Growth of a Community: The Toronto Travel Massive Journey

Every year TBEX brings together people in the travel industry from all over the world. But this conference, which will bring over 1,000 people to Toronto this month, is particularly special to us.

We began organizing meetups for the online travel industry in Toronto four years ago. And we started out with just four people having tea on a patio! So, you can imagine how excited we are to see TBEX roll in to our fair city.

In a time where travellers can connect online with people from all corners of the world, there is still something to be said for the power of meeting people in an offline environment. This is the idea behind the Travel Massive; a globally initiative to connect people in the travel industry locally.

With over 35 cities around the world hosting regular meetups throughout the year, each experience is different, and each city’s story of how it started is unique. Mariellen Ward and Alicia Taggio, co-founders of the Toronto Travel Massive share their story of how they met, launched, and grow one of the most successful Travel Massive communities over the past three years.

Mariellen’s Journey 

It was the summer of 09, the summer of change. This was when it was becoming clear to me that my future as a freelance writer, and my dreams of becoming a travel writer, were in jeopardy. Magazines were shrinking, newspapers closing, writer’s fees dropping, contracts becoming untenable.

I eventually decided to take fate into my own hands by creating my OWN publication and build my own brand online. And then the name Breathe Dream Go just dropped into my mind. I honestly didn’t think of it, it just landed there, like manna from heaven, and I turned it over, realizing it was perfect. I bought the domain and secured the name on every platform I could think of. And then over the course of that summer I worked hard to bring my vision to fruition. One of the first people I contacted was Evelyn “Journeywoman” Hannon, who graciously gave me an afternoon of her time to talk about possibilities for a travel site. And in August 2009, I put out a call for a travel tweet-up, which I think was a first for Toronto.

We met at the Red Tea Box on Queen St. W. on a sunny afternoon: Evelyn “Journeywoman” Hannon, Janice “SoloTraveler” Waugh, Nora “HoboNora” Dunn and me. All afternoon the tea flowed and so did the talk. I felt hope return, and excitement about this brave new world of travel blogging. On August 23, 2009, I launched Breathedreamgo.com.

Alicia’s Journey 

After deciding to quit my job at MTV to travel, I found myself in Australia writing a travel blog and producing video content documenting my experience living down under.

Towards the end of my journey, I waited to board a plane in Melbourne, and took a moment to tweet out “Farewell Melbourne, Hello Sydney!” Within minutes, one of my followers @Grayum_ian who was a fellow Canadian also living down under, tweeted me back saying, “Hey you should come to the Sydney Travel Tribe tweetup tomorrow at Scary Canary bar!” Having never been to a tweetup before, I thought, “What have I got to lose?’”

So there I was at 7 pm on some idle Thursday walking into a backpacker’s bar searching for the face of anyone who resembled Grayum’s profile picture. I immediately spotted him at the back of the bar with a group of about 20 people. Little did I know then, that these people would have a profound effect on my life.

Some of the attendees that night included travel bloggers Brooke from Brooke Vs. the World and Lauren, founder of Globetrooper (and now FlightFox). The moment I started chatting with them, I was so inspired by the conversations and ideas coming to fruition, that I knew these people would make big moves in the travel space. I was addicted. I wanted more. And after returning to Canada, I knew I had to make it happen.

When Two Worlds Became One 

In July 2010, Mariellen called another travel tweetup, and this was the biggest yet. About 15 people gathered on a summer patio, on King St. W., including Dave and Deb of ThePlanetD, Lucy Izon of Canada Cool, Natalie Taylor of NearAfar and Jeannie Mark of NomadicChick.

Alicia, an attendee that night had just returned from time living in Australia. After everyone in the group introduced themselves, she talked about her amazing experience meeting people in at the Sydney Travel Tribe. Seconds after telling the group that, Mariellen and Alicia turned to each other and at the exact same moment said, “We should start a Travel Tribe here!” And they did.

Alicia immediately reached out to Ian, founder of the Sydney Travel Tribe and ran the idea of starting a chapter in Toronto. He loved it, and within a few hours provided us with a logo and some tips on getting one started.

The first Toronto Travel Tribe was held in August 2010, on the Crocodile Rock rooftop patio, to coincide with G AdventuresWednesday night “hump day” get-together. Even more people came out to this one, including Intrepid Travel, Lauren and Todd of Globetrooper, Mike Corey, Marcello of Wandering Trader and Nomadic Matt Kepnes, who was in town to meet with G Adventures.

When a Tribe Turned into Something Massive 

After that rockin’ launch, we really started to roll. There has always been so much excitement, momentum and support behind us, that all the hard work we put into creating regular meetups seemed easy. Over time, we settled on having a meetup the last Thursday of every month, and we constantly tried to get different companies involved and find different venues. We also sometimes offered learning opportunities, such as a workshop on making videos. Soon enough, we created a Facebook page and a website to keep people informed.

The idea was always to bring people who worked in online travel, together in real time — but we always wanted to ensure there was a little something extra to keep people interested and engaged. And we have always been motivated by advocating for travel bloggers and encouraging partnerships between the travel industry and bloggers.

Meanwhile, the original Travel Tribe founder, Ian Cumming of Australia, was actively growing “the Tribe,” and new chapters were opening in New York, San Francisco, London and other cities around the globe. After about a year of growth, though, we had to change the name (for legal reasons), and so Travel Massive was born.

At about the time of our second anniversary, we realized we needed help. We had always worked really well together, very naturally — people would be surprised to discover, how little we actually discuss things. We always agree on just about everything, and we each bring different skills and a different generational perspective to the table. But we were overstretched, and Mariellen was getting ready to leave for India for many months. Thank goodness Cristina joined us in September 2012. She has been a terrific support.

Now we are approaching our third anniversary, and there are more than 35 chapters of Travel Massive around the globe. Travel Massive meetups have been held at several TBEX events already, and other conferences, too, like ITB Berlin.

So, you can imagine how excited we were when we found out that TBEX was coming to Toronto. We’re also extremely excited about hosting the official “pre-BEX” party on Thursday night, May 30, at the Irish Embassy — a great big pub on Yonge St., housed in Toronto’s first bank building.

It has been our privilege to be part of the digital travel revolution here in Toronto for the past four years, as it’s grown from tea for four people, to a massive community. It’s been a great ride … and it feels like it’s only just beginning.