Global Meeting & Incentive Planning Summit 2019 Event Speakers

Rhonda Brewer
Vice President, Sales North America BCD Meetings & Events l SITE President, 2015

With more than 30 years of MICE experience, Rhonda Brewer currently serves as the Vice President, Sales for North America at BCD Meetings & Events. Prior to joining BCD M&E, Brewer was an industry consultant. Her previous experience includes President of RMC, a destination management company, where she worked between 2016-2018 with overall accountability for 10 offices across the US and Mexico as well as business development, marketing and creative services. She also worked at Maritz Travel from 1990-2016, where she worked in almost every department gaining experience in Project Management, Operations, Business Development, Industry Relations; Strategy, Communications, Administration and Sales.

Brewer was the President for the SITE in 2015 and served on the Board of Directors for 6 years from 2012-2017. She is actively involved in SITE, helping with educational content, consulting with the Midwest chapter and worked on sponsorship for 2018 & 2019. Most recently she started the SITE Women in Leadership program and implemented Adviser in Action, a two-way mentor program. She also continues to volunteer on committees as she has for years.

Kevin Coffey
Travel Safety and Meeting Risk Expert

When it comes to educating the meeting and travel community on risk avoidance and response techniques, Detective Kevin Coffey is one of the country’s leading experts and has a unique background regarding travel and meeting risk. He speaks frequently at MPI, GBTA, SITE, and PCMA events around the globe.

He was employed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for over three decades, and recently retired as a highly decorated Detective Sergeant. Currently he is a trainer with the LAPD in a reserve capacity.

Kevin has also served on a prestigious multi-agency state task force that includes the FBI, as well as being an instructor at the University of Southern California’s Safe Communities Institute.

A pioneer in travel crime investigations, he founded the LAPD’s LAX Airport’s Crimes Investigations Detail and is passionate about teaching others how to avoid the pitfalls of travel, including travel and meeting crime, scams and identity theft.

During his career, he became an internationally recognized expert in the area of meeting and travel risk management and guides organizations to help them better address risk for their employees, as well as at their meetings and events. His clients include Fortune 500 companies plus small to mid-size organizations and associations.

Kevin has been featured on numerous TV appearances, including CNN, ABC’s “20/20”, “The Today Show”, Good Morning America, the Travel Channel, as well as Oprah. He is also the author of Traveler Beware – An Undercover Cop’s Guide to Pickpockets and Travel Scams.

Pádraic Gilligan
Chief Marketing Officer
SITE, and Managing partner, SoolNua

Pádraic Gilligan is managing partner at Soolnua, a marketing agency working with destinations, venues and hosts, and chief marketing officer at SITE.
Prior to founding SoolNua, Gilligan was vice president of Ovation, MCI’s global DMC network, and vice president of industry relations at MCI. Pádraic holds BA and MA degrees in Italian and English literature from University of Dublin and a post-graduate diploma in marketing from Boston College. Following a 13-year career in education, he started Delaney Marketing Consultants in 1994 with Patrick Delaney. In 2002, Delaney Marketing acquired Ovation and re-branded as Ovation Group. In June 2007, Ovation was acquired by MCI Group and commenced a robust global expansion program establishing offices at 100 global destinations unfder the Ovations DMC brand. In 2004, he was elected to the International Board of SITE and served as international president in 2008. Gilligan also currently serves on the Hospitality Partners Advisory Council at FICP, on the advisory board of The Special Event and on the board of the SITE Foundation.

Rebecca Steiner
Director, Business Development
Motivation Excellence

Rebecca has been in the incentive industry for 30+ years and is currently Director, Business Development at Motivation Excellence Inc. in Schaumburg, IL. As an Engagement Solution Leader at Motivation Excellence, she has the privilege of helping clients develop engagement strategies that drive measurable results. Rebecca’s passion for travel and providing inspiring solutions is evident in the service that she provides to her clients. Prior to joining Motivation Excellence, Rebecca represented HelmsBriscoe for 2 years and prior to that spent the bulk of her career, 25 years, at Creative Group as a Vice President/Account Executive. In her career, she has managed global travel experiences on all continents with the exception of Antarctica. She is currently a member of MPI and has been a member of many hotel advisory boards.

Rebecca Wright
Client Engagement Director
Creative Group

Rebecca Wright is a Client Engagement Director for Creative Group, Inc., an award-winning full-service meeting, incentive and recognition company. In her role, she leverages data and business/behavioral insights to strategically design meeting and incentive programs to achieve corporate objectives and enhance audience engagement. Her extensive career in leading sales and operations teams has fueled her passion for the business case and transformative power of meetings and incentive travel.

An active member of SITE, Rebecca served as the President of SITE Chicago in 2017 and is currently on the SITE International Board of Directors, supporting initiatives to promote chapter growth and engagement.