2025 Women in Travel & Hospitality Conference
July 17 Agenda
8:30 - 9:15 AM
Provence Room
Arrival & Welcome Experience / Breakfast
We open not with urgency, but with intention.
This first gathering is designed to ease you into the day’s frequency—one of clarity, creativity, and conscious connection.
Light instrumental music, natural aromatics, and locally curated refreshments offer a sensory transition into presence.
There is no noise here. No branding walls. No performance.
Only space to land, breathe, and begin.
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, this is your invitation to arrive fully, not just physically, but energetically.
Before we speak, we listen. Before we gather, we ground.
9:15 - 10:15 AM
Opening Remarks
Sponsored by Greenberg Traurig
Ariela Kiradjian, Partner & COO, BLLA
Ariela and featured voices will open the gathering with a grounding articulation of the theme:
The Age of Aquarius—a time marked by consciousness, collaboration, and creative disruption.
This is not a call to be inspired.
It’s a call to remember why we are here.
To lead with clarity.
To dismantle what no longer serves.
And to build something deeper than status, scale, or spectacle.
Together, we’ll explore what it means to gather not as individuals seeking motivation, but as a collective shaping a new blueprint for travel, hospitality, and leadership itself.
This is not the beginning of a program. It is the beginning of a shift.
10:15 - 10:50 AM
Workshop: Identity, Distilled
Sponsored by Segafredo Zanetti
Melissa Maher, CEO & Founder, Pinnacle Enterprises Group
10:50 - 11:20 AM
The Architect’s Mindset
Sponsored by Nestle Premium Waters
Andrea Sheehan, Principal & Art Director, Dawson Design Associates
In the Age of Aquarius, leadership is not reactive—it is designed.
This panel explores how visionary women are not just shaping spaces but engineering the frameworks that will sustain the future of hospitality.
We’ll look beyond aesthetics to examine how structure—organizational, cultural, financial, and spatial—becomes a tool for transformation.
From reimagining legacy systems to building regenerative business models, these leaders aren’t simply maintaining the industry.
They’re rewriting its foundation.
This is not about designing hotels.
It’s about designing what hospitality can become.
11:20 - 12:10 PM
The Circle of Influence
A beloved tradition within the TIEWN and BLLA community, the Circle of Influence offers an intimate and high-impact alternative to traditional networking.
In this session, each guest selects a themed table that resonates most deeply with their current path, whether it’s creative expansion, operational strategy, personal evolution, or legacy-building.
Each circle is led by a seasoned mentor who guides thoughtful, grounded discussions among a small group of peers.
This is not about quick connections.
It’s about aligned conversation.
Focused inquiry.
And the kind of brainstorming that sparks clarity, not overwhelm.
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, we gather in circles—where hierarchy dissolves and influence is shared, not performed.
Session #1: Capital & Consciousness with Angela Bessard of CCMI
A discussion on aligned capital—how to manage personal credit and finances without compromising values. We’ll explore how clarity, confidence, and intentionality can reshape your financial story—turning money into a tool for sovereignty, not stress.
Session #2: The Invisible Brand with Kris Potter of The Potter Co
A look at subtle identity, trust-building, and branding in the age of authenticity. This session explores how intuitive branding—often felt more than seen—can create resonance, loyalty, and quiet power in a noisy world.
Session #3: The Creator’s Lense with Sarah Dandashy of Ask a Concierge
A conversation on how traveler-creators are reshaping trust, influence, and destination storytelling through lived experience and authentic connection. We’ll explore how content born from real journeys—not algorithms—has the power to shift perception, inspire movement, and redefine authority in the travel space.
Session #4: Heritage Through the Senses with Jersey Banks of Urban Cowboy
How do we modernize heritage properties without stripping them of their soul? This roundtable explores how sound, scent, and texture can be used as storytelling tools—inviting guests not just to stay in a space, but to feel its legacy. It’s a conversation about preservation through presence, memory through design, and how sensorial intelligence can carry tradition into the future.
Session #5: Future Tools, Ancient Values with Karin Mast of Miles Partnership and Esra Calvert of Esra Calvert
A conversation on how AI prompting and emerging tech are transforming travel—enabling deeper personalization, intuitive service, and storytelling that honors both innovation and tradition. We’ll explore how technologists and storytellers alike can wield these tools with discernment, elevating human connection rather than replacing it.
Session #6: The New Age of Leadership with Trinity Rose of Rituel Retreats
This intimate circle explores how modern leadership is shifting—from control to collaboration, from performance to presence. Together, we’ll discuss how to lead with both heart and precision, weaving emotional intelligence, strategic clarity, and embodied wisdom into every decision. It’s a space for visionary women to reflect on what it means to build, lead, and scale in alignment with both their values and their nervous systems.
12:10 - 12:35 PM
Experiences as the New Currency of Travel
Sponsored by RevPar Media
Sarah Dandashy, Founder, Ask a Concierge / Sarah Ward-Smith, Principal Client Partner, TripAdvisor
In an era defined by emotional intelligence and inner transformation, travel is no longer about escape—it’s about resonance.
This conversation explores how experience has become the new metric of value in hospitality.
Not just what guests consume, but how they feel, remember, and evolve through what you create.
We’ll explore how immersive, emotionally literate design shapes memory.
How trust is built through authenticity.
And how women are leading the movement toward hospitality that connects, heals, and awakens.
In the Age of Aquarius, experience isn’t a marketing strategy—it’s a medium for meaning.
12:35 - 2:00 PM
The Belonging Table: Lunch
This is not a networking lunch.
It’s a ritual of alignment.
Guests are thoughtfully seated based on synergy—shared values, complementary stages of growth, and mutual creative potential.
Each table serves as a temporary constellation, anchored by subtle prompts designed to spark conversation around legacy, reinvention, emotional intelligence, and future vision.
The food is locally sourced, the seating is carefully curated, and the atmosphere invites more than just connection.
It invites recognition.
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, we gather not to impress, but to remember who we are—together.
2:00 - 2:40 PM
Rewriting the Wealth Narrative
Sponsored by Greenberg Traurig / BLLA
Angela Bessard, CEO, CCMI / Boryana Zamanoff, Senior Wealth Strategist, BNY Mellon / Kennon Klein-McCarthy, SVP, Bank of America
This session is an invitation to rethink wealth, not as accumulation but as authorship.
For women who have built success, the next step isn’t more—it’s meaning.
We’ll explore the architecture of financial independence through a deeply personal and strategic lens, focusing on estate planning, asset protection, and legacy design.
This is not about scarcity or hustle. It’s about alignment, discernment, and sovereignty.
How do we ensure our wealth reflects our values?
How do we plan for the future without compromising the present?
And how do we reclaim financial strategy as a creative, intentional act?
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, we approach money not as power but as possibility.
2:40 - 3:20 PM
Community, Creativity, and Coming Together
Sponsored by Miles Partnership / The Potter Co
Kim Marshall, Co-Founder, S'Well PR / Lynn Bruni-Perkins, EVP & Chief Marketing Officer, San Francisco Travel Association /
Patti MacJennett, SPV, Business Affairs, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board
What does it mean to lead a destination through transformation—not just economically, but energetically?
This panel brings together a powerful group of women shaping the future of tourism, from global travel brands to major city marketing organizations.
In a world redefined by disruption, these leaders are designing with nuance, re-centering community, and rebuilding narratives from the inside out.
With deep experience across public relations, international travel, and civic storytelling, they’ll share how destinations like Los Angeles and San Francisco are evolving—not just to attract visitors, but to serve their people, cultures, and futures. From creative recovery to global visibility, from local storytelling to Olympic-scale strategy.
This is a conversation about what place-based leadership looks like in the Age of Aquarius: collaborative, intuitive, regenerative.
3:20 - 3:45 PM
The Rise of Solo Travel
Sponsored by Nestle Premium Waters
Ariela Kiradjian, Partner & COO, BLLA / Maya Tokhalyan, Founder, Travel Guru / Barbara Beckley
This isn’t a market trend—it’s a cultural awakening.
As more women choose to travel alone, they’re not just seeking destinations; they're also seeking experiences.
They’re seeking deeper versions of themselves.
This session explores how solo travel has become a mirror for personal sovereignty, spiritual inquiry, and embodied freedom.
We’ll examine how the hospitality industry must evolve to serve this self-directed guest, from safety and spatial design to booking flows, emotional tone, and energetic permission.
In the Age of Aquarius, travel is no longer about escape. It’s about coming home to yourself.
3:45 - 4:05 PM
The Business of Being Well
Sponsored by The Potter Co / BLLA
Ali Krupnik, Founder, My Well Co / Taylor Lamb, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder, JUNA
Wellness has been commodified, flattened, and branded into oblivion. But the question remains:
How do we stay well while building, leading, and navigating a world that constantly asks for more?
This panel brings together founders who didn’t just follow the wellbeing trend—they shaped it.
These are women creating practices, platforms, and products that reject burnout culture and offer a different path—one built on clarity, embodiment, and energetic integrity.
4:05 - 4:35 PM
Afternoon Reset
In a culture of constant output, rest becomes a radical act.
This interlude is designed as a quiet return to self-a spacious, sensory reset that allows the body to integrate, the mind to clear, and the nervous system to soften.
Guided by sound, scent, and elemental cues, this moment invites a shift in tempo before we move into the final stretch of the day.
There is no agenda.
No content.
Just conscious stillness.
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, this is where clarity emerges—not through doing, but through being.
4:35 - 5:05 PM
Hospitality in the Age of Intelligence
Sponsored by Miles Partnership
Karin Mast, Senior Vice President, Miles Partnership, Esra Calvert, Founder & Chief Insights Officer, Esra Calvert
AI isn’t on the horizon—it’s already embedded in your inbox, your systems, and the invisible decisions shaping your teams.
In this candid and necessary conversation, we move past the hype to ask: Who’s really in control?
This panel cracks open the black box of artificial intelligence in hospitality—from predictive service and automation to personalization ethics and digital sovereignty.
But more importantly, it centers the role of emotionally intelligent, visionary women in leading this technological shift with discernment and clarity.
This is not about resisting innovation.
It’s about reclaiming agency. Asking better questions.
And ensuring that in a world of increasing automation, the soul of hospitality—human connection—is never an afterthought.
In the Age of Aquarius, intelligence isn’t just artificial. It’s intuitive, ethical, and designed for wholeness.
5:05 - 5:30 PM
Fireside Dialogue: Courage and Connection
Sponsored by Segafredo Zanetti
Junisa Fondeur, Founder, Zviand / Ariela Kiradjian, Partner & COO, BLLA / Jersey Banks, Founder/CEO, Urban Cowboy Hotels
In a world that often rewards performance over presence, true courage takes on a different form.
This dialogue explores how high-level women leaders are reshaping power, not through dominance, but through discernment.
We’ll explore the less-visible dimensions of leadership: boundary-setting as a strategic act, emotional clarity as a decision-making tool, and connection as a force multiplier, not a liability.
This isn’t about becoming fearless. It’s about becoming whole, leading from a place that honors intuition, vulnerability, and self-trust.
In the Age of Aquarius, courage is no longer loud. It’s precise, grounded, and unapologetically human.
5:30 - 6:30 PM
Ending Circle
Sponsored by RevPar Media
Ariela Kiradjian, Partner & COO, BLLA / Shannon Kim, Founder & CEO, Self Love Tea / Christina Wakefield, Founder / Trinity Rose, Rituel
In TIEWN tradition, we don’t end with a keynote—we end in a circle.
This final gathering is where we reconnect with one another.
After a day of insight, transformation, and energetic shift, we return—not to wrap up, but to ground in what we’ve moved through together.
The circle is a place where we can witness and be witnessed.
To share what cracked open.
What surprised us?
What we’re taking with us into the next chapter of our leadership, our creativity, our lives.
This isn’t group therapy.
It’s collective integration.
A soft landing.
A sacred space where hierarchy dissolves and something new becomes possible—not just for the individual, but for the collective we’re building.
In the spirit of the Age of Aquarius, how we close matters.
It shapes how we walk out.
What we remember.
What we carry forward.
The sessions may end here. But the resonance begins now.
6:35 - 8:00 PM
Mid-Summer Party
As the sun begins to set, we transition into something lighter. The day has asked much of us—presence, curiosity, honesty.
Now, we exhale together.
This is our midsummer celebration.
An open-air gathering with flowing wine, seasonal bites, and warm music in the background.
No programming.
No prompts.
Just time to unwind, laugh, and connect as women who’ve shared something real.
The atmosphere is casual, beautiful, and alive—set among the gardens and golden light of late afternoon.
Come as you are.
Stay as long as you like.
Let this be the soft landing to a powerful day.
This isn’t the end. It’s the afterglow.