Former CEO Sabre and CIO of American Airlines to talk about the future of the tourism business

Right after Kilimanjaro, Kathy Misunas will climb Vitosha Mountain on 19th March 2011

The agenda of the international ‘Trends & Innovation Travel Distribution & Investment Summit’ – includes various panels that Kathy Misunas will be participating on. The event will be held between between March 15th till 17th 2011 in the Sheraton Hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria. On the last day of the conference, the legendary NASA astronaut Story Musgrave will be presenting his photo collection of Earth from Space and the Cosmos http://www.lannistoria.com/afs-show.htm as well as the Future of Space Tourism. Dr. Musgrave is recognized by millions of people as one of the most inspiring individuals you can meet today.

The summit will address the newest travel trends, online technologies and share best practices, and Kathy who has significant experience in executive management, keen interest in global enterprise and a profound understanding of distribution and product automation solutions will be participating on numerous panels and discussing these topics. Kathy will share her vision of the online travel market and will reveal details of some of the hot new travel industry start-ups business models. She will participate on the Jury for the travel innovation awards competition and participate on an investor panel and explain the process of raising money from both strategic and financial investors and who are the players making acquisitions.

Kathy Misunas is a 30 year travel technology veteran and former CEO of Sabre Group, CEO of Reed Travel Group and CIO at American Airlines. She is currently a partner with Terry Jones in Essential Ideas. (Terry Jones founded and was CEO of Travelocity and founder of Kayak.) Kathy has spent the last six years assisting young and established companies through advisory services, Board Directorships, lecturing and speaking engagements, and temporary management assignments. She currently acts as a principal of Essential Ideas, a consultancy specializing in the global travel and tourism, consumer retailing and marketing communications fields. More info on Kathy can be found http://www.essentialideas.com/html/kathy.html.

Besides her experience in travel, Kathy is famous for her passion in the Eco lifestyle and sports. In spite of her numerous professional activities, she is a marathoner and mountain hiker and took part in the New York marathon in 2010 and she has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Kathy will participate in the Vitosha Mountain winter hike on 19th March 2011 (Saturday). The hike is organized as a parallel event to the conference ‘Trends & Innovation Travel Distribution & Investment Summit’. We welcome everyone who is up to the challenge to join us.

More info on the Summit can be found at http://www.eCommerceAcademy.net/