Allyson Tonelli’s dynamic career in sales, advertising, and integrated marketing has given her the opportunity to work in film and television, sport and recreation, and now tourism. As Director of Sales for Tourism Kingston, she oversees the Travel Trade, Business Events, and Sport and Wellness portfolios. Allyson is responsible for creating robust sales pipelines, innovative sector development plans, and most importantly, business relationships, that anticipate and respond to the ever-changing tourism landscape.

Janet Guthrie is the Sport Tourism Coordinator for the City of Leduc, a community recognized by the GSI Canada Index as one of the country’s top sport hosting communities with a population under 50,000. Involved in sport hosting throughout her life, Janet’s passion for sport tourism took hold in university when she had the opportunity to host the World Junior Luge Championships during her practicum experience. Ever since, she has strived to deliver a stand out experience for all events, leading to consistent recognition at the STC Prestige award.

Carson Ackroyd is a Sales, Marketing and Communications professional with more than 25 years of experience in a number of industry sectors.

He started his career with the Sun Media organization where he worked for 13 years in a number of roles that included running the marketing, promotions and circulation sales for both the Edmonton Sun and the Calgary Sun before transitioning to lead the advertising sales team at the Calgary Sun. He transitioned to become the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for ATCO for more than a decade. In this role, he had a 100+ person team responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications for a multi national conglomerate in the energy, utility and structures and logistics business.

In 2018, Carson became the Sr. Vice President of Sales at Tourism Calgary where he leads a team responsible for attracting sport & major cultural events to the city as well as meetings & conventions.

In addition to his professional background, Carson has served on the Board of Tourism Calgary, Ag For Life, Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club and Silver Springs Golf Club.

Michelle Collens is a senior leader working closely with all levels of government, tourism partners, and community organizations driving economic and social development opportunities in the City of Vancouver. A graduate of UBC playing varsity volleyball for the Thunderbirds, Collens has made a career of her passion for sport. Focused on the area of sport events, she has worked with great organizations such as UBC Athletics, Sport Kelowna, 2010 Legacies Now, and BC PavCo.

Zanth Jarvis is an experienced sport tourism professional who currently serves as the Director of Sport Tourism with Tourism London. Over the past decade, Zanth has played a large role in helping to attract numerous national and international sporting events to London, Ontario. This includes the 2023 Tim Hortons Brier, 2022 Vanier Cup, 2018 Para Hockey World Cup, and 2018 Ontario Summer Games, which have helped drive significant visitations and economic impact to the city. A graduate of Western University’s Sport Management program, Zanth’s connection to London and sports run deep. He’s also spent many years working with Sport Tourism Canada and their clients on the STEAM program, overseeing data collection for economic impact projects. Zanth’s unique experience working with Sport Tourism Canada, along with his perspective as a host city, will provide valuable insight to the Board of Directors

Colby Pridham is a strategic leader in the sports, entertainment, and events industry, known for his expertise in driving growth and fostering valuable partnerships. With a wealth of experience in sales strategy, relationship management, stakeholder partnerships, and event management, Colby brings a diverse skill set to the field. As the Senior Manager of Partnerships & Event Development at Events East Group, his visionary leadership at Scotiabank Centre has been instrumental in propelling growth and achieving remarkable outcomes. Additionally, his commitment to community development is evident through his involvement on the board of Kids Up Front – Atlantic. Colby’s dedication to advancing sport tourism in Canada, combined with his ability to deliver results, makes him an invaluable asset in his role as a board member.

Scott is an experienced Sport Management professional where he has led a number of large multi-sport event portfolios in the amateur sport industry over the last 9 years. Scott is currently the Senior Advisor, Business Delivery with the Canada Games Council, a large multi-sport event for Canadian athletes, after spending six years with U SPORTS, the governing body of university sport in Canada. At the Canada Games Council, Scott manages the life cycle of the games, with focus on relationship management, event management, business planning and transfer of knowledge processes/ procedures. He is passionate about amateur sport in Canada, and was a former basketball player himself with the Bishop’s University Gaiters, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Major in Sports Studies. In addition to his career, Scott also volunteers  with the MLSE Game Changers Executive Committee, where he can steer this passion into giving back to the community, and reducing barriers for youth sport participation. 

Nolan Thiessen is in the unique position today of playing a leading role in organizing some of the biggest sporting events in Canada, events that in his past life as an athlete he we was trying to win, and on three occasions actually did.

Nolan, earned his CPA, CA designation in 2006 while articling at a national accounting firm before moving into a managerial role with a big four firm for five years.

Nolan, then took a hiatus from corporate life while competing internationally in curling, winning three Brier Championships as well as one gold and one bronze at the World Championships.

Post playing career Nolan started working in various areas of Curling Canada’s business operations where he now leads the events team to help drive exceptional experiences for athletes, ticket purchasers, broadcast viewers, sponsors as well as funding agencies who help deliver Curling Canada’s Season of Champions.

Nolan, has served in the past as Chair of the World Curling Federation’s Athlete Commission and currently serves on the World Curling Federation Competition & Rules Commission.

Kathleen Trainor is the Executive Director of Tourism Barrie. Kathleen Trainor has over twenty-five years of experience in business in both the private and non-profit sectors. Kathleen is entrepreneurial by nature, and she combines her wide range of skills, knowledge, experiences, and creative big-picture strategic project management skills with her business performance.

For the past five years, Kathleen’s Board of Directors experience has been as Treasurer and President of the Destination Marketing Association of Canada (DMAC). During her tenure with DMAC, she facilitated the evolution of the organization to become the Canadian Destinations Leadership Council (CDLC).  The CDLC is a standing committee of Destinations International, which is a forum for Canadian destination organization executives to meet regularly throughout the year to coordinate key industry issues, including advocacy, resourcing, policy, and marketing.

Kathleen is committed to growing and strengthening the tourism sector as a leading economic driver for communities across Canada. 

Kathleen has lived and travelled extensively around the world. Her world travels and cross-cultural experiences have given her the ability to relate to people of different cultures and circumstances and skills in conducting business in this multicultural country and the global economy. And, most importantly, seeing Canada’s strengths as a world-class destination.

Andréanne Paquet has been managing the sports market at Sports Events Montréal – led by Tourisme Montréal since 2016 and has been working in the field of sports for the past 10 years. She studied communications at the Université de Montréal and is currently pursuing her MBA at HEC Montréal. 

Andréanne began her career in media relations for the Montréal Canadiens then for the Montréal Impact. Following this, she was responsible for marketing and partnerships at SPORTSQUÉBEC before joining the partnership team at the Montréal Alouettes. Since joining Tourisme Montréal, Andréanne has collaborated on bids for numerous sports events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2020 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, the 2019 Montréal Judo Grand Prix and the FINA Diving World Series 2018-2021. Andréanne has also played a major role in developing sports tourism in the city and contributing to Montréal’s Sports Events Strategy. She believes in the collaborative approach when it comes to events bidding and hosting and tends to develop meaningful and long-term partnerships. Most recently, she has helped create a unique new identity for this market: Sports Events Montréal.