Help us shape the future of hospitality.

Céline Vadam is a living and breathing example of how powerful and empowering living a healthy life could be. She brings her experience in hotel and resort development, as well as her genuine passion for wellness, sustainability and innovation to the Hotel of Tomorrow project. Prior to establishing her concept advisory company, WE(i) Think, she was part of Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts efforts in increasing the brand’s presence in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, as well as accompanying its global strategy for F&B and Wellness operations and concepts.

With a passion for pioneering ideas and new approaches to hospitality experiences, Ron serves as the CIO at The Gettys Group Companies. Ron created the Hotel of Tomorrow^® Project, an industry-leading think tank that has brought together hundreds of companies for many years to envision the future of hospitality. The result has been innovation that can be found in hotels and restaurants throughout the world. His vision also led to the founding of Gettys ONE—our interior design group dedicated to branded hotels— and Outside Agency, our branding agency—where he leads brand creation and strategic thinking projects for boutique properties, large industry events and international brands. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been interviewed in countless publications for his hospitality, design and branding insights. Ron received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois. He is affiliated with the Hospitality Advisory Council at DePaul University, School of Hospitality Leadership. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France; EM Lyon in Paris; Haaga Helia University in Helsinki, Finland; and Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.

Adam Kubryk is widely considered to be the 4th leading chair salesman in the Continental United States. He has sold chairs in-person, via email, the telephone, fax, and even the chat feature of Words with Friends™. These chairs have found their way to such exotic locales as Papa New Guinea, Myanmar, and Canada and have been sat on by U.S. Presidents, the judges from American Idol, and (at least) 4 sumo wrestlers. Adam was voted “Most likely to be richer than Bill Gates” by his 8th grade classmates; they were mistaken. In his spare time Adam likes sitting, rolling Task Chairs down a slight hill, and dancing the Hora at weddings.

Gertie Harris is the Founder of Fireside at Five — a community-driven programming, placemaking, and activation collective out of Denver, Colorado that marries experience with impact. Fireside at Five works with local brands and organizations to educate, inspire and mobilize through intentional placemaking, experiential events, dynamic marketing, and impactful storytelling. Gertie grew up in Chicago and attended The University of Denver before making a career in hospitality, development, and marketing. Prior to Fireside, Harris worked with Sage Hospitality (Oxford, Crawford, Maven hotels), Denver Union Station, Larimer Square, and Dairy Block. Harris’ passion for placemaking started with the desire to bring people together for shared experiences that gave back to the communities they were going into.

Chad Reynolds is the CEO of Vurvey & Batterii,  platforms helping brands create with their customers. Used by companies like Adidas, Lowe’s, and Unilever, Batterii merges research, ideation, and video feedback loops to enable end-to-end innovation. Chad is a graduate of University of Cincinnati’s DAAP Program and also a co-founder of Ocean, a high-tech accelerator that’s launched over 40+ start-ups from 12 different countries.

With a practice spanning across two decades, Marquise Stillwell’s journey began with a curiosity for people and spaces that later developed into a passion for designing systems that make all environments better for everyone. In 2009, Marquise founded Openbox—a design and research studio based in New York City that works at the intersection of people and systems. Within Openbox, he later co-founded Opendox, a film company that tells lesser-known narratives around art, science, nature, and politics. He believes that we can help inform the future of cities by thinking about people first, and buildings and objects second. Under this framework, he co-founded Deem Journal, a collaboration between Openbox and Room for Magic. Seeking to investigate a new horizon in the overlap of fine art and tech, Marquise co-founded Artmatr, an international community of artists and engineers working to merge digital technology with painting methods. Marquise believes that coastal resilience and climate change are social justice issues leading him to co-found Urban Ocean Lab with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jean Flemma. Additionally, Marquise serves as a board member for Pioneer Works, The Lowline Underground Park, and the Center for Architecture and on advisory boards for Creative Capital and Riverkeeper. He is also a member of the High Line Advisory Committee and a fellow at Urban Design Forum.

A veteran in the hospitality industry, much of her experience comes from working for global design agencies to develop and promote award winning brands such as Tru by Hilton and Tempo by Hilton.

Kelli’s well known for a bountiful positive energy, high-level organizational skills, and her mad dancing moves.

Damon’s experience in hospitality stretches among some of the best brands in the world. A graduate of Howard University, Damon first began his hospitality journey in the nation’s capital as a front desk agent for the Thompson Hotel Group’s Donovan House Hotel in Midtown DC. From there, Damon moved within management ranks at companies such as Ritz Carlton, Intercontinental Hotel Group & Dusit Thani International for a career than spans over a decade. After witnessing a lack of African American representation in brand ownership and leadership, Damon created the Homage Hospitality brand in 2018 and oversees operations and creative direction. Since launch Damon has won Boutique Design’s Up & Coming Hotelier of the Year in 2019 and followed it up with a Gold Key award the same year for The Best Emerging Hotel Concept from Hospitality Design for their New Orleans property The Moor. With Hotels slated in Albany, GA, New Orleans and Memphis, Damon looks to take the Homage brand to new heights.

Michelle Finn is vice president, Boutique Design Group, Emerald. In this role, she oversees the management and development of its hospitality and related brands, which encompasses Boutique Design, Boutique Design Trade Fair (BDNY) held on an annual basis in New York City, Boutique Design Forum Series, Boutique Design Match, Boutique Design Product Symposium and Senior Lifestyle Design Match.  Finn has received numerous awards for innovation in trade fair development, publishing, leadership and service. She is a member of the Hospitality Industry Network (NEWH), Boutique Lifestyle and Lodging Association (BLLA) and the International Society of Hospitality Purchasers (ISHP).

Melissa is joining the Hotel of Tomorrow® Project for a second year. She is passionate about the hospitality industry because of the shared and memorable experiences hotels provide. She has industry experience across accommodation types from Hilton to independent brands, and vacation rentals. In those opportunities she worked across strategy, finance, and investing function.

Melissa is full of excitement for the industry and challenging herself. Melissa received her B.A, from Cornell University and holds and MBA from University of Chicago Booth.

Andrew Benioff is the Founder and Chairman of the Independent Lodging Congress focusing on idea generation for the hospitality, travel and lifestyle sectors.

Mr. Benioff has 15 years’ experience in the operation and management of luxury hotels. He has held management and executive level positions at Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, Nikko Hotels International, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in the U.S., and a traditional Ryokan (Inn) in Atami, Japan. Mr. Benioff is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Llenrock Realty Partners an Indie Hospitality development and investment firm. Mr. Benioff previously served as managing partner and head of the hospitality and leisure finance group at a Philadelphia-based real estate investment-banking company.

Dan Ryan is the founder and CEO of Agency 967 and host of the Defining Hospitality Podcast.  Dan has worked in all facets of the hospitality industry, including design, purchasing, and manufacturing since age 19. Agency 967 is a company that provides the best furniture solutions to the top hotels in the world.

Dan loves what he does and is as passionate about his work today as he was when he first started. He takes great pleasure in traveling around the world with his family and alongside his customers as they open their hotels loving the journey every step of the way.

Lama went to the Beaux-Arts in Beirut, Lebanon, her native country, where she was trained to become an Art Director and Web Designer. After she went to Florence, Italy to specialize in industrial design. In 2018, she decided to venture in a master’s degree in culinary leadership and innovation at the Institute Paul Bocuse in Lyon, the capital of gastronomy to fully develop her passion for food and hospitality.

Lama has more than 10 years of experience in art direction and product design. Now, combined with her culinary know-how, she’s been working with many start-ups, in France, Switzerland, Lebanon and Amsterdam and has assisted in running design and culinary workshops at the Institute Paul Bocuse.

She is joining The Hotels of Tomorrow^® project to be part of envisioning the future of the hospitality industry along with students, teachers and academic institutions.

Roger G. Hill II is Chairman and CEO of The Gettys Group Companies, a leading hospitality design, procurement, branding, and development firm he helped to co-found in 1988. Roger has regularly contributed to publications and media outlets, including Bloomberg TV, Crain’s Chicago, Hospitality Design, Boutique Design, Hotel Business and The Wall Street Journal. His achievements have earned him several accolades, including Hospitality Design Magazine’s prestigious Platinum Circle Award, praising his exceptional achievement in the hospitality design industry, and The Cornell School of Hotel Administration Innovator of the Year award. In addition to numerous speaking engagements, he has served as an appointed delegate for the White House Conference on Small Business, and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Cornell University’s Hotel School. In 2020, he championed the re-launch of the global think tank, Hotel of Tomorrow, updated to meet the needs of today’s reality.

David Weinstein is NVIDIA’s Director of XR (VR/AR), focusing on developing XR products to accelerate and enhance immersive experiences.  David is responsible for communicating NVIDIA’s XR product portfolio to customers and partners, and for internally aligning NVIDIA XR products with market opportunities. David frequently presents at tech events and authors articles and blogs to communicate the value of NVIDIA’s XR solution stack — from hardware, through SDK’s, to end-user applications. Prior to joining NVIDIA, David launched and ran several technology start-up companies that developed visual analytic services for medical and seismic imaging verticals. David holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah, and Bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Founder and Creative Director at Bright Bright Great and Avondale Type Co. Partner at Yorky Schwartz. Lover of Grateful Dead, comic books, and dessert for breakfast.

Maxwell Luthy is the former Director of Trends & Insights at TrendWatching and author of Trend-Driven Innovation. In 2020, he ditched giving keynotes on emerging trends and is now designing future scenarios in Virtual Reality (Origami Air) and nuking the beverage industry (Plink).

Matt Phillips is President of Phillips & Co., a Chicago-based innovation consultancy. The firm’s strategists and researchers help clients invent new products, services and experiences. Their clients include Paramount Pictures, Dell, The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and an array of leading hospitality brands.

Matt was also a co-founder of the Hotel of Tomorrow Project with Gettys in 2004.

Matt holds an MBA from Kellogg and is a graduate of The Second City’s conservatory program in improv.

Paul is the CEO and Founder of Creative Development a dream realization company that literally transforms the dreams and visions of Owners and Developers into reality by taking ideas from concept to completion creating turnkey experiential built environments for entertainment concepts, resorts, hospitality, luxury estates, yachts and jets. Paul is a passionate champion and thought leader and his talents with immersive storytelling are spellbinding. Paul garnered world-wide acclaim as the Producer responsible for realizing the creative vision of the Harry Potter books and films into a theme park environment in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Resorts, Paul magically crafted the most financially successful attraction of all time. Having honed his craft as an Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of The Walt Disney Company that designs and builds Disney’s theme parks and resort hotels, Paul is all about the story, the guest experience and what is next.

An Australian native who now proudly calls Chicago home, Andrew is the President and co-founder of The Gettys Group Companies, where he has spearheaded three decades of growth for this groundbreaking and award-winning global hospitality interior design, procurement, branding and development firm. Propelled by Andrew’s dynamic leadership style and global sensibilities, The Gettys Group Companies has grown to include offices in the Americas, Asia Pacific and the Middle East

By leveraging Andrew’s diverse background in design, hotel operations, real estate finance and branding, The Gettys Group Companies has established a worldwide reputation for its innovative and creative approach to the design and development process. The firm has also earned rankings among the top global hospitality design and procurement firms while completing hospitality projects throughout the world.

An honors graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Andrew is a noted industry speaker who is frequently engaged to share his expertise and insight about the hospitality industry, business strategy and global trends. His is a member of the Boutique & Lifestyle Leaders Association Board and he is also active with a number of civic groups in Chicago and across the United States. In 2019, he was awarded the Cornell Hotel School’s prestigious Hospitality Innovator Award. In 2020, he championed the re-launch of the global think tank, Hotel of Tomorrow, updated to meet the needs of today’s reality.

Bill Fishkin is the Co-Founder / CEO of Theia Interactive a visualization focused software and solutions company. Prior to Theia Bill’s been a digital strategist with 20+ years of experience and has worked with a myriad of clients from The Carlyle Group to Caesars Entertainment.