FH-Prof. Dr. Barbara Neuhofer is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Experience Design at the Department of Innovation and Management in Tourism at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Austria.Before her current role, Barbara was working as a Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management and as MSc Hospitality Programmes Leader at Bournemouth University, UK.Barbara's research focuses on the experience and transformation economy. She researches, writes and speaks about customer experience design and how digital technologies transform the way we co-create consumer-centric, extraordinary and memorable experiences across the service sectors. Barbara has authored more than 25 publications on experience design, information and communication technologies, and the sharing economy in academic journals, conferences and books. She is frequently invited as a keynote speaker on experience design at scientific conferences, industry summits and business events around the globe. For her research, Barbara has received several international research prizes and best paper awards.
Professor (FH) Mag. Christian Maurer is Programme Director for the Master programmes "Tourism & Leisure Management" and "Marketing & Sales" at the IMC University of Applied Sciences in Krems, Austria. His areas of lecturing and research are Digital Marketing, E-Tourism, Marketing and Communication Mangement, Strategic Marketing Planning. Christian Maurer studied German Philology and Communication Sciences at the University of Vienna. From 1995-1998 he was Lecturer at the University of Hull in GB, where he also achieved a post-graduate diploma in "Applied Language and New Technologies". From 2000 to 2004 Christian Maurer worked for the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) in Vienna. In the position of Head of Information Management he was responsible for strategic planning and e-marketing, the ANTO's internet portal, and the holiday service center austria.info. Christian Maurer has published several research papers, led international research projects and has held many presentations at international conferences. He is co-founder of the International Student Conference in Tourism Research (ISCONTOUR).