Stories & Beer: Sept. 25 -- Positive Tourism

TriplePundit hosted a special "Stories and Beer" on Thursday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m. Pacific at the Impact HUB San Francisco - and online via webcam.  We deviated from our usual format to bring you a series of presentations on positive tourism in honor of World Tourism Day (WTD). 

In support of WTD, Altruvistas, Travel Massive and the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) combined forces to organize a special evening featuring an exciting line-up of speakers:

• Rodney Fong; Commission VP, San Francisco Planning Commission


• John Picard; Founder and CEO, John Picard and Associates


• Malia Everette; Founder and CEO, Altruvistas 

World Tourism Day (WTD) was created by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. This year’s WTD was headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico, with complementary events all over the globe.

Our event was volunteer-driven and benefited ECPAT, the leading global anti-child trafficking in tourism organization. We raffled off tours and giveaways to support this wonderful organization, with prizes from Hotwire, Russian River Adventures, Incredible Adventures, Localite Tours, Magic Bus Savor Oakland and more.

Join the WTD conversation on social media at #WTD2014, and join our conversation at #3pChat.

About our speakers:

Malía Everette, CEO of Altruvistas, promotes in-depth experiential education and socially responsible travel as an alternative to the type of “sun and fun” tourism that often results in cultural homogenization and does little to benefit local communities and host economies.  From 1997-2012, Malía was the Director of Global Exchange’s Reality Tours program. After two decades of experience pioneering cultural and educational exchanges and ecotours for other organizations, foundations, educational institutions, and families, in 2013 she founded Altruvistas, a foundation and travel company to promote transformation philanthropy and social responsibility in the travel industry.

Sara Porter, Development Associate at ECPAT-USA. Sarah builds community partners, relationships, and resource development. Sarah has been engaged in anti-trafficking work since 2005, when she was in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Macedonia. After returning to the US, she worked within in the NYC foster care system and developed a training for social workers to help identify youth who may be commercially sexually exploited. She focused on the issue of human trafficking in graduate school, and interned in Ukraine at the anti-trafficking organization La Strada. After graduate school she researched women’s rights and child marriage for the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, and then provided resource development for the International Rescue Committee. She has a Bachelor’s in Social Work from Western Michigan University, and a Master’s in International Affairs from Brooklyn College.

John Picard is an American architect, builder, entrepreneur as well as a building efficiency and sustainability expert. He is the Founder and CEO of John Picard & Associates, an environmental and sustainability consulting firm working with international clients. Picard was one of the first members of President Bill Clinton’s Greening of the White House team that developed environmental energy audits and innovative upgrade recommendations for the complex. This led to him becoming a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council. In the early 1990s, he worked with corporations like Interface Inc. and The Gap to develop and implement pioneering environmental energy efficiency policies and operational systems to improve efficiency and productivity.

Rodney Fong is a native San Franciscan and a third generation operator/owner of the world famous Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, where he served as President until it closed its doors after 50 years.  He currently is the President of Fong Real Estate Company, LLC, overseeing the development and leasing of family properties, including the 100,000 square foot Wax Museum Entertainment Complex in the heart of historic Fisherman’s Wharf and 2001 Broadway Apartments.