Las Vegas Panelists

Diana Edelman
In 2010, Diana decided she needed a change. She was no longer satisfied with her career in public relations, she had always dreamed of traveling the world so, on March 7, 2010, that is exactly what she did. Diana put her belongings in storage, drove her car back to Maryland and parked it in her parent’s drive, strapped her backpack on, and headed over to Europe and Africa. For seven months, she backpacked solo, writing about her adventures on her blog, D Travels Round.

When she returned, she relocated to her former home, Las Vegas, and accepted a position with MCC Hospitality Group as the Director of Communications for the company’s many restaurants in Las Vegas and LA. She still writes for her blog and is also a contributing travel writer for OneTravel.com.

Website: D Travels Round | Twitter: @dtravelsround

Cory Haugen
Cory is an educator living in Las Vegas. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Kenya, and he has also taught English as a second language in South Korea. Cory is a self-proclaimed geek and firmly believes that food is a huge part of the travel experience. His travel motto is “pack light and go with the flow.”

Website: Geeks In Vegas | Twitter: @CMHaugen

Judy Irving
Master Coach Judy Irving is the president and owner of the leadership development practice, Moving On, and has been coaching for more than a decade. Judy works with her clients to choose greatness. She does this by partnering with each to clarify their vision, their potential, their skills and their strengths. Then together they strategize on how to combine these for superior results and effectiveness. Judy is also a corporate trainer and the author of Living Courageously: 101 Tips for Authentic Success; Overcoming Human Struggle and Getting Started as a Coach.

Abby Tegnelia
After eight years of working non-stop for magazines such as New York magazine, Us Weekly, Glamour, In Touch and OK!, Abby Tegnelia was laid off in October 2008. Faced with free time for the first time in years, the life-long travel junkie took off for a month in Borneo, a whale-watching trip to Mexico and a month-long backpacking through Europe. She eventually landed in a peaceful fishing village in Costa Rica for a year before returning to Las Vegas to become the editor-in-chief of Vegas magazine.

Abby has lived in Las Vegas on and off for five years, having served as editor-in-chief of Item magazine and senior managing editor of 944. She loves Vegas, and the Southwest in general. To keep travel and adventure in her life, she also serves as co-chair, with JoAnna Haugen, of the local chapter of TBEX.

Website: The Jungle Princess | Twitter: @abbytegnelia

Meet Your Host: JoAnna Haugen

JoAnna Haugen is a globe-trotting, idea-inventing, culture-collecting creativity connoisseur with big dreams and a desire to touch all seven continents. Her travel experiences started when she was two years old and could fly for free with her father on his business trips. She grew up exploring much of the United States on summer vacations but didn’t travel overseas until she was a sophomore in high school. And that’s when she fell in love with the world beyond her front door.

Since then, JoAnna has served as a health education Peace Corps volunteer in rural Kenya, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, white water rafted the Nile River, watched the sunset from Jeju Island in Korea, hiked the Inca Trail, learned to cook in Vietnam, ridden a dogsled in Jamaica, jumped off a waterfall in Mexico, rode horseback in Honduras and drank in a tumunu in the Cook Islands (among other adventures).

An award-winning freelance writer with an emphasis on travel, JoAnna is the community news editor for WorldView, the publication for the National Peace Corps Association; managing editor for Journey Beyond Travel, an online guide about travel in Morocco; and the Las Vegas travel guide writer for WhyGo Las Vegas, a branch of the independent travel network, BootsnAll. She is also the voice behind the popular travel blog Kaleidoscopic Wandering.

Websites: WhyGo Las Vegas | Kaleidoscopic Wandering | Twitter: @whygolasvegas | @joanna_haugen | Facebook: WhyGo Las Vegas | Kaleidoscopic Wandering