Do you love traveling so much that you dream of taking a career break to travel the world? Or maybe you want to break into the travel industry as a writer, photographer, or videographer so that you can live a life of travel. You can learn to do all of these things and more, at the NY Travel Festival April 18 – 19. It’s a full weekend of travel-industry-related talks, networking, happy hours and travel giveaways. AND NY Travel Festival is teaming up with Meet, Plan, Go! to host a four-hour workshop that will reveal wanderlust-inducing information to help get you on our way!

An intimate Meet Plan Go four-hour workshop will take place on Sunday, April 19 and cover crucial topics to the career-break traveler. Become inspired by people who have “been there” and meet and network with others with similar career-break travel goals.

Enter promo code "MPG15" to get the $75 MPG workshop/weekend ticket.

What to expect from the Meet Plan Go half-day Workshop:

• 2 – 3pm ~ Panel discussion
Learn from those who have fulfilled their own dreams of escaping their cube and traveling around the world: what they did and how they did it. Our career break veteran panel includes experts on family travel, couple travel, and solo travel.

• 3 – 4pm ~ Katie Aune
A discussion about the nuts and bolts of career break planning, including: planning your trip; budgeting/financial matters; what to do with your home and possessions; handling health/insurance matters

• 4 – 5pm ~ Sherry Ott
Learn how you can go about working on the road. Topics will include teaching ESL; freelance writing; blogging; photography; and utilizing your career background to find work or become location independent.

• 5 – 6pm ~ Breakout Q&A with all panelists/speakers
Your chance to have an extended opportunity to engage individually with the day’s speakers. Pick their brains about your specific concerns and questions, and get ideas from people who’ve been there at this speed networking hour.

Meet the Speakers & Panelists

These experts will not only provide you with inspiration by sharing their own stories, but also tips on how they did it and useful travel planning resources.

Katie Aune quit her job in August 2011 to spend a year volunteering and traveling through all 15 countries of the former Soviet Union.  Her journey included running a marathon in Estonia, riding the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, teaching English in Russia and Tajikistan, volunteering in Armenia, camping in the desert of Turkmenistan and doing her best to speak Russian on a daily basis. She returned to her hometown of Chicago in the fall of 2012 and was employed again in her previous field by the start of 2013  .She will discuss The Nuts & Bolts of Career-Break Planning.

Sherry Ott, a refugee from corporate IT, is a long-term traveler, blogger, and photographer. She has traveled around the world to over 60 countries, primarily solo, and has been living nomadically while traveling and working for over eight years to date. Sherry will share her career-break expertise in solo travel; volunteering; extended travel of a year or longer; teaching ESL; photography; working while on the road; living as an expat; and living out of a suitcase for extended periods of time.

Rainer Jenss, In 2008/2009, Rainer Jenss traveled around the world with his wife and two boys (ages 8 & 11) for 13 months. During that time, they visited 28 different countries and experienced the world in a hands-on, interactive way that never has been possible otherwise. Since his return, Rainer has dedicated himself to inspiring families to travel and advocated that travel be an essential part of every child’s education. As such, he is launching the Family Travel Association, which aims to create a collective and unified industry voice that will help change the way families travel – charting a path for the future generations of travelers the industry needs to cultivate.

 Jane Stanfield has three main passions in life: travel, animals and volunteering. In 2006, after five years of knowing that she needed to do something totally different, she put her three passions together on a yearlong trip around the world. She volunteered on 12 projects in seven countries and took fantastic vacations in five others. For volunteer projects, she worked with orphans, spoke English, catalogued an elementary school library, assisted on an archaeological dig, and worked on scientific and rehabilitation projects with seven species of wildlife.

Mike & Anne Howard are a pair of newlyweds who thought a ten-day honeymoon wasn’t nearly enough to celebrate a new life together. With a little bit of savings, no kids, and good health, they figured there was no better time to travel than now. So they quit their jobs, rented their apartment, and set out on a 675-day honeymoon around the world. Using Anne’s background as a magazine editor and Mike’s as a digital media strategist and photographer, they started HoneyTrek.com to share their career break across six continents, 33 countries, and 302 places.

Early-bird tickets are $75 (a 25% discount!) for access to the full weekend of travel industry talks, lunches, giveaways, happy hours AND the MPG workshop. Get your tickets now as space is limited to 30 people for the career break talks!

Enter promo code "MPG15" to get the $75 MPG workshop/weekend ticket.

What else do you get from the NYTravelFest weekend?

Besides the Meet Plan Go half day workshop you’ll also get:

• Traveler-level admission to both Saturday and Sunday’s ($45 value) activities
• A full weekend of panels, speakers, and experiences that are designed for people who love to explore their world. Panel topics include: Affordable Luxury, NYC Travel Hotspots, The best of Locally produced alcohol (including tastings!)
• Discount Pass from NYC & Co., inc. great deals on NYC restaurants and attractions
• Entrance to contest giveaways, before and during the event
• Lunch on Sunday

Learn more at the NYTravFest FAQ’s