Select Page

Stronger together: Best practice for crisis management

Panellists:

Marina Seet, Speedwing
Iza Gyuricza, Smaller Earth
Mariapia Inurritegui, USE

Moderators:

Carye Duffin, CIEE
Robyn Walker, Cenet

Is your youth travel organisation prepared to properly manage a crisis?

Does your organisation have experience in crisis management that would benefit others in the youth travel industry?

The Best Practice Working Group of WYSE Travel Confederation’s Cultural Exchange Sector Panel was formed in 2020 to establish a framework of best practices for youth travel organisations to successfully handle crises. During the last 10 months, the Working Group has facilitated dialogue between Members on crisis management and encouraged sharing in order to help others and improve their own organisation’s approach.

This session aims to inform WYSE Members about the work of the Best Practice Working Group to date, including the development of a Best Practice Guide for Crisis Management. We will review the contents and development of the guide and discuss how the practices can be implemented. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and contribute suggestions.

Marina Seet

Manager

Speedwing
Marina started off working in the travel and tourism industry, handling corporate and educational travel arrangements, events and MICE – Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions in the 90s.
She was transferred to manage Speedwing in 2000 and has been in this role since. She has helped to set up Speedwing Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam through her years at Speedwing. She is passionate about her work and believes that when an opportunity comes, you just have to grab it before someone else does.

Iza Gyuricza

COO

Smaller Earth
Iza was introduced to the Cultural Exchange Community back in 2005, when she applied for a US work and travel program for the first time. She spent two summers in a private camp in Pennsylvania, and used her grace period mainly to study the public transportation system of NYC for her upcoming thesis. Upon returning to her home country – Hungary – she could not stop talking about her experience and its positive impacts.
As a result of her powerful experience, right after receiving her degree she began recruiting students for US exchange programs full time, and became the country director of the Hungarian Smaller Earth Office. She dedicated 10 years to this position before she joined Smaller Earth Group Head Office in Liverpool as the COO. Smaller Earth operates in 15 countries and offers exchange programs to the US, Canada, China and to the Caribbean.

Mariapia Inurritegui

Co-Founder and CFO

USE
With a degree in Business Administration from Universidad del Pacifico located in Lima, Peru, Mariapia has been working with cultural exchange programmes and international recruitment for 21+ years. Mariapia has been part of the development and growth of what is now the largest winter work & travel agency in Latin America, with over 40,000 students traveled throughout the US on the Work and Travel and Internship/Trainee Programs.