Meet Travel Massive Auckland Chapter Leader, Jason

Jason Nockels is our Travel Massive Auckland chapter leader and we wanted to tell you a little bit more about what inspired Jason to join the team! 

Jason has worked within the travel industry for more than 5 years. He started as Online Manager at Jasons Travel Media before spending 3 years at Air New Zealand’s subsidiary brand Grabaseat doing digital marketing and product management. He is now a founding member and head of marketing for Mighway, a peer-to-peer motorhome and campervan rental platform run by Tourism Holdings Limited.  

But that’s not all! We asked Jason a few questions about why he loves being a part of Travel Massive and we think his answers are definitely worth a read.

How did you first get involved with Travel Massive?

I first learned about Travel Massive while at TBEX in Llorret de Mar in 2015. Everyone was talking about Travel Massive and I thought to myself it’d be a good idea to join the Auckland Chapter, only to discover there wasn’t one! So as soon as I got back to Auckland I got together with a friend and colleague, Rebecca Duffy to get it started.

What motivates you to be part of Travel Massive?

When I was at Air New Zealand I worked a lot with regional New Zealand and smaller tourism operators. One of the biggest pain points I’d hear from the industry was that big companies like Air New Zealand and large tourism organisations were really hard to work with. I wanted to help bring the travel industry together and further develop my own networking skills for professional development.

I hope that one day bigger organisations can get more involved and discover the opportunities that exist within the wider travel industry, even the little guys.

Do you do anything unique at your meet-ups? 

We’re about a year on now and have tried all sorts. Casual drinks, speaking events, morning events and speed networking most recently. We find that people break the ice pretty well own their own but the speed networking event was a great way to get people to talk to others. We want to keep trying different types of events and do something a little different each time to keep things interesting. I don’t think we’ve nailed the perfect formula yet, but our largest event had about 50 attendees, that was a coffee event with really good speakers.

How has Travel Massive helped you professionally?

I have developed a good relationship with founders of a local startup Herepin, which has been fun and I think there is all sorts of potential with them in the future. I am also getting Liz, a blogger from passportpacked.com to do a Mighway road trip to create some new content. Ian, the founder of Travel Massive has also helped support us a lot, giving me connections into San Francisco International Airport and sanfrancisco.travel, they made great speakers at a recent event drawing in a big crowd and growing our chapter.

Do you have a past event that was your favourite? 

I have two. The last one we did was a speed networking event. Normally this type of event would be out of my own personal comfort zone so I didn’t expect I’d enjoy it as much as I did. The other was our morning event which had speakers from Air New Zealand, ATEED, San Fransisco Airport and San Fransisco Travel Association which bought in about 50 attendees and helped grow our chapter to over 100 members.

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

Just turn up.

Come along, have some drinks, meet some people and I promise It’ll be a good time.

Leader of the pack is a monthly series that profiles organizers from Travel Massive meet-ups around the world.