Boston Panelists

Tim & Robin Botto
Tim and Robin were directors in corporate America who decided they wanted to get off the rollercoaster and take a break. They planned and budgeted for two years before quitting their jobs and taking five months to travel and volunteer in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Before their break, they had traveled to at least 30 other countries, mostly using vacation days.

While a main motivator in their decision to travel was the enticement of exotic and cheap food, Tim and Robin tried to encompass as much variety into their travels as possible including: jumping into canyons, being guests at rural village festivals, climbing mountains, attending Full Moon Parties, ziplining through jungle reserves, and being attacked (read: hugged) by an escape Orangutan. Robin and Tim returned to Boston at the end of March, to media and health/fitness careers, respectively. The couple is currently in desperate search of a good dish of Khao Soi in the Boston area!

Website: On the Banana Pancake Trail | Twitter: @RobinBotto

Chris Christensen
Chris is a Director of Engineering for TripAdvisor. Before taking this job he took what turned out to be a career break to focus on his travel blog / podcast AmateurTraveler.com. He traveled part time during this break to Hong Kong, Maui, New Zealand, Dinosaur National Park (rafting), the Rhine River (cruising), and Egypt. All or part of these trips were paid for by tourism boards, airlines, tour companies or tour participants.

Website: Amateur Traveler Podcast | Twitter: @chris2x

Jessica McHugh and Tim McGregor
Jessica and Tim left behind their respective positions as a non-profit manager and a multimedia developer to travel around the world for 18 months. Together they swam with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands, ate tarantulas in Phnom Penh, worked for an award-winning animal sanctuary in the middle of the jungle, and were taught backgammon by a Kurdish man whose only English words were “good good,” “no go,” and “champion.” Since returning home to the States (and to employment) they’ve continued to feed their travel addiction by traveling internationally throughout the year, proving that even after a career break you can still backpack with the best of them! Today they continue to follow their dreams around the world, enjoy sharing stories about their travels together, and hope to inspire others to discover their own travel story.

Website: Hedgehogs Without Borders

Brian Peters
Brian had to make a decision. When his bank laid him off in September 2008, he could have been like most, worrying about his next job while watching the world economy teeter on collapse. Instead he took the opposite route and went on a four month round the world trip! Visiting 4 continents, he got proposed to by beautiful women, tooled around Macau on his birthday and got the chance to see the world for what it really was, not through TV news or the Internet.

His blog, NoDebtWorldTravel.com, was named one of the “Best Round-the-World Travel Blogs” for 2009 by BootsNAll. Brian’s goal is to inform travelers about the least expensive ways to travel around the world. He is the author of the e-book NO DEBT WORLD TRAVEL: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling Around the World – Even in an Economic Downturn

Website: No Debt World Travel | Twitter: @brianepeters

Janet Riley
Janet is just returning from a career break year. Following a layoff from her programming job, Janet accepted a volunteer position at a children’s hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Janet spent eight months working on a software project, and missed one of the snowiest Boston winters in memory. When not working, she visited Phnom Pehn, got her scuba certification in Sihanoukville, and visited Bangkok with other expats.

Shortly before leaving for Cambodia in September, Janet attended the first Meet, Plan, Go! in Boston. She entered the MPG raffle, and won the Conversation Corps prize donated by 2010 sponsor GeoVisions. The Conversation Corps program focuses on cultural exchange through English conversation practice with a host family. On the way home from Cambodia in June, Janet stayed with a family in Lyon, France. In addition to conversation practice, Janet got to attend a wedding, visit a first grade class, meet the family’s friends and relatives, and watch and discuss the fine points of the Simpsons, It was an invaluable chance to learn French and experience everyday life in another culture.

Website: Janet Riley

Ambassdors
We are excited to have the following travel experts join us during breakout discussions and Q&A:

Maria Giurcan: Maria runs the website Vegan World Trekker, which explores sightseeing and vegan cuisine around the world. She is an avid traveler who has been to numerous countries on five different continents, and she hopes to see even more.
Website: Vegan World Trekker | Twitter: @VeganWorldTrekr

James (Jim) Galvic: In 1993 Jim put all of his things in storage, sold his car, and moved out of his apartment, and embarked on a one-year solo backpacking trip around the world. Since then he has backpacked through the Amazon, and other locations in South America. Back in the US he has presented over two hundred performances of his one-man humorous travel series “Travels of an Ignorant Man”.

Meet Your Host: Lillie Marshall

Lillie Marshall is a six-foot-tall Bostonian who began solo traveling during her college summers. Directly after college, Lillie entered the Boston Public Schools as a high school English teacher and proceeded to teach for six fascinating and mega-intense years.

In the summer of 2009, after much scheming and saving, Lillie took an unpaid Leave of Absence from teaching to circumnavigate the globe. For the next nine months, she had a truly wonderful time sightseeing in Japan and Southeast Asia, volunteer teaching in Ghana, and writing like crazy in Iberia! You can read about the whole adventure at AroundTheWorldL.

Lillie is currently back in her beloved hometown of Boston, totally reenergized in her public school English teaching career. Seeing the difference that extended travel made in her career and her life, Lillie is now launching a movement through TeachingTraveling to inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach, thus transforming the educational experience of our world.

Lillie is thrilled to now have a career that combines teaching, writing, and travel… and helping guide great people like yourself to make their travel dreams a reality!

Website: Around the World L  |  Twitter: @WorldLillie  |  Facebook: TeachingTraveling