This Destination Pilbara - Warlu Way Tourism Conference was held on the 4th & 5th April in Karratha.
Tuesday, April 4th
The Conference Venue is the Red Earth Arts Precinct in Karratha, registration and coffee & tea will be available from 8.00am.
Take advantage in this time to view the displays from the local tourism businesses in the REAP loby.
8:30am - 12:15pm - morning plenary session
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Welcome to Country
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Barry Harrison Chair Pilbara Tourism Association
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Ms.Jessica Shaw MLA Secretary to the Deputy Premier; Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade; Hydrogen Industry; Tourism; Science
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Mayor Peter Long 'City of Karratha’s commitment to tourism development’
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Australian Government Rep (to be announced)
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Kym Francesconi Chair Australia's North West Tourism 'Pilbara Tourism Marketing Outlook'
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Melissa Forbes Executive Director Marketing Tourism WA -'Leveraging Walking on a Dream branding and marketing'
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Matt Lang Keynote speaker: COO of G'day Group 'Diversifying your brand and product to create new markets’
More information on presenters here
12:15pm - 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm - 5:00pm
Breakout Sessions
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1 Visitor Experiences Stream: examines how operators and businesses can improve the quality of their product
‘Crafting an engaging interpretive story’ - presented by Russell Boswell, Savannah Guides
‘Harnessing the power of Social Media’ - presented by Jessica Cartwright, Big Head Digital
'Let's get the show on the road' - panel discussion with representatives from WAITOC, Tourism WA, PDC, PTA,KDCCI, & Business Local
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2 Visitor Services Stream: outlines strategies to grow the visitor economy to tourism administration and support officers.
'Emerging trends in visitor servicing’ - presented by Linda Tillman, Tilma Group
‘Dark Skies and Natural Phenomena as niche market tourism’ - presented by Carol Redford, Astrotourism WA
'Benefits of Regional events'- presented by Linda Tillman, Tilma Group
More information about presenters here
5:30pm - 8:30pm - Networking Function, The Shelf at Red Earth Arts Precinct
Included for all delegates
Wednesday April 5th
Local attractions: we have included 2 tour options so you can experience some of the local attractions:
Your choice of tours are:
8.30am - 12.00md
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Tour 1 World Heritage Nominated Murujuga National Park cultural rock art guided tour, Dampier, Burrup and resources
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Tour 2 Roebourne, Historic Cossack, Coastal Point Samson, Grateful Remanantas craft studio, Wangaba Aboriginal art gallery
Included for all delegates
Workshop Program
The Pilbara Tourism Association is providing a series of tourism workshops pre & post the conference. We invite all tourism businesses to take advantage of these excellent workshops designed to improve your business and guiding skills.
These workshops are FREE and available to members and non members, but spaces are limited and bookings are essential.
Find out more about the Destination Pilbara Warlu Way Tourism Conference and workshops HERE
Accommodation available in Karratha click HERE
Event Sponsors
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The Presenters
Plenary Session Presenters
Ms Jessica Shaw MLA
Parliamentary Secretary for the Deputy Premier; Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade; Hydrogen Industry; Tourism; Science
Jessica Shaw is the Member for Swan Hills in the WA Legislative Assembly. Prior to entering politics, Jessica had a successful career in the private sector. She was a commercial executive in the energy industry before being elected at the 2017 State Election. Jessica is focused on delivering employment and commercial opportunities for local workers and small businesses in the construction trades, tourism industry, retail and services sectors.
Peter Long
Mayor - City of Karratha
Peter has a passion for the natural environment, and continues to focus on ensuring economic and environmental sustainability in the work he carries out today as Mayor of the City of Karratha.
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Tarsh Mahar
CEO Australia's North West Tourism
Natasha Mahar is the CEO of Australia’s North West Tourism – the Peak Tourism Marketing & Management Organisation for the Kimberley and Pilbara region.
Tarsh began her career with Hilton International after completing tertiary studies in tourism and travel. After extensive overseas travel including a period in London working for companies from BHP to the Body Shop, she returned to Australia and established an award-winning corporate gifting business in Melbourne. ‘The Kimberley called’ over 14 years ago and Tarsh managed the Broome Visitor Centre for a few years before heading up Marketing & Business Development for The Great Escape Charter Company. Prior to starting with ANW she was both an elected and co-opted board member.
Matt Lang Keynote Speaker
Chief Operations Officer at G’day Group
Matt Lang is the Chief Operations Officer at G’day Group, Australia’s largest regional accommodation provider with more than 300 properties around the country.
With more two decades’ experience in senior finance, commercial and operations roles across a variety of industries including defence, aviation and tourism, Matt is a highly credentialed executive with a breadth of experience leading high performing teams in large and complex business environments.
Matt joined G’day Group in 2017, as Chief Financial Officer, and assumed a dual Executive portfolio in mid-2020. He has been responsible for leading the company’s multi-disciplinary Finance and Operations teams during a period of significant business growth that has seen the Group emerge as a billion-dollar business and Australia’s undisputed leader in regional travel experiences. Matt is also dedicated to stewarding G’day Group’s inaugural ESG strategy and oversees the Group’s ESG deliverables to ensure the company achieves its 40% carbon reduction target by 2030, on the path to net zero by 2050.
A Chartered Accountant for more than 30 years, in 2022 Matt was awarded Fellowship by Chartered Accountants and Australia and New Zealand for his outstanding career achievements and contributions to the profession. Matt completed his MBA through UNSW in 2008 and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He also spent more than eight years on the board Guide Dogs SA/NT.
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Melissa Forbes
A/Executive Director Marketing Tourism WA
Melissa Forbes is an innovative brand and marketing professional with nearly 20 years of experience leading multifunctional teams across the government, hospitality, tourism, and travel sectors. As an unashamed parochial enthusiast of her home state of Western Australia, Melissa’s career history has been centred on destination and tourism promotion. As Tourism WA’s Executive Director of Marketing, she leads the agency’s global marketing strategy, including the recent launch and implementation of the Walking on a Dream brand, with the objective of delivering increased leisure holiday visitation and spend to the State.
Conference Break-Out Session Presenters
Russell Boswell
Russell Boswell is the Manager of Savannah Guides, a network of over 500 Australian tour guides and tourism operators. He specialises in tourism experience development, marketing and interpretation. A former secondary and TAFE Ecotourism teacher, Russell delivers tourism training and business development projects across Australia.
Jessica Cartwright
Jessica Cartwright has run Big Head Digital for over 9 years and grown a small, dedicated, highly-skilled remote-team in Western Australia to help clients with their digital advertising and online strategy. Focused on delivering campaigns that don't just deliver traffic, they deliver results. This is because they create campaigns that focus on conversion & ROI, and in tourism that equates to real bookings and highly engaging campaigns.
They pride themselves on offering campaign options that work for large organisations and small & medium enterprises, too. As your private tour guide to the world of digital marketing for tourims brands, Jessica looks forward to sharing her love of digital with you, and helping your business grow online
Carol Redford
Carol Redford is the Founder of Astrotourism WA which works with 18 regional Local Governments to build the Dark Sky Tourism sector. Together they're creating a stargazing trail through Western Australia to grow regional tourism and, at the same time, protect WA’s world-class dark sky asset from light pollution.
Carol has international and interstate roles as a dark sky ambassador with the International Astronomical Union Dark Skies for All, the International Dark-Sky Association and the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance. She's activating Aboriginal Astronomy projects and leveraging the global media spotlight that will fall on WA when we witness a Total Solar Eclipse in April this year.
Linda Tillman
Managing Director of regional tourism development consultancy, Tilma Group
Linda has 15 years of extensive experience in holistic regional tourism planning and development in regional, rural and remote destinations.
Linda is a regional tourism and event strategist and practitioner whose expertise covers all facets of regional tourism development: product and experience development, strategic planning, destination management and marketing, regional branding, industry capacity building, and event management.
For seven years Linda was a director on the board of Australian Regional Tourism, there leading a national agritourism development project.
The Presenters
Free Workshops
In addition to the conference sessions and regional famils there will be a series of FREE pre and post conference workshops being held in Karratha and Roebourne. Workshops will cover a variety of topics such as Savannah Guides Aboriginal and Eco tour guiding, astrotourism, event development and management and social media.
Delivering exceptional visitor experiences
This workshop is pitched at tourism operators and visitor centres that deliver experiences – it will assist them in understanding the needs and expectations of their key visitor markets at each stage of the travel journey so that they can enhance the experience. In this hands-on workshop participants will be working through a customer journey mapping exercise.
Destination Pilbara Warlu Way Tourism Conference -
Accommodation Options
Karratha April 4 & 5 2023
Conference program information is available here.
Book your stay in Karratha with one of our quality member accommodation providers. Please contact accommodation providers directly to make your booking and advise you are attending the conference to receive their special rates.
Pilbara Tourism Association members
Luxury Apartment
from $245/night
Contact The Ranges direct and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference 1300 639 320
Variety of cabins available at 20% discount on rack rate
Book online at Discovery Parks Karratha and use conference code 23PILBARACONF to receive the discounted rate.
Or contact the Discovery Park direct and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference karratha@discoveryparks.com.au
Rates from $322/night Queen Room
Contact the Karratha International Hotel direct direct and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference email: reservations@kih.com.au
Phone +61 8 9187 3333
Other accommodation providers
Studio Room $219
Apartment $249
Contact the Karratha Central Apartments direct and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference +61 8 9143 9888
$159 / room + $75 / day meals
Contact the manager Jaimie Lyons and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference
manager@aspenkarrathavillage.com.au
+61 8 9185 2726
10% discount on rack rate
Contact the manager and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference email H1904@accor.com
or phone +61 8 9159 1000
Deluxe Queen rooms from $247
Contact the manager Darin and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference email bookings@velocitynw.com.au
or phone +61 8 9144 4444
Apartments from $259/night
Contact the manager Violet and mention you are attending the Warlu Way Conference phone +61 8 9144 0777
Pre & Post Conference Specials
If you are driving through the Pilbara to attend the conference there are some special offers for you on your journey, see below
10% off rack rate
Contact the station to make a booking and remember to say you are attending the Tourism Conference to get the special rates. email: cheelaplains@gmail.com
or phone 0435 633 008