MEET OUR
2024 SPEAKERS
MEET OUR
2024 SPEAKERS
Founder, Penny Wise Traveler
ANGEL TRINH
Angel Trinh is the founder of Penny Wise Traveler. To date, she has been to 36 countries and all 7 continents. She first started travel hacking in college where she applied to a bunch of scholarships and grants and ended up getting free housing, free tuition, and $7,000 in spending money to study abroad in Rome.
Nowadays, she travel hacks mostly with points, miles, stacks, and leveraging programs to travel for less.
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You can find Angel travel hacking a variety of different trips. You will see her flying in first, business, economy, and sometimes even Spirit! She was even able to get Spirit Gold Status from doing a status match from Hyatt Globalist. She also enjoys free cruises. Her most recent redemption was a $30K trip to Japan for $109.
She has previously spoken at the Travel & Adventure Show, Frequent Traveler University, Chicago Seminars, and The Nomadic Network about credit cards, money, and travel hacking. Her work in technology, money, and travel has also been featured in BuzzFeed x Bank of America, CNBC, CreditCards.com, Experian, Forbes, Morning Brew, Real Simple and TODAY Show.
Content Creator, Ashley Gets Around
ASHLEY PETERSON
Ashley is a full time traveler and content creator who has visited over 90 countries on 6 continents.
Her popular Instagram account, Ashley Gets Around, is all about her travels and travel hacking. She owns and runs the only woman owned subscription service for business class flight deals.
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Ashley is the co-founder of a boutique tour company called Wild Air Travel. She’s been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, the Today Shows, the Washington Post, and more. Join her next month in Asheville, NC as she introduces the very first ever TravelMore Conference showing you how to use points and miles to travel for free or cheap!
Creator, Unruly Travel
CALEN OTTO
Calen Ann Otto is a queer, anti-speciesist travel blogger who explores the world on a very small budget. They completed a solo trip across the USA at the age of 19 with only $300 and a bike which led them to discover there are many alternatives to travel that cost less.
Inspired by their love of meeting strangers and sharing their incredible stories, they created the Unruly Travel blog.
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So far, Calen has been to 5 continents, 35 states, 20 National Parks, and more than 20 countries as a vegan and is passionate about doing the least amount of harm wherever they go.
They wrote and published ‘The Art Of Unruly Travel On A Budget’ travel guide book to make travel more accessible to all.
Founder, Wanderstay Hospitality Group
Deidre Mathis
Deidre Mathis is a hotelier, author, and world traveler. She founded Wanderstay Hospitality Group in 2018, a multi-concept hospitality brand, based in Houston, Texas. Wanderstay Hospitality Group has both a 24-bed hostel and 10-room boutique hotel in its portfolio.
Deidre Mathis made history as the first Black woman to own and operate a hostel in the United States.
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In addition to running an independently owned hospitality company, Mathis is the Director of Wander Abroad Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) organization that provides passports and short-term study abroad opportunities for underrepresented college students. To date, the organization has provided 19 student scholarship programs and 6 student passports.
Having traveled to over 48 countries across all 7 continents (yes, even Antarctica), Mathis understands the importance of obtaining global experiences. Many of Mathis’ early travel experiences are shared in her book, “Wanderlust for The Young, Broke Professional.”
Promoting: WANDERHTX 15% off to all followers on any 2-night stay booked at Wanderstay Boutique Hotel in 2023. (Book anytime from now until 12/31/2023 and the discount can be used on any nights booked in 2024) @wanderstayboutiquehotel .
Creator, Emily Eats and Explores
EMILY COOPER
Emily Cooper is an epidemiologist turned full-time traveler and content creator. In 2021, she started her social media platforms and website, Emily Eats and Explores, to teach women how to confidently travel solo.
She has since worked with major travel brands, tourism boards, and travel companies, while hosting her own group trips around the world.
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Today, Emily teaches her community of over 90,000 how they can get paid to travel. She has been featured in Newsweek, Huffpost, and is the co-host of the top travel podcast, Travel Chat with Ashley and Emily.
Founder, Latina Traveler
Flavia Cornejo
Flavia Cornejo, founder of Latina Traveler, is a travel blogger and writer who focuses on solo travel and life abroad and has visited 37 countries so far. She shows and encourages women of color to have unique experiences while visiting secondary cities. She’s currently living in her 6th country abroad, Portugal.
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Embark on a journey of
inspiration and empowerment.
Embark on a journey of
inspiration and empowerment.
Award-winning Travel Expert
LISA NIVER
Lisa Niver is the author of Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty. She is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries on six continents. This University of Pennsylvania graduate sailed across the seas for seven years with Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and Renaissance Cruises and spent three years backpacking across Asia.
Discover her articles in publications from AARP: The Magazine and AAA Explorer to WIRED and Wharton Magazine, as well as her site WeSaidGoTravel.
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On her award nominated global podcast, Make Your Own Map, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors, and as a journalist has been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty-two times.
Named a #3 travel influencer for 2023, Niver talks travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, her YouTube channel with over 2 million views, and in her memoir.
Creator, The Solo Female Traveler Podcast
Lu Colmenares
Lu Colmenares, a Venezuelan native, is a traveler, psychology student, and the creator of “The Solo Female Traveler Podcast.” Her podcast has been listened to in over 80 countries, inspiring women to venture beyond their comfort zones and explore the world.
Senior Editor, Fodor’s Travel
NIKKI VARGAS
Originally from Colombia, Nikki Vargas is a Senior Editor at Fodor’s Travel, Founder of the women’s travel publication, Unearth Women, and a published author represented by the Paradigm Talent Agency.
Her first book, Wanderess, is an extensive women’s travel guide published by Penguin Random House, while her next book, Call You When I Land, is a highly-anticipated travel memoir hitting bookstores this Nov 7th from HarperCollins.
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Nikki’s travel memoir has been touted as one of the best women’s memoirs to come in 2023 by Glamour Magazine.
Founder, Latinas Who Travel
OLGA MARIA
Olga Maria is a professional travel writer, storyteller, and digital nomad who has been inspiring diverse audiences to travel for over 12 years through her award-winning blog, Dreams in Heels.
As founder of the bilingual community Latinas Who Travel and travel editor of Livid Magazine, Olga promotes inclusion and diversity in the travel industry.
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She has hosted travel shows with Hiplatina.com and Belatina.com and been featured in Forbes, BBC, Pop Sugar, Matador Network, Huffington Post, Univision, Telemundo, Latina Magazine and more.
Born with wanderlust and passions for food, coffee, and wine, Olga aims to clarify myths and misconceptions about destinations worldwide and motivate others to travel. By sharing expertise, tips, and stories, she inspires audiences to get out of their comfort zone and experience the life-changing magic of travel.
Olga is dedicated to showing the world how travel can inspire personal growth and fulfillment.
Award-winning Travel Journalist
Sojourner White
Sojourner White is a remote social worker, award-winning travel journalist, and train travel queen. Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin she has been a digital nomad and called both Spain and Germany home.
Through her platform Sojournies, she helps 9-5ers fulfill their career goals and bucket list dreams to find freedom and flexibility outside the office.
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Sojourner has been featured in Buzzfeed, PopSugar, The Matador Network, and the HuffPost, and written for Travel + Leisure, USA Today, Fodor’s, Insider, Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, and more.
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO
FEBRUARY 16-19, 2024