Category Archives: Meet Plan Go!
If you’ve been following BootsnAll for any length of time, you’d know that we work and live our lives by four core values:
- Embrace Change
- Make Meaningful Connections
- Love Learning
- Work and Play with Passion
These four core values align perfectly with the career break movement started by Sherry, Michaela, and Michael over at Meet, Plan, Go!. How better to embrace change than to make your dreams come true by doing the unconventional and taking a career break trip? If you want to make meaningful connections, MPG has organized monthly meet-ups around the country, culminating in an annual event where you can meet other like-minded people. If you love learning, then there’s plenty of knowledge to be gained by taking a career break and changing the course of your life. And if you work and play with passion, then what better way to do so than by working your ass off to be able to take an extended break to go play around the world?
If you are reading this and nodding your head along, then you are probably the kind of person who wants to take a career break to re-motivate yourself. Meet, Plan, Go is currently celebrating their third anniversary, and during the past three years they have motivated and helped countless Americans get over that mental hurdle needed to do something that isn’t yet ingrained in our society’s thought process.
If taking a career break is something you dream about but don’t think is something you can do, then let the folks at Meet, Plan, Go! help. They have a career break basic training which gives you all the tools necessary to help you take your own career break. And to celebrate their three-year anniversary, they are offering 33% off their career break basic training class through the end of March. In addition to the discount, they are also offering $175 in discounts and coupons to AirTreks and Intrepid Travel to save yourself some money once you do get on the road.
If you are sitting in your gray cubicle wondering if this is all there is to life, then it might be time for a break, no matter where you are in your career. Getting over those mental hurdles is tough to overcome, so take advantage of the expertise available to you. These people are just like you and me – normal people with normal jobs and normal lives who simply decided that enough was enough. If you want to take back control of your life, this is the first step to doing so.
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A couple of weeks ago, we were thrilled to be the Portland hosts for the second annual Meet, Plan, Go! national event – and now we’re happy to be reminded of how great the event was, thanks to some fabulous photos by our volunteer photographer Christian Columbres!
We had an engaged crowd in Portland:
And we had a great panel:
But looking through the photos from the night, I’m struck by one thing more than anything else – there was a lot of smiling and laughing going on.
If that doesn’t make you think travel – or even the idea of travel – makes a person happy, then I don’t know what will.
Check out all the pictures from the 2011 Portland Meet, Plan, Go! event on BootsnAll’s Facebook page.
Thanks to Christian Columbres for volunteering as our Meet, Plan, Go! Portland photographer.
Check out his site to see more of his work, like the beautiful shot below.
©2011 by Christian Columbres Photography
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This year’s Meet, Plan, Go event may be over, but we’re continuing our monthly indie travel meetups here in Portland! November’s meetup is at Bunk Bar (corner of SE Water & Taylor) and starts at 6:30-ish.
We had an awesome time at the Meet, Plan, Go at Ace Hotel last week, so whether you attended and want to chat with all the new PDX travelers you met or didn’t get to attend but still ♥ travel… join us!
And as always, if you have a meetup location idea for next month, do share.
6:30pm-whenever-ish, Tuesday, November 15, 2011
@ Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave
www.bootsnall.com
Please RSVP on our Facebook page so we can stake out a spot for you! We’re also starting a Portland travel meetup newsletter to keep you up-to-date on the latest travel meetups and events happening in PDX. Sign up below:
Happy Travels!
–The BootsnAll Portland Crew: Sean, Chris, Dave, Jessica, & Olivia
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For last year’s inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! national event, I took the train up to Seattle – the closest Meet, Plan, Go! city to Portland – and spent an evening with my Seattle travel bloggy pals. It was great fun to feel the enthusiasm in the room, and to sense the relief on the part of people whose families don’t quite “get” their desire to travel as they recognized a familiar longing in the eyes of other attendees.
In short, my positive experience at the Seattle event last year was one of the reasons I was so looking forward to BootsnAll being a host of this year’s Meet, Plan, Go! – especially since we brought Portland to the list of host cities. I wish I could come up with something eloquent to say about last night’s Portland event, but frankly I’m still pretty exhausted, so the best I can do right now is this:
Last night was freakin’ awesome, y’all.
The room looked big and empty when I arrived early to help setup, and I was worried it would still look big and empty when the event began. I needn’t have been concerned. The room was half-full within moments of the doors officially opening, and anyone who arrived closer to the 6:30 start time considered themselves lucky to find a seat.
We were thrilled to have Chris Guillebeau deliver a funny and inspiring keynote (which he started with an airport code guessing game, for which the prizes were business class airline amenity kits!) before he had to jet off to PDX for a flight out that night.
Our panel provided the audience with handy tips and resources, and they discovered that – oddly – the hardest piece of “stuff” to get rid of for all of them turned out to be the couch.
We were joined by Warren & Betsy Talbot (last year’s Seattle hosts) via Skype all the way from Chiang Mai, Thailand, as they marked one year on the road for their own career break.
Attendees asked some of their pressing questions of the whole panel – I hate needles; how many immunization shots did you have to get? How did you pay your taxes while you were traveling? – and, I’m sure, saved some of their questions for the mingling session afterward.
One attendee told me after the event that although she still has lots of questions as she plans for her eventual career break, she loved just being there and soaking up the energy in the room. It reminded me of the feeling BootsnAll members used to have when they found like-minded people on the message boards – long before Facebook and Twitter – when they could say, “Oh, so I’m not the only person who feels like this? I’m not as crazy as my family says I am?”
It’s an incredibly powerful feeling to realize you’re not alone.
Thanks to all the people who came to the Portland event last night – I look forward to seeing you at future meetups, hearing more about your planning as it progresses, and eventually wishing you a hearty “bon voyage” as you set off.
Then, hey, you wanna be on a panel at a future Meet, Plan, Go! event? Let us know.
Some RTW/long-term travel resources to keep your planning mojo going:
>> Check out some of the fun Twitter updates that people posted from the 17 events in this recap post on the Meet, Plan, Go! site.
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There are only 5 more days to go until an event that could – quite literally – change your life.
We’re a short five days away from the national Meet, Plan, Go! event on October 18th, which will debut in Portland this year, and BootsnAll is excited to be a part of it. We’re excited to talk to other people in Portland who have taken the career break leap, and the many more who are contemplating it. We want you to be inspired, but more than that we want to give you practical tips and tools you can use to turn that inspiration into a to-do list you start working on the very next day.
We’re sure every city hosting a Meet, Plan, Go! event this year has a great panel of speakers lined up, but in Portland we’re particularly happy to have Chris Guillebeau as our keynote speaker. Chris’ book “The Art of Non-Conformity” and the World Domination Summit he organized in Portland in 2011 have inspired countless people to make meaningful changes in their lives, and for some that includes travel.
At a recent Portland meet-up, we met a woman who attended the World Domination Summit and was so moved to take a career break that she’s now working toward that goal – and this is someone who has never had a passport in her life.
In other words, Chris Guillebeau will motivate you to not just dream but to get stuff done.
Other Portland panelists include Laura and Russ of Path Less Pedaled, who have traveled more than 12,000 miles by bike since 2009; Kim and Brian of So Many Places, who are in the midst of planning for their big trip that begins next year; and BootsnAll‘s own Olivia, who spent a year traveling the world solo before coming to work for us.
Between these awesome speakers and the 50+ people who have already signed up to be at The Cleaners on October 18th, we’re confident the energy in the room is going to be palpable. And with all those smartphones Portlanders have, we wouldn’t be surprised if someone booked a plane ticket during the event.
It’s a simple question – have you ever dreamed of taking a break from your job to travel the world?
If you have, you are our people – and we’d love to see you on October 18th.
Come bask in the travel energy with us!
Meet, Plan, Go! Portland Details:
- Date: Tuesday, October 18
- Time: Doors open at 6pm; speakers begin at 6:30pm
- Where: The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel, 1022 SW Stark Street
- Ticket Info: Buy your ticket in advance, or prepare to pay $15 (cash only!) at the door [advance ticket purchases strongly encouraged, as we may run out of room]
- Getting There: If you’re driving to the Ace Hotel, there’s on-street parking or a Smart Park garage on SW 10th St between SW Yamhill & SW Morrison. If you’re taking the MAX or Streetcar, the Ace is 3 blocks north of the SW 10th Blue/Red line station and directly across the street from the 10th & Stark Streetcar stop.
- This Isn’t Dinner: There will be some time for mingling before and after the speakers, just note that we won’t be serving food or drinks. The focus is on sharing information and making connections – and there will be time for noshing and sipping at the after-party…
- After-Party Info: Okay, so there isn’t an official after-party… But if the mood is such that you just don’t want to stop talking about traveling, we’re happy to move the whole soiree to another space nearby!
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