Pod22 Travel Podcast

Ioana Todosia is a cross-cultural entrepreneur, experiential facilitator, photographer, and writer. She’s the founder of Comuna Project, a cultural exchange platform that connects a global generation to creative cultures through transformative and regenerative experiences.

Ioana was born in Romania, grew up in Northern British Columbia after emigrating to Canada with her family in the 90s, and now calls Montreal home. While working in the creative industry as a digital project manager, she took a spontaneous trip to Havana in 2017 that introduced her to two very different stories of the culture: the story of Cuba written by mass-tourism, and a glimpse into a more authentic story of Cuba that lived just below the surface. An open, wildly creative and incredibly rich culture that most never get to experience. Experiencing Cuba for the first time in that duality was what planted the seed for Comuna Travel. It opened her eyes to seeing the travel industry as a powerful platform that can facilitate meaningful connection and transformative experiences that nourish and enhance both sides of the travel experience: local and traveller.

Since 2017, Ioana has curated and led several cross-cultural exchange experiences to Cuba, Mexico and Romania. Her travel companions take a deep dive into the local life, traditional knowledge and contemporary vibe of these destinations. They find inspiration by pushing their boundaries and engaging with locals striving to passionately preserve and enhance their culture and age-old traditions for the future - from the underground arts scenes, to artisan communities, farmers and traditional healers. An Indigenous Wisdom Keeper from Oaxaca once told her that she has a very big appetite. Ioana embodies that spirit in her everyday life. Always driven by her passion, she seeks creativity, beauty and new experiences in the most unlikely of places. In turn, she shares these experiences, perspectives and wisdom to those around her.

Motivated by the recent pandemic and global travel restrictions, Comuna Travel has been evolving into the Comuna Project and extending the cultural exchange experience to an online space. In collaboration with her local partners and indigenous healers of Oaxaca, Mexico, The Comuna Project has been offering 4-week virtually immersive retreat sessions, called the Ceremonia Sessions. The goal? To introduce you to indigenous wisdom and culture that can support you in taking care of yourself, while lifting your community, and remaining connected to your source in these shifting times of intense change and growth.

Learn more about the Comuna Project: https://www.comunatravel.com/

Link to Comuna Video featured in the live version: https://vimeo.com/350658768

Bruno Maltor a créé le blog de voyage Votre Tour du Monde en 2012 pendant son stage en marketing à Shanghai.

Son goût du voyage a commencé lorsqu’il était tout jeune. Il passait beaucoup de son temps dans sa chambre à coucher, à contempler une immense carte du monde affichée à côté de son lit et à en mémoriser toutes les capitales.

Une fois adulte, Bruno a pris une décision qu’il n’a jamais regretté : poursuivre sa passion pour les voyages en décrochant un boulot passionnant à temps plein dans le secteur d’activité qui le fascine. Ce nomade professional s’expatrie à Montréal, puis à Shanghai, Budapest, New York et Lisbonne. En 2015, il a reçu le prix du meilleur blog de voyage aux Golden Blog Awards. L’année suivante, il a lancé le concours ‘Décrochez le meilleur stage du monde.” Notre dynamique entrepreneur se surpasse pour répondre à la demande croissante des lecteurs et correspondants férus de récits de voyage enrichissants et originaux. Résultat : Votre Tour du Monde a continué à se démarquer année après année.

Bruno, homme-orchestre, n’exerce pas qu’un seul métier, il en exerce 50. Son arsenal actuel comprend des drones, des caméras, des programmes d’éditeur vidéo, une présence grandissante dans les réseaux sociaux, et une équipe qui l’aide sans cesse au quotidien. Il est un as des médias sociaux, ayant plus de 200,000 d’abonnés à Facebook, 300,000 à Instagram et 145,00 à LinkedIn. Compte tenu d’essor de la vidéo au 21ème siècle, Bruno a produit des vidéos qui ont attiré plus de 10 millions de vues sur YouTube.

Les client de VTdM sont principalement des bureaux de tourisme ou des agences de voyage, mais Bruno ne ménage aucun effort pour demeurer accessible à ses fans. Il tire une grande fierté d’inspirer les gens à voyage et à connaître le monde. Il vient de lancer son propre jeu de société le 26 novembre dernier. 48 heures plus tard, cette nouveauté au rayon des jouets, vous l’aurez deviné, le jeu Votre Tour du monde, était en rupture de stock - signe d’un engouement flairé par un entrepreneur audacieux qui a saisi au vol une excelle occasion d’affaires dans le context actuel.

Ian Cumming is a travel industry super connector, investor, techie and global founder of Travel Massive, the largest tourism community in the world. In what started as a small gathering for travel startups at the top of Sydney’s YHA Hostel a decade ago, Travel Massive has now turned into a community of more than 63,000 members in 173 cities around the world. 

Growing up in Hobart, Tasmania, Ian was fascinated with technology and became a software developer and co-founded a software business. He has built and excited a number of tech companies and in 2015 set out to put everything into building the Travel Massive community.

Ian’s focus is still the same today to bring people together offline and in person to support each other, learn new skills, have a beer and who knows even make friends. Ian joins us to discuss his path through entrepreneurship and what strategies he used to build the business.

Jonas Svengård is an avid trail runner and professional bandy player who was born in Melbourne, Australia to Swedish parents. Eventually settling in Gothenburg, Jonas worked in the coffee and service industry for 20 years. Then one day, he read Haruki Murakami’s memoir “What I talk About When I Talk About Running” and he started running.

Around the same time, his wife bought him a pair of Icebug trail running shoes as a Christmas present. This propelled Jonas to go meet Icebug’s CEO in person, and tell him that he wanted to work at Icebug. 5 days later he pitched the idea for “Winterrun”. Just 3 months later, he successfully organized his first event under the Icebug banner.

Jonas has organized over 80 events across Scandinavia with the same mindset: to bring people together to experience the outdoors in a magical way. Some of these trail races include the West Coast Trail and the Frozen Lake Marathon. You can expect to catch Jonas running up Sweden’s West Coast, unless of course he is planning a new crazy adventure for people who share his passion and love for the outdoors.

Welcome to Pod22 the experiences and travel podcast brought to you by Stay22 and hosted by Philippe Baird. Subscribe now where ever you get your podcast.