Meet the Press
Dramatic shifts in travel journalism have turned the world of media relations upside down. Magazines have perished, newspaper staffs have been cut, and freelance journalists are struggling to cope, all while new opportunities with social media, blogs and digital media options proliferate. Delegates will get the rare chance to hear from an expert media panel, then move to a round-table format (divided into specific subject matter and areas of expertise) to discuss the current PR and travel journalist climate, discover new strategies and outlets, and meet with dozens of esteemed international Web, newsprint, TV, radio and magazine journalists.
Ellen Barone
New Mexico-based journalist Ellen Barone has been covering adventure travel since 1998. Inspired by a Fulbright teaching exchange to Scotland in the early nineties, the freelance writer-photographer has traveled to more than 60 countries for travel-related assignments.
Whether she’s sailing across the Atlantic, crossing the Sahara on camel, surfing Maui’s swells, dog sledding the Alaskan tundra, cycling the Sicilian coastline, eating scorpion in Singapore or hanging out in the tango bars of Buenos Aires, she strives for honest storytelling and vivid photography that inspires travelers to pack their bags and experience our blue planet for themselves.
In addition, she’s a gifted workshop teacher, radio host, photo tour leader, speaker and author of several online columns offering practical advice and information for travelers.
Together with travel journalist, Judith Fein, Ellen publishes the group travel blog, YourLifeIsATrip.com and co-authors the adventure travel column, The Wild Pair.
Her website, EllenBarone.com, is an online portal viewed by hundreds of thousands of travelers – is one-stop shopping for expert advice, vacation tips, gear and gadget reviews, photo galleries and travel articles.
Laura Begley Bloom – Deputy Editor, Travel + Leisure
Laura Begley Bloom is deputy editor of Travel + Leisure, the world’s leading travel magazine brand. She guides the magazine’s destination, hotel, cruise, and style coverage; top edits various front-of-book sections, editorial platforms, and packages; and oversees a number of themed issues, including Hotels and Style & Culture. Laura has also written articles on a wide range of locations and topics, including trekking in Easter Island, dancing tango in Buenos Aires, white-water rafting in the Himalayas, cultural preservation in Cambodia, and island hopping in the Seychelles, just to name a few.
Additionally, Laura focuses on important brand initiatives, from the magazine’s new iPad app (coming out in November) to the first-ever Travel + Leisure store, now at three international airports—and growing. She helped launch and continues to oversee the magazine’s book series, with three annual titles: The World’s Greatest Hotels, Resorts & Spas; 100 Greatest Trips; and Unexpected. Additionally, Laura works on the magazine’s television programming and has collaborated on shows with the Travel Channel and Bravo.
An expert in the travel field, Laura appears regularly on various television outlets including NBC Today, ABC Good Morning America, CBS The Early Show, and CNBC. She also moderates panels and has been a featured speaker at industry events like the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit and conferences hosted by the Harvard Business School, the Caribbean Travel Organization, and more.
Before joining Travel + Leisure, Laura was a travel editor at Condé Nast’s Brides magazine. Previously, she was a reporter at Money magazine and a stringer for The New York Times. She began her journalism career as an intern with the I-Team, the investigative unit of WCCO-TV, Minneapolis’s CBS affiliate. She has also written for Wallpaper, Elle Decor, Fortune, Glamour, Men’s Journal, InStyle, London Telegraph, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Journalism is part of Laura’s heritage. Her great great grandfather was a Civil War correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and a member of the legendary Bohemian Brigade. A graduate of Smith College with a degree in Economics and East Asian Studies, she and her husband Jonathan live in New York City and Amagansett, New York.
John E. DiScala – (a.k.a. Johnny Jet)
John E. DiScala travels around 150,000 miles and visits over 20 countries each year. He and his website JohnnyJet.com have been featured over 2,000 times in major publications, including USA Today, Time, Fortune and The New York Times, and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, FOX News Channel and PBS.
JohnnyJet.com has been named “one of the top best money-saving web sites for travel” by Budget Travel Magazine, while the L.A. Times calls it “one of the top 10 essential travel resources on the internet.” Outside Magazine touted Johnny for having one of the world’s best “dream jobs”.
Every week, Johnny hosts a “travel website of the week” for several radio stations around the country, he writes weekly for Frommers.com and he has written for USAToday, The Boston Herald, LAX Magazine and Coast Magazine.
Norie Quintos – Senior Editor, National Geographic Traveler
Norie Quintos is a senior editor at National Geographic Traveler magazine, based in Washington, D.C. She edits the annual Tours of a Lifetime special issue and other consumer features, as well as the popular “Smart Traveler” section of the magazine.
Previously, she wrote about consumer travel for U.S. News & World Report and was an editor at Caribbean Travel & Life magazine. She has traveled widely and was most recently in Kenya and southern Patagonia on assignment.
Facilitators -
Alexia Nestora – Marketing Consultant, Lasso Communications
Alexia Nestora is a voluntourism industry consultant, helping providers with strategy and monitoring industry trends.
Alexia previously ran the North American division of volunteer provider i-to-i and has recently helped with Mintel reports on volunteer tourism as well as articles in the WSJ, Smart Money and NY Times.
Alexia frequently speaks about voluntourism at industry conferences and loves sharing marketing tips and tricks. She is an active member of the Building Bridges Coalition, Adventure Travel Trade Association and runs an industry blog to encourage the sharing of best practices
Chris Doyle – Vice President, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & Editor, AdventureTravelNews™
Chris Doyle is a long-time enthusiast of adventure travel who’s gained immeasurable insights from the people he’s connected with on five continents, and the activities he’s experienced including whitewater rafting, fly-fishing, rock climbing, sky-diving, paragliding, backpacking, marathon running, sea kayaking, dog sledding, mountain biking and mountaineering.
Since 2004, Doyle has played a key role in Adventure Travel Trade Association’s strategic direction and development. In addition to overseeing content for www.AdventureTravelNews.com and www.Adventure.Travel, he’s primarily responsible for the ATTA’s research, marketing, public relations and communications initiatives, and directs the content and execution of ATTA’s annual Adventure Travel World Summit, regional meetings and professional development programs.
For more than 20 years, he’s offered an array of strategic public relations and business expertise in the retail, technology, sports and outdoors, adventure travel, fashion, home furnishings and non-profit sectors. He’s managed corporate reputations and developed extensive national awareness campaigns for retailers and manufacturers, supported the launch of six Internet concerns, worked extensively with trade organizations and industry analysts, launched numerous private-label product campaigns and managed consumer affairs crises.
All Press – Summit Delegates
In addition to our Meet the Press panelists, here are registered members of the press that you may also be able to connect with at the Summit. For more on how to connect with journalists and publishing your own news at the Summit, please visit our Connecting with the Media page.
Alex Bainbridge – Founder & Managing Director, TourCMS
~ Tnooz, Small Big Fish Ocean
Ellen Barone – Freelance Writer, Photographer
~ EllenBarone.com, Outside, Condé Nast Traveler, LA TIMES
Laura Begley – Deputy Editor
~ Travel + Leisure Magazine
Keith Bellows – Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Traveler
~ National Geographic Traveler
Greg Bleakney – Freelance Photographer, Gregg Bleakney Photography
~ Outside, Patagonia, National Geographic Adventure Blog, Bicycling/Mountain Bike, Lonely Planet
Nathan Borchelt – Editor, Gorp.com
~ Gorp.com
Eric Brodnax – Vice President & General Manager, Away.com and AdventureFinder
~ Away.com and AdventureFinder
John Canning – Founder, Media Sherpa
~ Yahoo.com, msnbc.com
Lindsay Cannon – TV and Radio Journalist and International Mountain Leader
~ BBC World Service, BBC
Steve Casimiro – Freelance Writer, Editor, Photographer, theadventurelife.org
~ National Geographic, The Adventure Life Blog
Costas Christ – Chairman, Tourism for Tomorrow Awards – World Travel and Tourism Council
~ Editor at Large, National Geographic Traveler
Joe Diaz – Co-Founder, AFAR Magazine
~ AFAR magazine
John DiScala – Founder, Writer, JohnnyJet.com
~ JohnnyJet.com
Alex Ekins – Freelance Photographer, NCTJ Photojournalism
~ Climb, Climber, Trail, UK Adventure Sports, Rock and SnowThe Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Economist, National Geographic Adventure
Judith Fein – Freelance writer, speaker, videographer, Global Adventure
~ Travel+Leisure.com, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The LA Times, The Huffington Post (blogger), National Geographic Traveler
Regina Fraser – Co-Host, The Art Explorers, Inc. (Grannies on Safari)
~ PBS, the UK Travel Channel, WGN -TV
Kristen Gill – Freelance Writer, Photographer, Kristen Gill Photography
~ The Seattle Times, Wanderlust and Lipstick Blog
Hugh Graham-Watson, Freelance Travel Journalist
~ Glasgow Sunday Herald, worldreviewer.com, adnet-media.net, thehotelguru.com
Carole Herdegen – Editor/Travel Consultant, Travel World International Magazine
~ Travel World International Magazine
Annika Hipple – Freelance Journalist/News Editor, Ethical Traveler
~ Ethical Traveler, The Christian Science Monitor, Away.com, Travel Channel Media, Expedia.com
Lyn Hughes – Editor-in-Chief/Publisher, Wanderlust
~ Wanderlust Magazine
Davin Hutchins – Social Entrepreneur/Filmmaker/Media Consultant, NomadsLand LLC
~ PBS & ITVS, Amazon, Hulu, SnagFilms, Netflix, PBS Video
Pat Johnson – Co-Host, The Art Explorers, Inc. (Grannies on Safari)
~ PBS, the UK Travel Channel, WGN -TV
Patrick Kinsella – Managing Editor, Prime Creative Group
~ Outer Edge, Wild magazine, Rock (Australia)
Andrew Joseph Matranga – Maps Editor, Backpacker Magazine
~ Backpacker Magazine
Norie Quintos – Senior Editor, National Geographic Traveler
~ National Geographic Traveler
John Rasmus – Editor-at-Large; Editorial Consultant, National Geographic Books; ABOVE Magazine
~ National Geographic Books; ABOVE Magazine
Lisa Rogak – Freelance Author/Journalist, LisaRogak.com
~ American Airlines Celebrated Living Magazine, Ocean Home Magazine, TargetVacations.ca, Tonic.com, and others
Paul Ross – Freelance writer, speaker, videographer, Global Adventure
~ Travel+Leisure.com, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The LA Times, The Huffington Post (blogger), National Geographic Traveler
Joseph Spring – Online Editor, Outside Magazine
~ Outside
Greg Sullivan – CEO and Editorial Director, AFAR Magazine
~ AFAR magazine
Rene Welti – ECHO Encounters
~ ECHO Encounters, HTR Hotel Revue, Hello Switzerland Magazine and ADAC (Germany)
