Join Lisa Lubin for an evening of travel information and inspiration.

HOST:

Lisa Lubin is a three-time Emmy-award-winning television writer/producer/photographer/vagabond. After more than a decade in broadcast  television she decided to take a sabbatical of sorts which turned into nearly 3 years traveling and working her way around the world. As she traveled, she documented her (mis)adventures with photographs and articles from the road/train/rickshaw/camel. You can read more on her blog: www.LLworldtour.com.

PANELISTS:

Alex & Elizabeth:
A few years ago Alex and Elizabeth were frustrated with the pace at which they worked and the number of hours they were giving to jobs they didn’t love. They quit their jobs, sold their condo and traveled around the world for one year – including Mexico, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Nepal and Turkey – before returning to the US. Alex returned to study engineering and Elizabeth was recruited back by her old company and has since been promoted and is now getting her MBA at the University of Chicago. Their time away has made them really understand how flexible they were. During the uncertainly of Alex starting a business and a pretty horrible economy, they always knew that they would love to go back to living in a tent again. This is incredibly empowering and not something that most people can say! Check out their adventures at AlexandElizabeth.com.

Megan Kearney:

Megan got her first taste of international travel studying abroad in the UK. When she overslept on the morning of her first big trip, missing her train and losing touch with her friends, she discovered the benefits of traveling alone. Since that fateful morning Megan has completed two solo around-the-world trips, exploring 50 countries before she turned 30. She prefers traveling overland, which takes more time than her 3-week vacation allowed and prompted her to leave her career behind, buying a one-way ticket to Japan. When pressed, she admits that her favorite places were Myanmar, Southern Ethiopia and the Wakhan Corridor in remote Tajikistan. When she isn't hiking up volcanoes in the D.R.C., sketching hieroglyphs in Egyptian tombs, surviving car crashes in Kyrgyzstan or paddling a dugout canoe down rivers in Madagascar she writes about her travels at Me-go.net. Since starting in 2003, she's had the opportunity to help countless travelers with advice on planning their own trips. Currently on hiatus from adventuring, she spends her time exploring Chicago while running her graphic design studio and dreaming about her next trip.

Marsha Joseph:

Marsha Joseph had worked as a Marketing Director at Learning Curve Toys for several years when she decided to take a year off to travel around the world. Her travels took her to England, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia, Hungary, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Australia and Fiji, among other fantastic places, and inspired her to continue to travel to nearly 50 countries thus far. After riding on elephants in the jungles of Thailand, scuba diving with sharks in Indonesia, and living like a local in Venice, Italy while studying Italian, she eventually returned to “reality” where she continued her career in the toy industry as an International Marketing Director. Click here to check out her marketing consulting website, Paro Ventures.

Kyle & Bessie Crum:

Bessie and Kyle quit their jobs in Chicago leaving for a year long backpacking trip and have been gone over 2.5 years. They traveled from Mexico to Argentina by land, volunteering over 1,000 hours in El Salvador and climbing lots of volcanoes. To keep funding their travels, they took jobs as English teachers in South Korea and created WiseGifter, a gift list website to help travelers get money for travel. They've spent a few months exploring southeast Asia, and now they're settling into Chiang Mai, Thailand for a few months with no plans of stopping traveling any time soon. Read about their continued adventures at OnOurOwnPath.com.

Thomas Applegate:

Thomas is the executive director of Hostelling International Chicago. HI-Chicago is an exceptional resource for travelers and local students alike. HI-Chicago provides 550 beds of shared, dorm-style, accommodations that are cheap, starting at $29, clean, safe and comfortable in an ideal location for travelers, downtown's South Loop. HI-Chicago also teaches 1800 local students per year to be caring world citizens through its partnerships in peace building education with teachers throughout metropolitan Chicago. www.hichicago.org

CHICAGO RECAPS
Me-go: Around-theWorld: Talking Travel at Meet, Plan, Go!

LOCAL SPONSORS:

The All-Star panelists for the Chicago Meet Plan Go Event above will totally inspire you and give you guidance as you consider taking a break and traveling independently for a period of time longer than a few weeks. BootsnAll was co-founded in 1998 after I took a year-long trip as a young man with this thought...the best part of travel is the people that you meet, both travelers and locals alike. Meet Plan Go Chicago is doing this big time. We are proud to be associated with them. Check out our deals from Chicago for inspiration. We can also help with flights to Europe, or trips around the world.

Sean E. Keener - Co-Founder of the BootsnAll Travel Network