GNEX 2021 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

GNEX 2021 is proud to be the first IN PERSON industry event that brings our extended family back together again!
After such an unprecedented impact on our industry, there has never been a more important time to come together and learn how to recover and rebuild stronger, so we’ve curated a feature-packed schedule for you. Check out our speaker line-up below, from The Boardroom and Expo LIVE! to our renowned X-TALKS and a fun interactive workshop. Also check out this full schedule.

INDUSTRY LEADER PANEL

THE BOARDROOM: Road To Recovery Unique to GNEX, this compelling session returns as the “ultimate” meeting of minds. This year, the audience once again gets a fly-on-the-wall experience as our C-Suite industry experts conduct a round-table discussion on trending topics, including the unprecedented impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the travel sector, what they did to adapt, what worked and what didn’t and what the future holds now.
Jason Gamel President & CEO ARDA	Jorge Herrera Managing Director Unlimited Vacation Club	Mike Nelson CEO arrivia	Mark Waltrip COO Westgate Resorts
Robert Webb Partner BakerHostetler	Travis Bary COO Capital Vacations

EXPO LIVE!

Bringing The Networking Lounge Exhibitors To The Main Stage Hear from the innovative companies listed below as they try to impress you in just 5-minutes each with what their products and services could do for your business. Learn what’s out there that can help you improve, and then visit those that interest you in the Networking Lounge for more details.
Ericka Schwarm Director of Business Development Equiant	Bryan Rand President Holiday Systems International	Paul Mattimoe President & CEO INTUITION Brand Marketing	Steve Pentland CEO Light
Stephen Green Director of Sales SPI	Greg Minor CEO Vacations 4 You	Duane Lee CEO Vacation SafeGuard	Lino Maldonado President BeHome247

X-TALKS

X-TALKS are unique to GNEX Conferences; introducing high impact solo presentations that are just 10 minutes long each. These sessions enable us to provide a wide variety of session topics, packed with useful information without the waffle. Each speaker is carefully selected for their Xpertise, Xperience, or Xcellence regarding the topic they will speak about, hence X-TALKS. Attendees can easily drop in and out of the main conference room to see just the ones that interest them most, leaving more time for networking and planned meetings.

Richard Orchard
Founder
VantageRX Testing Solutions

How To Create A COVID Free Environment
The pandemic has disrupted the travel industry like never before, and even as signs of recovery are beginning to show, the return to pre-COVID occupancy levels will be reliant upon many new factors, including the safety measures implemented by resorts to make vacationers feel comfortable.Learn how you can turn this into an effective competitive advantage by harnessing the unique benefits of air purification and COVID testing at your resorts and sales centers.Richard Orchard is founder of VantageRX Testing Solutions, a distributor of COVID-19 rapid fingerstick Antibody, nasal swab Antigen and saliva PCR Tests. The company also provides the Vollara Air & Surface Pro, an air purification device with patented ActivePure Technology which was developed to protect astronauts on the NASA International Space Station. It is one of only 75 technologies that have been inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. Each unit fills up to a 3,000 sq. ft. area with safe oxidizing molecules that seek and destroy harmful pathogens and contaminants (including the SARS-CoV-2 virus) that are in the air—and on surfaces; and is being used in our GNEX Conference space!

Shawn Brydge
Executive Vice President
Wellington Financial

The Post Pandemic Economy
As the world begins to recover, how will the U.S. economy react to a booming real estate market, roaring stock market, and unprecedented government stimulus? We’ll look at where the economy was, where it is, and where it may be going; all with an eye toward how those changes will affect the hospitality and vacation ownership industries.Shawn Brydge is Executive Vice President at Wellington Financial, which has consistently provided financing to the vacation ownership industry since 1981; and since 1995 has worked with Liberty Bank as their exclusive Resort Finance correspondent, specializing in receivables hypothecation, inventory and development loans and have funded over $8.0 Billion through their group of lenders.

Greg Minor
Chief Executive Officer
Vacations 4 You

Closing The Social Distance With Social Media
Since the beginning of the pandemic everyone has looked for better ways to connect, engage, and network. With all the social distancing mandates throughout our country; families, businesses, teachers, and so many others were forced to find ways to feel connected with one another again. The most successful resource for those that have been prospering through the challenges of our “new normal” are those that embraced and empowered their creative side and closed the Social Distancing gap through finding connection through Facebook, Instagram, and many others! Greg is the founder and CEO of Vacations 4 You, which in just over 2 years has become one the premier Travel Membership companies in the industry. Based out of Nashville, Tennessee Greg is going to share how his organization shifted their way of operation through Social Media to allow them to thrive!

Shawn Harper
Former NFL Player / National Motivational Speaker

Play To Win – Creating A Winning Mindset In Business And In Life
If you are ready to win in business, in family, and in life, it all starts with the end in mind. On the path to winning, you’ll encounter challenges with people and circumstances, but as Shawn always says, “Winners focus on what they are going to, not on what they’re going through!”This session will inspire you to “PLAY TO WIN” by harnessing the vision, mindset, strategies, and teamwork needed to rise to your highest potential using some of the methods from Shawn Harper’s book, “The Winning Edge” which outlines his personal story of overcoming many obstacles to realize his purpose and manifest his dreams.Shawn Harper is a former NFL offensive lineman who played a total of seven seasons with the Rams, the Oilers, the Colts, and NFL Europe. Since 2004 he has owned and operated American Services and Protection, a growing multi-million-dollar security services firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. He uses many of the powerful lessons he learned in the NFL and strategically applies them in running his company. He is also the author of The Winning Edge: 8 Laws and Principles That Will Bring Out the Winner in You”.

R. Scott MacGregor
Senior Vice President, COO, Lemonjuice Solutions

The Next Chapter for Legacy Resorts, their Owners and Communities
More than three-quarters of US timeshare resorts are in their fourth or fifth decade of operation, and many were older properties to begin with. With them, their owners have aged and the world around them has changed in ways that were inconceivable when the project themselves were conceived. Covid-19 has added another dimension we are only beginning to comprehend. What’s next for “legacy” resorts and first generation of timeshare owners, and what does it mean for the timeshare industry?

Even more X-TALKS to be announced shortly…

INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP

Jim Madrid
Founder
Advance Sports Technology

So What If The World Stopped?
Throughout the conference there has been many references to the affect the pandemic has had on the travel industry, so to end the conference, this light-hearted and interactive session will take a leaf out of Jim Madrid’s book “GET OVER IT AND GET ON WITH IT” and rewind in history to before COVID-19 hit, to a time that the industry was booming, and ask a normally theoretical question of “What would your business do if overnight the world just stopped…?”Groups will discuss and compare thoughts on what they might have answered then, with what they would answer today now that it actually DID happen! Then share thoughts on what lessons have been learned that will help everyone to rebuild better, bigger, stronger, and what are the opportunities to do things different in the future?Jim Madrid is an expert in Human Performance and Leadership. From Fortune 500 Companies like Boeing, Nordstrom, St. Regis Resorts and Hotels, Mercedes Benz, Lexus Banco Santander, Oakley to professional sports teams like Seattle Sounders FC, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins, Utah Jazz, along with collegiate teams, Cal State Fullerton, Seattle U, UNLV, and now to youth sports clubs; Madrid and AST have helped organizations and individuals, achieve unprecedented, record-breaking results by their unique approach to “One Team, One Direction.”

Introducing Our 2021 Sponsors

Interested in sponsoring GNEX 2021 in Miami Beach? Download our Sponsorship Brochure.

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