Khalisah Stevens

Tag: public speaking

  • Speaking at the MALT Congress in AD

    Speaking at the MALT Congress in AD

    At the beginning of February 2024, I was invited by QnA International to speak at the 12th Annual Meetings Arabia & Luxury Travel (MALT) Congress hosted in Abu Dhabi.

    The talk was titled “Sustainable Wellness: Enriching Luxury Travel Experiences with Environmental Consciousness” and I was one of three panel speakers on this “Sustainability & Wellness Tourism Panel” slated for the 29th of February 2024.

    From left to right: Nadia Swan from ARN, myself, Tiffany McGrath from Sustainability Kiosk, and Samir Mehta from Desert Adventures Tourism.

    These panel discussions often fly by and I feel like we barely got to scratch the surface of what sustainability in luxury tourism really looks like, but it was an interesting conference nonetheless and I got to meet some great people: Souhilla Taarabit spoke about managing travel for a large group company with multiple verticals, and in our side chats I learned of the ways she was also making responsible travel choices to lower the group’s overall travel footprint. I met with Eva Lydia Mpanga from NKURINGO SAFARIS, a Ugandan safari travel company and owner of a luxury safari lodge which looked lush AF. The team from Sands Macao and Macao tourism were really fun to speak with (of course we bonded over our shared Asian foodie culture immediately – a happy group of Portuguese tarts if there ever was one).

    Overall it was a good event, it was good to have a peek at the luxury travel sector in the Middle East and learn about the trends and forecasts for this region.

    On a different but parallel note, it is still strange to work, travel, and behave as though massacres and mass starvation aren’t happening on the other side of the region. As Ramadan looms closer, I hope and pray for an immediate ceasefire soon 🍉🕊🙏

  • Speaking at TEDx in Barcelona

    Speaking at TEDx in Barcelona

    Mixed feelings about this TEDx talk, mainly because I always thought my first TEDx would chronicle a personal life event where I overcome seemingly impossible odds to win the Quidditch cup for Gryffindor (still waiting for that owl). The opportunity also came to me during a busy work season when I was in the middle of co-authoring a report called “Raising the Bar” about our competitive destination clients. I was also given two weeks to prepare for this TEDx.

    But opportunities like this are few and far between, so that month I kissed my sleep goodbye and took the plunge. Without the comfort of a screen to sit behind or cheat notes to read off-screen, I did my best to share what I think was the most important trend to come out of our work (Spoiler: The people transformed by the process of working in sustainability).

    I see a million ways that I could have done better, but — I also see this as a lot of learning for the next one 😏

    The day after the TEDx talk I presented the top-level findings of the report in a company webinar, where you can sense my energy levels are a little higher on Zoom following a night of relieved sleep.

  • Speaking at IMEXFrankfurt 2022

    Speaking at IMEXFrankfurt 2022

    In first week of June, I got to go on my second trip to Germany with the GDSM, this time to speak about Regenerative Events with my colleague Milda (photos above and below, but sadly no video). I also got the chance to speak with students at the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum roundtables and snuck in a quick chat with Rachel Moore over at Hubilo about legacy events (full interview below).

    My 15min chat with Rachel Moore

    After a three-year hiatus, IMEXFrankfurt was back in action and in person. It wasn’t my first tradeshow, but a first IMEX experience can feel like one. I loved how the map was available on the floor when entering the show floor section, and the inspiration hub contained rooms with headsets for people to block out other sounds and home in on your talk. The inspiration hub hosted more events than I could attend, but I did my best to take part in some campfires (small group huddles) and talks surrounding sustainability and events.

    For our talk, Milda and I weren’t sure what to expect when only one person showed up just one minute before our start time, but five minutes in we had a full house of listeners who stayed until the end. A very good sign that a) Regenerative events are a growing point of interest for event organisers and associations, and b) IMEXFrankfurt had pulled together the most relevant talks for their audiences. I actually recognised some people in the crowd from an EIC-led campfire chat the morning of our talk, and I was heartened to see them remember that we were speaking and showed up to stay till the end. Another thing about IMEX: The connections run a little deeper there.

    Sadly I didn’t get to see much of the city of Frankfurt, but between getting to meet lots of old and new acquaintances, glamming up for the gala night and eating the best spinach dumplings at the Munich stand, I think the visit was an overall success.

  • ICCIA Leadership Talks

    ICCIA Leadership Talks

    Today I was invited to speak at the ICCIA‘s “Leadership Talks” series on “Achieving Sustainable Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities.”

    I am grateful to have the chance to speak with such a diverse audience and alongside speakers like Randy Durband, Wiwik Mahdayani, and Amine Ahlafi. It’s a shame we didn’t have enough time for a bigger Q&A discussion at the end, but glad to be able to share more about our work.

  • Sustainability in practice with TMI

    Sustainability in practice with TMI

    Thanks to the talk I had with David Peacock in September, TMI called me back and asked if I could speak at a student webinar entitled “Sustainability in Practice: Tourists, SMEs, Residents, and Destinations Taking Responsibility for Change”. The talk was organized by Joyce Cawthorpe and Dr. Maeve Marmion, TMI Director of CPD and the Head of Department for Marketing, Tourism & Destinations at the University of Chester. Nick Lancaster, a professor at the University of Cumbria & Managing Director of Lancaster & Lancaster Ltd (a hospitality/tourism consultancy), was already confirmed to be one of the two speakers at this event, so it was really flattering that I was invited to be the other speaker.

    Nick Lancaster’s presentation focused on the reality of delivering day-to-day sustainable tourism within the Lake District National Park, while I focused on examples I’ve come across at the GDS-Movement.

    Watch the video here

    I picked out examples from our destinations…
    … and talked about the evolution we were seeing

    From my first talk as “the ‘greenest’ green consultant“‘ at the GDSM in September to this one in November, I had done so much with the team and been through the 2021 GDS-Index assessment and award season that I felt like I had so much to share. We were swimming in data and insights from 73 destinations that have submitted information on their sustainability practices, and everywhere I looked there was inspiration to be found. I spoke about how Skelleftea took a page out of Destination Fyn’s book (literally) by dedicating their sustainability guide to them; I shared how Helsinki uses inclusion in their report-turned-website; I even spoke about the Icelandverse TVC that promotes authentic experiences over virtual ones. The accelerated growth I experienced in my early months at the GDS-Movement culminated in so much information to share, and luckily I found out after that there was a good crowd to share it with too; Joyce told me that there were 43 named people on the call but some were university lecturers sharing their screen with students in a classroom so the talk might have reached a minimum of 60 to 70 people directly and several universities have requested the recording – so that’s my little contribution to sustainable tourism for 2021, hah. I hope someone in those numbers found something that resonated with them in the presentation.

  • Introducing UOWD business students to sustainable tourism

    Introducing UOWD business students to sustainable tourism

    I spoke with Dr. Norhayati’s business class at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) last about destination management and sustainable tourism. Dr. Norhayati designed a series of guest lectures for her capstone business courses where experts in different industries talk about how they’re integrating sustainability in their work. From social entrepreneur, sustainable finance/accounting and fashion, I joined as the sustainable tourism guest lecturer.

    Watch the talk here

    (video password: 4xHW32DB)

    I love how she’s captured the intersecting and all-encompassing nature of sustainability across the different industries for her students, as that’s something I wish I was exposed to more as a bachelors student.

    Because Dr. Norhayati gave me a generous time slot to go over the subject matter (and because her students were already familiar with many of the concepts of sustainability), I had fun organizing the talk to move from the current state of affairs into what I’m trying to do at the GDS-Movement.

    The overview of my talk

    I tried to drive home the message that tourism doesn’t have to be this awful thing that happens to beautiful fragile places that displace and exploits locals and their land, but that tourism could be a source of equity and good stewardship if properly managed and monitored.

    This is a topic that’s been researched and discussed extensively and exhaustively, but I still approach the idea with awe that instead of feeling guilty or forcefully turning a blind eye on your impact during your travels, perhaps your trips could actually leave a place better than you found it. I love the idea of travellers being welcomed and made to feel at home, and mutual respect and dignity are shown between both locals and visitors. This does happen on occasion, of course, but in my experience, the sad reality tends to skew more towards disrespectful and unaware tourists littering and disturbing disenfranchised locals. It’s an awful feeling to see (particularly in Bali or Thailand) waiters or bus drivers swallow their discontent as they see their jobs through in serving a boisterous group of unaware travellers. Seeing the inequity in Asian destinations and the negative impacts of tourism in my home country of Malaysia is what put me on the path of sustainable tourism in the first place (I may write more about this in another post).

    Tourism as a force for good

    You can watch the talk here. Password 4xHW32DB

  • Talking with David Peacock at the Tourism Management Institute (TMI)

    Talking with David Peacock at the Tourism Management Institute (TMI)

    Last September, I was talking to David Peacock about something work-related and ended up shooting the breeze about all the things I was learning at the GDS-Movement, and he said I should share my insights on a webinar he was speaking at. I was hesitant at first because I’d only been with the GDSM for three months, so I didn’t feel like I knew enough about the company to be talking about them publicly so soon. But he said that he wasn’t looking for an expert’s perspective, and I thought that’s great, I enjoy speaking unofficially as a non-expert. My CEO was all for it so I agreed.

    The poster for the talk

    The talk was titled “Sustainability: DMO‘s Must Take an Active Role or Face Irrelevance” hosted by the Tourism Management Institute (TMI) and you can watch part of the discussion here. We talked about how different DMOs approach (mis)managing their destinations by including sustainable practices and their resident’s opinions – or not, to their own detriment, now or later.

    Watch the video here

    Even if you haven’t listened to his podcast on the Future of Tourism, you can tell that David is an excellent interviewer and orator because he was able to draw out information from me and others in the session, and it turns out that I did know a few things after all (it’s always nice when your interviewer is able to extract info from you and make you look good).

    David Peacock doing his thing

    Still, the chance that I may misrepresent something from my new role lingered in the back of my mind, which resulted in a semi-permanent look of anxiety on my face throughout the webinar.

    “Even though I’m 99% sure of the things I’m saying, I hate that I can’t fact-check them while I’m speaking”

    It turned out to be a really fun and engaging experience, and Peacock moderated a Q&A discussion that got audience members from different DMOs sharing news about what they’re doing to transition to a more inclusive and sustainable future. My colleagues Rebecca and Jess were also part of the Q&A and shared their wisdom and insights too.

    Eventually, this cross-collaboration led to a highly-engaging discussion between my CEO Guy Bigwood and David Peacock. You can watch their interview below or listen to the podcast episode on Spotify.