Three years ago I had just begun my show when I decided to attend my first conference; the Women in Travel Summit. This conference is all about women of all different backgrounds who share a love of travel. Each year it takes place in a different city around the United States and that year it was in my own backyard in Irvine, California. There were bloggers, vloggers, and travel lovers of all kinds. I fell in love. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many like-minded and motivated women!

So when I heard that they were adding local branches, including a Los Angeles one I was super excited. But when I was asked to be on a panel and SPEAK at the first LA Summit, I was beyond honored! My panel was all about the technical side of creating travel photos and video and I have to be honest, as someone who knew NOTHING about this 4 years ago, this terrified me! But I was on a panel with two other INCREDIBLE women: Sarah Dandashy of Ask a Concierge and Joanna Kalafatis of Lose The Map and it was an amazing mix of experience levels.

I’m a big believer that you don’t need to be an expert to start something that you’re passionate about so it was great to encourage others to do the same. Sarah comes from a hosting and film background, and Joanna is a photographer and solo traveler, so whether the attendees had super technical questions or were starting out just like me, we hit all levels!

Watch our entire panel on Capturing and Promoting Your Travels Through Photography and Videography below.

The Women in Travel Summit is full of amazing panels ranging from working with brands, to family or solo travel, to diversity in adventure, and so on. It’s a place where everyone is welcome and we build each other up. I’ve made amazing friendships and collaborations from this event.

And it goes so much further than just educational panels. There are after-party’s, events like hiking or fam trips, and networking hours. It’s just an overall blast doing the thing I love most; traveling and talking about traveling!

And now I have EVEN MORE exciting news! I’ve been asked to speak at the national Women in Travel Summit taking place in Portland, Maine this May! There will be hundreds of incredible women and brands from all over the world and I can’t wait to learn from, and meet each and every one of them. I will be leading a 90 minute workshop on creating travel videos as well as offering one-on-one mentorships! I am so excited to share everything that I have learned over the past 4 years of Monica Goes and help to encourage other women to keep adventuring!