Meet Travel Massive Toronto Chapter Leader: Mariellen Ward

Meet Mariellen Ward, Travel Massive Toronto chapter leader, professional travel writer and publisher of award-winning travel blog Breathedreamgo.com.

Mariellen Ward is based in Toronto and Delhi. She writes for leading publications around the world and writes a travel blog inspired by her extensive travels in India, Canada and beyond. Today we chat with Mariellen about her city, her life and her experience as a chapter leader for Travel Massive Toronto.

Photo of Mariellen in Jaipur India.

How did you first get involved with Travel Massive? 

The first Toronto Travel Massive (then called Tribe) was held in August 2010, and some blogging all stars joined us, including Nomadic Matt, Journeywoman and ThePlanetD, and people from several great companies, too, including G Adventures and Intrepid Travel. In other words, we got off to a great start. From there, we started holding regular meetups and eventually settled on the last Thursday of every month.

I started blogging professionally in 2009 and began calling travel tweetups in Toronto to meet other travel bloggers and learn from them. At one tweetup in July 2010, I met Alicia Taggio, who was just back from Australia where she attended Sydney Travel Tribe. At the same time, Alicia and I BOTH said, “We should start a Travel Tribe here!”

Photo of Mariellen with Alicia Taggio at the TTM 2nd anniversary party.

What motivates you to be part of Travel Massive?

I am motivated to be part of Travel Massive because of the community. It’s an amazing community of people, in Toronto and around the world. It makes me feel connected to my “tribe,” and gives me strong social bonds. Plus, we are promoting and developing an industry I am passionate about.

What makes your city a great place for Travel Massive meet-ups?

Toronto is very proud to be one of the first chapters, and in the top 10 in terms of numbers of members. We must also be one of the most active with monthly meetups and other events. There is so much happening in this city, and so much community spirit. We regularly have up to 65 people on the waiting list for our events, and no shortage of sponsors.

Who attends your events?

As Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, and the head office for many companies, it has a concentration of both travel bloggers and travel industry professionals. We have a mix of both, with perhaps slightly more travel bloggers. I have often said that Toronto is home to more leading travel bloggers per capita than any city on earth! [No way to prove this though :)]

Photo of Mariellen with Evelyn Journeywoman Hannon, Janice Solotraveler Waugh and Nora Dunn of HoboNora fame at the first travel tweetup I held in Toronto, pre TTM.

Do you have a past event that was your favourite?

Toronto Travel Massive has held too many great events to pick a favourite or even favourites. There have been so many that are memorable. We did a panel during Social Media Week, sponsored by G Adventures, that I’m very proud of. Ontario Tourism has organized a couple of spectacular events, one during the PanAmerican Games, and one at the Evergreen Brickworks. We’ve also done some skill sharing workshops, and we’re doing more of these.

Tell us about the chapter leader team!

These days, Alicia Taggio is now living in Vancouver and we have a great new team running the show: Cristina C, Will Tang, Melissa Shearer and Sharon Mendelaoui.

What is your best advice to a newcomer who wants to attend a Travel Massive event for the first time?

My advice is to come to Travel Massive with an open mind and an open heart. This is a dynamic, warm and connected community. It’s very easy to make friends and become one of us. We welcome newbies!

Deb Corbeil (ThePlanetD), Jeannie Mark (NomadicChick), Dave Bouskill (ThePlanetD), Janice Waugh (SoloTraveler), Mariellen, Carol Perehudoff (WanderingCarol)

Leader of the pack is a monthly series that profiles organizers from Travel Massive meet-ups around the world. You can follow Mariellen on Travel Massive, Breath Dream Go, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.