On the 8th of June 2024, we hosted our first NomadMania meeting in Philadelphia, part of the Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South Jersey region in the United States. This meeting was hosted by Alex Rivera. There were sixteen people in attendance, including some folks who travelled from Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Virginia to attend the meeting. Travellers ranged in age from their 20’s all the way to someone in their 90’s! We laughed together, shared stories, enjoyed tasty food and drinks, and made new friends during the five hours that we spent together at a local bar/restaurant with a view of the magnificent Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware river.
Among the folks who took part in the meeting, there were familiar faces as well as new ones. Angela and Michael Ballard, the envoy coordinators for North America and the Caribbean, were kind enough to fly all the way to spend quality time with our local travel enthusiasts. Our friend Lee Sandberg also joined us from Princeton, New Jersey, along with his roommate Steven Montero. Funnily enough, Lee and Steven had just come back from a NomadMania trip to Syria which Angela and Michael also joined. They all shared a bit about this sensational trip full of adventure, quirkiness, and awe-inspiring moments, in true NomadMania style.
Another example of how NomadMania brings people together is exemplified by the story of Nikos, a traveler who flew all the way from Boston for this meeting. Vassilis Stamatelopoulos, our Envoy for the Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria region, had reached out to Nikos, who is originally from Greece, about the meeting he was hosting in Athens back in May. As he currently lives in the United States, Nikos asked Vassilis if there were any meetings taking place anywhere near his new home of Boston. Since our meeting was the closest and soonest, he hopped on a flight to Philadelphia for the weekend and joined us for a night of travel-related fun. We were all impressed with his willingness to take a chance on us and our vibrant, historic, and gritty city!
The evening, however, was not all fun and games. We also got ‘down to business’ by spending some time engaging in knowledge transfer about travel. As an example, one of the more experienced travelers in the meeting took the time to explain to a more junior member that not all flights are searchable and bookable online. In this instance, the traveler was interested in visiting Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, and bemoaned the lack of flights between these countries. It was then that our seasoned traveler came in with great advice about not limiting yourself to online searches and suggested reaching out to local travel agents who may have insider knowledge about smaller, less well-known airlines used by locals, which they can help you book.
During the meeting, we explained the benefits and advantages of joining NomadMania to an attendee who is a member of other travel groups. Though the person was skeptical at first, several of us shared our positive experiences and explained the multi-faceted nature of NomadMania, the things you can now do within the platform and the community, and tidbits about what will be possible in the future. Ultimately, we succeeded in gaining a brand new member and we look forward to seeing her again in future events or trips.
Overall, we had a lot of fun together and hopefully this will be the beginning of a more cohesive community of travelers in this region. I would like to thank everyone in attendance, particularly those from outside the region, as well as the wonderful people at the Fringe Bar for their hospitality.
