What happened at London Travel Massive’s WTM Opening Night Mixer

Travel Massive London once again delivered a WTM Opening Night event that celebrated the start of one of the travel industry’s most important trade shows.

This year’s event, organised by London chapter leader Matthew Gardiner, with support from Lisa Hübner, co-leader of Travel Massive Berlin, saw more than 350 people attend, including 13 Travel Massive chapter leaders (thank you to those that helped out on the night).

The event recap was written by Matthew Gardiner – a travel industry marketer, currently working in marketing and e-commerce at International Airlines Group (IAG). 

Thanks to Atlantic Canada and G Adventures

The evening was made possible thanks to both Atlantic Canada and G Adventures, who supported the event and gave away some really exciting prizes during the evening.

Travel Massive members certainly enjoyed being introduced to the Purple Purpose and the Canadian 67 – cocktails themed in honour of our sponsors.

“Great event. I met some old travel buddies and made some really good contacts. I’ll be back.” – Bruce Martin, Ginger Juice

G Adventures also used the evening to promote their child welfare guidelines to our members. Many Travel Massive attendees pledged their support to this G Adventures initiative to make sure that no child is harmed by tourism.

Travel Massive Startup Alley

Following the success of last year, the event once again featured a Startup Alley. Taking on more space than last year, we were able to give six start-ups the opportunity to showcase their products to our members.

The participating companies were: SpareFare, Nightly.travel, DeckChair, CultureMee, YOBO App and Stasher. Our startup alley was supported by both Skift and Voyager HQ with both organisations offering participating businesses generous conference discounts.

“We loved being part of the Travel Massive start up alley. It was a great place to meet travel bloggers and fellow travel companies in a relaxed and fun environment”. – Catherine Ainsley, Stasher

Our charity partner Just a Drop

For the first time, we used the evening as an opportunity to raise funds for charity. We’re delighted to announce that the evening made a total of £2,700 for Just a Drop. Your contributions will, through delivering safe water to communities, save lives.

London – our largest chapter

Following a year of rapid growth, the week leading up to the event saw the scales finally tip and London (now with over 3,200 members) become Travel Massive’s largest chapter. With a number of exciting partnerships already planned for 2019, we don’t see that growth slowing down anytime soon.

Photography from Paul Porter

A big thank you to Paul Porter for being our photographer for the evening. A little fun fact about Paul… His first Travel Massive event was in Toronto at an evening also sponsored by G Adventures.

Here’s a selection of photos from the WTM’s Opening Night Mixer. You’ll find lots more on Travel Massive’s Facebook page.

Massive thanks to the chapter leaders who helped us during the Opening Night Mixer – Maja Campelj & Tina Hudnik from Travel Massive Slovenia, Anna Jimenez from Travel Massive Barcelona, Soumiya Nambiar from the new Travel Massive Bangalore chapter and also Matthew Gardiner’s wife Jenny. 

Connect with Matthew Gardiner on Travel Massive and Twitter and join the London chapter to get updates for future events.