers where to stay, play, eat, work out, sites to see, and the Queer history of each destination. Ravi has been recognized as an expert in the LGBTQ+ travel community and was was named “One of the Top 10 Gay Travel Instagrammers in the World to Follow” by Unicorn Booty, nominated for “Best Insta Traveler of 2019″ by Gay Cities, and recognized as “People We Love in 2019” by Metrosource. As a highly sought after lecturer on LGBTQ+ travel, Ravi has been a featured speaker at the NY Times Travel Show, LGBT Week, Google, and Community Marketing Insights. Ravi is also an actor and singer and has been living in the Big Apple for 14 years! Ravi is represented by Jeremy Katz at The Katz Company.
Ed Salvato
Ed Salvato (pronouns he/him) offers LGBTQ marketing consulting and inclusive hospitality training to the travel, tourism and hospitality industries, as well as Inclusive hospitality training to major travel, tourism & hospitality brands around the globe. Ed also runs the LGBTQ Travel Pavilion at the NY Times Travel Show and is the emcee at ITB’s Pink Pavilion. He’s co-author of the Handbook of LGBT Tourism & Hospitality Marketing: A Guide for Business Practice by Columbia University Press. Previously, Ed was editor in chief of OUT & ABOUT, Out Traveler and ManAboutWorld gay travel magazines. Ed is an adjunct instructor in marketing at NYU’s Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality currently teaching a class in customer relationship management.
DJ Doran
Mr. Doran currently serves as the CEO of Doran Omnimedia and Aequalitas Media. He also serves as the Executive Director of the AEQUALITAS Advisory Board. Mr. Doran’s background and experience include a 23-year military career as a United States Air Force Reserve Pilot; and a business career that spans over 25 years as owner and CEO of multiple corporations across various media companies. Mr. Doran has held key leadership roles throughout his career in LGBTQ Media and his management and leadership qualities as CEO have given Mr. Doran a unique ability to evaluate opportunities and successfully negotiate agreements that support the mission statement of the company, board of directors and investors. Such experience and insight have allowed Mr. Doran to work with his team toward the profitable acquisition of media assets ahead of the competition.
Mr. Doran continues to be actively involved with the local/national LGBTQ community as well as an ambassador to the business and political leaders of Chicago and beyond.
Register
Connect Travel Cancellation Policy:
Connect Travel requires registration to be paid in full to access any live event. Any special billing or payment arrangement must be made in writing and agreed upon between Connect Travel management and the client seeking event access. Please see below for cancellation policy.
Cancellations requested inside of 30 days to event date – Client forfeits 100% of registration fee. Cancellations requested 31-90 days prior to event date – Client forfeits 50% of registration fee and the remaining 50% can be used towards a new product purchase in the same calendar year. Cancellations requested over 90 days to the event date – Client may apply 100% of the registration fee to a new product purchase or service in the same calendar year.
Photo Release:
Connect and its legal representatives and assigns, retain the right and permission to publish, without charge, photographs taken during this event. These photographs may be used in publications, including electronic publications, or in audio-visual presentations, promotional literature, advertising, or in other similar ways.
Medical Release:
With registration, the attendee agrees and acknowledges they are participating in the conference on their own free will. While Connect does its best to provide the safest possible environment for the events, the attendee acknowledges freely and knowingly that as a result of their registration and participation, they hereby assume responsibility for their own well-being and safety, releasing Connect of any harm.
