Why Travel and Tech Will Change The World

Last week was a busy one and I was feeling drained, stressed, heartbroken. I reached out across the web to one of the masters of multitasking, the always-cool-under-pressure Chris Brogan. “What can you tell me?” I begged, “What tips can you give me to help me through this week?” And he patiently replied, “My only secret to success, lame as it is, is that I talk about other people and help others 12x to every 1 about me.”

This rings true to me for a multitude of reasons. The major one I’ll share with you now.

Since I’ve been involved in this  travelsphere, I’ve noticed two things. First, that travelers are a passionate people, and secondly, they love to give back. I want to say that spending all that time in far-flung corners of the world gives you an appreciation for all that life has to offer, but in reality, I think travelers are just pretty neat people.

And in seeing all these corners of the world… the villages, the major cities in foreign speaking countries, the lands of both total ice and extreme heat… I believe that we have a duty to report back what we’ve seen, share it with the rest of the world, and express our own feelings about what can be done to better the globe. So, after a particularly inspired coffee run with the beautiful and amazing Tammy Tibbets, and receiving an email reminding me that my favorite conference, SXSW, was coming up, I was motivated to do something.

See, Tammy is the founder of She’s the First, an organization that aims to inspire and lift up girls around the world to become students, teachers, entrepeneurs, basically, the first in their towns, villages, families, to do something amazing. In her research and aid, Tammy has traveled around the world and met girls of every size, shape, color, and language who encourage her to keep going.

Tammy, as well as Stefanie Michaels, aka Adventure Girl, and the entire team behind Crowdrise, who enable you to help right from your house and crowdsource your ideas and charity, show that you can be more than a “tourist.” You can really be a (sorry for the cliche) citizen of the world. You can go somewhere and take a part of it with you- and make a difference.

Because of these reasons, I’m asking for your support. I’m not a beggar, and if you know me, you know that a very sincere shyness problem usually prevents me from asking for anything resembling self promotion, but really, really, truly, this is not about me. I would really love to share the idea of motivated, intelligent traveling, and the charities that are allowed to thrive because of social tools and the Internet. And I’d love your help.

Please click here to vote for my SXSW panel.