Workshops

Speaker Bios

Rich Brooks
Rich is founder and president of flyte new media, a Web design and Internet marketing firm in Portland, Maine. His monthly flyte log email newsletter and company blog (http://www.flyteblog.com) focus on Web marketing topics such as search engine optimization, blogs, social media, email marketing, and building Web sites that sell. He is currently an Expert Blogger at FastCompany.com and a featured blogger at MaineBusiness.com. Rich is a co-founder of Social Media FTW, an organization putting on conferences and events to educate small businesses and non-profits about the power of social media marketing. He is a nationally recognized speaker on Web marketing topics such as search engine optimization, blogging, social media, email marketing and analytics. He is the “tech guru” on WCSH Channel 6 evening news show, 207, and has been interviewed by the Channel 6 news team for technology reports. He also teaches a Web marketing course for entrepreneurs at the University of Southern Maine's Center for Continuing Education.

Roxanne Eflin
Roxanne has worked in historic preservation and downtown revitalization for over 25 years. She is the Program Manager for the Maine Downtown Center, a program of the Maine Development Foundation focused on downtown revitalization. She also owns Preservation Planning Associates, a consulting business based in Buxton. 

She came to Maine from Colorado in 1997 through a national search for the Executive Director of Maine Preservation, a position she held for ten years. She held numerous preservation positions in Colorado. Roxanne serves on the Steering Committee of the Maine Downtown Coalition, the Executive Committee of the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission and on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions. She has received numerous awards for her work in historic preservation including a President’s Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Roxanne holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation and is a Certified International Tour Manager. She is a published author, writer and editor. She and her husband steward a 175-year old National Register Greek Revival farmhouse in Buxton.

Shannon Haines
Shannon is the Executive Director of Waterville Main Street and the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF). The largest Main Street program in the state, Waterville Main Street has made a significant impact on the community by starting the highly successful farmer’s market and the brand new year-round Barrels Community Market, creating the Freshwater Arts School, coordinating a year round calendar of special events, and securing nearly $1 million in grants, the most recent of which is a $500,000 Downtown Revitalization Grant. Under Shannon’s leadership, the Maine International Film Festival, a 10-day, 100 film event, has become a nationally recognized festival and attracts thousands of visitors from all over the state, the region and beyond. She serves on numerous boards and committees, including the Maine Downtown Center Advisory Council, Kennebec Messalonskee Trails Board, the Waterville Regional Arts and Community Center Board, the Waterville Development Corporation Board and the Maine Arts Commission. She is also a past recipient of the very prestigious Ken Curtis Leadership Award and was named to Maine Biz’s NEXT list in 2008.

Tina Hewett-Gordon
Tina has been General Manager of the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport since 1993. She graduated from SUNY Cobleskill Travel and Resort Marketing Program and studied abroad in Birmingham, England at the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies. Tina currently serves on the board of the Kennebunk Kennebunkport Chamber of Commerce as First Vice Chair, and on the board of the Maine Restaurant Association. Past board service includes New England Inns and Resorts, Kennebunkport Emergency Services, Kennebunkport Historical Society and Kennebunkport Business Association. Tina is a past recipient of the Governor's Award for Tourism Excellence and the Kennebunk Kennebunkport Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year. She serves her community by volunteering for Equest Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center, Animal Welfare Society, Prelude Tree Committee Chair and Community Harvest. Tina is married and the mother of a 17 year-old daughter and a 22 month-old daughter.

Julie Katz
Julie was born and raised in the Boston area and grew up spending summers with her family in Ogunquit, Maine. After attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Julie returned to Boston and in 1986 established Tour Guides of New England, a tour guide service providing guides and transportation to domestic and international tour operators bringing groups into New England. The business expanded to include packaging tours for ad hoc leisure groups and corporate groups attending congresses.
In 2002, Julie partnered with an industry colleague and re-established the business as TourMappers North America, LLC. Today TourMappers is a full service Receptive Tour Company. In addition to providing packaged group tours, it wholesales hotel rooms, Fly-Drive packages, and provides multi-lingual escorted coach tours to international tour operators buying US product for individual travelers.
Currently, Julie focuses her attention primarily in 3 areas of the business; sales to international tour operators, directing the growth of TourMappers by developing new products and services, and managing the day to day operations.
She still lives in the Boston area, joined by the love of her life, Teddy, a German Shepherd-Pointer-Saluki mix, and they spend as much time as possible at her family’s house in Ogunquit.

Ross Lasley
Ross is the founder of The Internet Educator and publisher of “Web Enlightenment,” an eCommerce newsletter that is widely read by Internet professionals. Ross was interested in technology as a young child and got his hardware certifications at the age of 12. A serial entrepreneur, Ross was involved with a multitude of businesses before founding the web development company KISS Computing in 1997 in Cape Cod, MA. Started from a home office, the company grew to be the area's number one website firm garnering a SCORE"Build a Better Mousetrap" Award, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts "Governor's Entrepreneurial Spirit" Award, and a Webby Award.In 2006 - in typical successful technology company fashion - the firm was sold and is still operating under new ownership. At the same time, Ross moved to rural Maine to explore the art of homesteading at Spruce Nubble Farm. In 2007, Ross heard his inner geek calling and could no longer ignore it - The Internet Educator was born.

John Nicolai
John spent much of his young life and early career in France where he attended the National Police Academy and trained in the culinary arts. After moving back to the U.S., he continued his career in the restaurant business and taught culinary arts. In 1988, John’s childhood love for boating compelled him to start a yacht detailing businesses where he delivered yachts along the East Coast. In 1997, John and his wife, Coreen, started a tour boat business, Lulu Lobster Boat Ride, in Hancock, Maine. In 2010, the Nicolai will be celebrating the start of their 13th season in Bar Harbor. Lulu Lobster Boat Ride was ranked the #1 tourism activity in Bar Harbor by Trip Advisor and Yahoo Travel for past two years, and they have been featured in many national and international publications in France, Great Britain and Germany, and on television both locally and nationally.

Sue Norrington-Davies
Discover New England (DNE) is the official regional marketing alliance led by the Directors of Tourism of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.  Discover New England’s mission is to increase international travel and tourism into the region thereby strengthening the economic vitality of New England.

Sue Norrington-Davies, originally from the UK, has thirty years experience in international travel and tourism. Before being appointed as Managing Director of DNE in 2007, she was the Program Director for New England Country Homes, where she directed the New England operation for the Individual Travellers Co Ltd, a tour operator specializing in vacation rental homes for the British and European markets in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

This work experience enabled Sue to establish a close working relationship with international tour operators and media, plus an in-depth knowledge of New England. Sue is responsible for the overall operation, promotion and marketing of DNE.

Greg Paxton
Greg has been executive director of Maine Preservation since April of 2008. He is on the Board of Directors of CEI Capital Management LLC, the Maine Downtown Center Advisory Council and is coordinator of the Maine Downtown Coalition. Greg is a past member of the board of trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and was founding chair of the preservation organizations’ group, Statewide and Local Partners. He is past chair of the board of directors of Preservation Action, a national lobbying organization. He was CEO of The Georgia Trust from 1981 – 2008, Preservation Administrator for Historic Charleston Foundation from 1977 – 1981 and site manager at Mount Independence in Orwell, Vermont from 1973-1976. He is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts and received a MA in historic preservation from the University of Vermont. He is married to Dr. Lynne Werner, whose family is from Saco, and has a fourteen-year-old son, Burke.