Contributing editor to Tourism Australia, former Fairfax travel editor and award-winning former editor of Australia’s largest selling travel magazine Australian Traveller, Georgia Rickard is an established travel journalism expert with significant industry experience. On behalf of Tourism Australia’s official content agency, Storyation, she is currently the commissioning editor for australia.com, overseeing the editorial for stories seeded out to an audience upwards of 12 million. She contributes to a range of publications, which have included AFAR, The Sunday Times and the travel section of world’s biggest news site, BBC.com. In 2015 she oversaw content production on Tourism Australia’s latest global campaign, Coastal and Aquatic Australia and in 2016 became Australia’s contributing travel presenter for CNN, on behalf of Destination NSW. She is an Airbnb ‘Insider’ and has previously consulted to Airbnb’s US offices.
Deemed ‘Australia’s first professional instagrammer’ by national media, Lauren Bath pioneered the Australian influencer industry. She has an impressive client list, having worked with global destination marketing bodies including Tourism Australia, Switzerland Tourism, Tourism South Africa, Tourism New Zealand, Canadian Tourism Commission, Visit California and Visit Dubai, as well as many major brands such as The Plaza New York, Travel Insurance Direct, VAIL Resorts, Helloworld, Intrepid Travel, Visa Australia, Australia Post and Moët & Chandon. With a dedicated audience of close to half a million followers (464,000 at last count), she is not only one of Australia’s most powerful travel instagrammers but a savvy social media consultant, who provides ongoing campaign management, consultancy and education to several major industry bodies. In 2015 she was a Finalist in the Gold Coast Women in Business Awards in the “Women for Change” category. She has been featured in Travel + Leisure, Daily News, News.com.au and Mashable, among many others.
Liz Carlson is the founder of the world’s top travel blogs, Young Adventuress. An American based in New Zealand, she has been labeled “the future of New Zealand tourism” by national press. Having built one of largest, most engaged independent traveller audiences on earth, with a readership of 500,000 dedicated followers (not including her 180,000-strong Instagram following), she is a TEDx speaker, a BBC contributor and was recently invited to interview famed ethologist Jane Goodall on her upcoming tour. Liz and her work has been featured on New York Times, Huffington Post, Forbes, Buzzfeed and CNN, and in 2016 she was awarded silver travel blog of the year by the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA). She was honored by the Society of American Travel Bloggers the same year. Her blog has labeled named the top travel blog in New Zealand. She also runs New Zealand’s top Instagram account.