Weaving, Connecting and Co-creating

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I work at the nexus of many fields, weaving, connecting, and co-creating the potential of place. Call me a professional plate-spinner of disciplines, if you will. Travel, hosting and welcoming others to experience and learn in place is a core part of unleashing this potential. Originally trained in environmental planning and design, I've lived and worked across Australia, Canada, Mexico, China, and Europe, focusing on creating more regenerative approaches between places, communities and tourism. Yes, my carbon footprint and I have had many serious conversations, but since 2019 minimising my footprint is a core feature of my practice.

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Walking Away to Think Again​

 

In 2019, I experienced a profound awakening when I realised that the narrative I had held as a professor, policy expert and researcher simply wasn't true: as an industry, tourism could never deliver genuine sustainability or positive place-based impacts because of its design. Plot twist! Transformation was necessary, and it involved both mindset and systems change.

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The reality of tourism predicated on industry values and a toxic higher education workplace disrupted my comfortable worldview. Walking away (no dramatic door slam, but close), I gave myself time to think again, to explore the gaps and cracks where innovation and new thinking lies, and to create The Tourism CoLab. My intention was to align my core values (i.e., mutual respect, genuine learning through creativity and curiosity, and working in service of the living systems that sustain us) with what I do in the world. Revolutionary concept, I know.

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Ecological Thinking

 

I'm an ecological thinker and complex systems practitioner who has always worked with complexity and sense-making, even before there was language to describe this way of thinking. Systems thinking and ecological sense-making opens doors to new understandings. I don't work within systems that perpetuate old patterns – instead, I help people open up their thinking, recognise their own agency, and discover their potential to think and work differently.

 

I walk alongside those who are interested in transforming how we travel and host, supporting them as they explore new possibilities. In doing so, I acknowledge that old consulting models are dead (may they rest in PowerPoint and Gantt Charts), and that we need to forge new relationships between places, communities, governments and businesses.

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Working at the Level of Place

 

My journey is about acknowledging the profound wisdom of lived experience and place-based knowledge while exploring alternative approaches that address our global metacrisis. (Yes, "meta-crisis" is a real word – we have so many crises we needed a collective noun). I believe that through authentic collaboration, flows, and relationships—not just institutions, plans, and outputs—we can achieve meaningful change and regeneration.

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I work in support of those who feel the rupture between what the old system is doing to nature, people, and place and hope for a different future. I look forward to walking this journey together! Comfortable shoes recommended!