No bystanders here: The power of community in keeping travel safe

Walker Pappin, Co-Founder, Vagaband

ITB Berlin 2019, Hall 4.1, WYSE Workshop area

Friday, 8 March 14:00 – 14:30

Session description

As the next generation reaches independent travelling age, it’s important that we find new ways to encourage positive, open discussions about safety within the community. The future of safe travel isn’t some yet-to-be-discovered technology; it’s in fostering human connections, and providing young travellers with the tools they need to look out for each other.

Speaker

Walker Pappin is a true third culture kid; an American born in Boston and the proud owner of a passport at six weeks of age. He moved to London at age five and has lived there ever since.

Renata Pappin is his mum and Vagaband co-founder. A teacher and forever traveller, one summer she took a very small Walker and his brother backpacking through Southeast Asia. It was the first of many trips and on an island in Thailand the idea of Vagaband was born.

A few years and continents later the idea of an inviolable safety ID for young travellers was an idea that felt like it needed a product. A few homemade Vagabands found their way around the world with a now gap year son and the feedback was awesome. Walker eventually roped in Eddie Bassett, his oldest school friend, and from those first fledgling bands they founded Vagaband.